Lake Tahoe Live Cam

The West Shore Café has a variety of wedding packages and facilities. We can accommodate weddings and receptions from 30 to 500. Two areas are available for booking in year 2000. Both areas are suitable for an on site ceremony and reception.

As Lake Tahoe's only master planned community, Incline Village/Crystal Bay offers a variety of recreational amenities. Two 18 hole golf courses, miles of private beach, tennis courts and a state-of-the-art Recreation Center are located in the community. The nearby Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park features hiking and mountain bike trails, boat launching, swimming and fishing.

With the largest concentration of ski resorts in North America and abundant annual snowfall, Lake Tahoe offers skiers the perfect winter vacation destination. Two dozen alpine and Nordic resorts around the lake feature gentle beginner terrain, cruising runs for intermediates and some of the most advanced terrain in the country for experts. For non skiers, other activities in the region include guided snowmobile tours, sleigh rides, ice skating and snow play.

The spectacular Tahoe Basin draws visitors from all over the world. Here, in the high mountain wilderness, is an area rich in history and adventure, a place to discover and explore. Perhaps nowhere else is there such a variety of recreational opportunities, from summer camping, hiking, horseback riding, bicycling, ballooning, cruises, beaches, water sports, the list goes on, to Olympic quality ski resorts and glittering casino nightlife. Shopping areas abound, catering to the boutique-minded and bargain hunter alike. And for pure relaxation, there is nothing like exploring the shoreline of the lake.

To see it all, you can test your patience with maps and traffic, or you can get around the car-free way, utilizing our convenient shuttles, trolleys (rubber tire) and bus services. The Tahoe Basin's well-developed transportation systems make it easy for you to travel anywhere in the area without needing a car. When you use these transit services, you can enjoy the scenery without wondering where your turn is or second-guessing the car in front of you. You can send the kids on a hike while you go shopping, or take a shuttle to a paddlewheeler and enjoy a cruise. You can party 'til dawn and be delivered safely back to your hotel.

Tahoe's transportation system gives you a more relaxing trip, and a trip that will enable you to enjoy the sights. Now that's a vacation! On top of everything, traveling the car-free way helps to protect the environment so you can enjoy returning to the beauty of the Tahoe Basin over and over again.

Tahoe Area Regional Transit serves 30 miles of shoreline area, as well as the community of Truckee. Running from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. seven days a week, TART is the North Shore's main line. Riders can make easy connections with area winter ski shuttles, and the Tahoe Lake Lapper. Passengers riding TART to Truckee can transfer to the Truckee Trolley at no charge, or make connections for further travel on Amtrak or Greyhound. TART operates special event buses year 'round.

North Tahoe's new evening shuttle service. The Night Rider runs from Squaw Valley to Sunnyside on the West Shore, and along the North Shore from Tahoe City to Crystal Bay, Nevada. The shuttle makes hourly stops from 6:00 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. nightly from July 1 through Labor Day. On-request door-to-door service is available on a reservation only basis.

The Tahoe City Trolley provides fun, convenient, free trips through Tahoe City daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (summer only). Trolley rides into town are available from Watermelon Patch Park and Ride Lot on Dollar Hill.

The Truckee Trolley is an old-fashioned fun way to explore the Truckee area. Offering daily service (summer only), the Trolley makes regularly scheduled stops on a route through town from the I-80/Hwy. 267 interchange to Donner Lake West End Beach. The Truckee Trolley connects to other area services including Dial-a-Ride, commuter shuttles and special event shuttles.

Most major ski resorts in the North Shore region offer free daily shuttle service to and from area motels, hotels and lodges. Most shuttles also connect with TART.

The newest transportation service in the Basin. The Lake Lapper is an inexpensive and convenient way to travel around the shore of the entire lake*. Spend a day at your favorite beach, access a morning hike, take a shopping trip, visit the casinos or take a night out on the town. The Lake Lapper provides an interconnection between the North Shore and South Shore communities and connects with all other transit services. With 20 'round the lake stops, service is provided daily between 8:00 a.m. and 7:45 p.m. ('til 10:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday) and the complete loop is completed in 2-3/4 hours.

The Washo Indians, native to the shores of Lake Tahoe, have an ancient saying: "Those who come to the Lake in the Sky are blessed".

Thousands of couples have taken this to heart. Awe-inspiring scenery, low-cost wedding arrangements, easily obtainable marriage licenses and an abundance of chapels make Lake Tahoe the wedding capital of the West. An impressive array of options awaits the bride and groom. Here you can be married standing on the shore of Lake Tahoe, at Valhalla - one of South Lake Tahoe's famous historic estates, on a romantic paddlewheeler or 52-foot yacht, in a luxurious casino hotel, or in any of 27 wedding chapels.

Spur-of-the-moment ceremonies are also popular and easily arranged. And for honeymooners, where else can you find Tahoe's unique combination of romantic lodging, scenic beauty, outdoor recreation and the excitement and fun of the casinos - all within a 10-mile area?

Sometimes in a world running at top speed, there is barely time for love let alone applying for a marriage license. No problem. At Lake Tahoe, couples can take advantage of three different licensers. California offers a standard marriage license as well as a confidential one. The first requires blood tests with results that are no more than 30 days old. The couple must be 18 years of age and have adequate proof of identification. After testing, the couple can pick up their license at the El Dorado County Courthouse.

The confidential marriage license requires no blood test and no waiting period. Applicants sign an affidavit that acknowledges they have been living together as husband and wife - length of time is not asked. Couples must have proof of identification and be at least 18. This license is available at California wedding chapels and at the El Dorado County Courthouse.

Also available is the Nevada marriage license. Again, no blood test or waiting period is necessary, though ID is required and the couple must be 18 or over. The license is available from the Clerk of Courts at the Lake County Building on the South Shore, the Carson City Clerk in Carson City, and the Douglas County Clerk in Minden. The most welcome news is that this marriage license is available on the Nevada side of South Shore, a recent convenience already attracting many couples to the lake.

Convenience, however, is not the only consideration in planning a wedding. Costs can reduce a big bash to a quiet gathering. With church and clergy fees, rental halls, flowers, photography, videotaping and catering, the tab for home-based weddings can run in the thousands of dollars. Not to worry. In the Lake Tahoe area, costs are considerably less. Wedding coordination services here also ease the stress of planning. After consulting with couples to determine the wedding style they're dreaming of, the coordinator takes care of all the details, from securing ceremony space to providing guest accommodations to making sure the reception tables are properly decorated.

With complete wedding services available seven days a week, Lake Tahoe is an incredible place to answer true love's call. Need another reason to marry at Lake Tahoe? When it's time for the honeymoon of your dreams, you're already there!

Whether you're driving here, flying in, or just need a way to tour the area, Lake Tahoe has fast and convenient ways for you to get where you need to go. Flying direct is one of the most enjoyable ways to arrive - the view is breathtaking from the air. Lake Tahoe Airport is located at the south end of the Tahoe Basin, six miles from the "Y" - where Highways 50 meets 89. And getting to your accommodation is never a problem with your choice of airport shuttles, rental cars, limousines and taxis available to you as soon as you step off the plane.

If you come in via one of the 13 airlines that provide more than 100 daily flights to the Reno-Tahoe International Airport, Lake Tahoe is an easy and scenic drive, either by rental car or by the luxurious Tahoe Casino Express motorcoach shuttle. The 55-mile direct trip winds through the Sierra Nevada mountains and around picturesque Zephyr Cove before entering Stateline and South Lake Tahoe.

Making the trip at ground level? Each day, Amtrak services Reno and Truckee, on Lake Tahoe's north shore. Plus, seven all-weather highways lead into Lake Tahoe from major cities in the California/Nevada area. And while you're here, don't forget to take the vista-rich, 72-mile sightseeing drive around the lake. To guide you from site to site, an audio cassette tape may be purchased at the Tahoe-Douglas Chamber of Commerce.

Should gaming be your pleasure, use the South Shore casinos' free shuttle service from your motel lobby to their doors. Also available are shuttles to the Tahoe Queen and M.S. Dixie II cruise boats. During winter months, you might wish to consider taking the ski shuttle, the easy way to and from the ski areas. Even though you're traveling, travel is the last thing you should have to worry about when you're on vacation. Whether you need wings or wheels, it's easy to get around at Lake Tahoe.

In the midst of holiday ski traffic, August's West Shore bumper cars, worries of paying the bills, heading to work while others play and unending shovelfuls of snow, we reach for Old Tahoe. Some say it is gone, destroyed by post-Olympic development. Others say it is commercialized, used too many times in a real estate ad. Still others can reminisce about it with furrowed brow, believing that the legacy is becoming lost. But we reach for it, Old Tahoe.

Our eyes naturally gravitate to the wide expanse of big blue water that is old, new, always and ever shimmering Lake Tahoe; and we know, we know that Old Tahoe can exist today. One may catch a glimpse of it as an old woodie speeds past a row of piers; the motor of the '30s-era Gar Wood providing that familiar humming noise of summer morns, while it pushes a wake onto a beach where tanned children finish toast and warm themselves in the sun of the early day. It can sometimes be found in a knotty pine living room, warmed by the glow of a fire sheltered in a large stone fireplace, and filled with comfortable furnishings, rustic yet elegant.

Old Tahoe whispers still in the grand, old lakefront estates, populated by second- and third-generation Tahoers from The City, for whom summer is synonymous with The Lake. Peering into the dark of a restored home, such as Erhman Mansion, Valhalla Estate or even Watson Cabin, we can feel the dim reflections of an era that people wistfully call Tahoe's golden years. "There are probably about as many definitions of Old Tahoe as people on the North Shore", said Larry Young, architect with Ward-Young Architecture. The definitions are rooted in Tahoe's history and that is where most people go to look for Old Tahoe.

Historian Carol Van Etten, who has written Tahoe Yesterdays and Prewar Wood, says Old Tahoe is pretty much gone. "To me, it's wooden boats, dirt roads and keeping your food in a burlap-covered box in a tree, wetting it down with water once a day. When I think of Old Tahoe, I think of my grandparents' cabin which was board and batten outside and when they left at the end of the summer my grandfather would put up a storm door and cover it with a piece of canvas which said, 'please do not enter.' It was unlocked of course", Van Etten said. In 1974, Van Etten left Tahoe, believing that the place she had spent her summers was "ruined", but returned in 1980 after she realized that Tahoe was not the only place progress had touched.

She now writes about Old Tahoe: the first inklings of the communities around the lake, the first pioneers, the summer residents and their love of wooden boats and boat races. The former Tahoe Tavern, closed down and then burned by an arsonist in 1964, was "the place" to go at Tahoe and personified Old Tahoe during its 62 years of operation, Van Etten writes. Watermelon Patch owner Pat Banks spent her summers at Tahoe as a young child and worked at Tahoe Tavern during her summers between college.

"It was a different era, a different time, very elegant", she said, adding that the destination resort could be accessed by the train pulling up onto its pier or by the old steamers which carried passengers across the lake to various resorts. "It was a rustic elegance, but it was definitely elegance, lawn parties, late night forays to the Cal-Neva", Banks recalled. Kings Beach, Meeks Bay and Tahoe Tavern attracted the "upscale clientele", while "Tahoe City was just a wide spot in the road", she said.

Tahoe Tavern is gone now, replaced by a condominium project. The pier - the social scene of vacationers unboarding the train and loading onto boats bound for Tallac, Brockway and Meeks Bay - is gone as well.

"I think the Old Tahoe style is friendlier. It's a lot warmer. You walk into a house and you feel more comfortable being there; it just invites you in", Schlumpf said. It is this feel that second homeowner Millie Amis searched for before she bought her home in Cedar Flat. The Sausalito resident has been coming to Tahoe since 1970 and says that Old Tahoe is more than just history and architecture. "Simplicity in design and a warmth denotes an Old Tahoe feeling. There's another Old Tahoe feeling that Lake Tahoe is a beautiful, pristine place to escape", Amis said.