Are you curious how to survive (and Maybe Even Enjoy) travel to Lake Tahoe in a Motorhome? You may have been motor-homing for a few years now. I’m sure you love your 34-foot home away from home. You have beach camped and road-tripped to a few national parks. You have even spent many nights under the stars sipping a cold one around the campfire. Are you finally ready this summer to travel to Lake Tahoe in a motorhome?
The Mountain highways to reach the Mirror of the Sierra can be daunting, especially in a 34-foot rig. Especially if you are also towing a boat or a tow car. Luckily, the Hungry Mountaineer and family have done some long-distance driving research on many different routes to and from Lake Tahoe in our 99 Fleetwood Storm. We have braved the switchbacks, the California gas prices and even the Cyber Trucks covered in Kamala Bumperstickers making their way up from San Fran on a Friday evening. There are a few different routes you can take to reach Lake Tahoe at 6,225 mountain feet. Which is the least daunting? Come with me on a summertime eastern Sierra road trip. I’ll give you the secrets!
So, you’ve decided to take your trusty motorhome—whether it’s a sleek modern rig or a well-loved beast from the 90s—on an adventure to Lake Tahoe. Congratulations! You’re about to embark on a scenic, chaotic, and potentially brake-testing journey into one of the most stunning alpine destinations in the Sierra Nevada. Pack your blow-up kayaks in your undercompartment, bring the good scotch for evenings around the campfire. Don’t forget the hammock! The azure blue waters of Lake Tahoe await! But first, you have to make it to the campsite.
Getting There: Choose Your Own Adventure
Lake Tahoe has multiple entry points, and each one comes with its own special brand of fun and high-elevation terror when approaching in a 34-foot motorhome towing an 11-foot boat up a mountain pass.
- Highway 50 (From Sacramento) – Also known as “Why is traffic moving at 5 mph?” If you enjoy crawling up mountain passes behind 300 other people also trying to get to Tahoe on a Friday, this is your route. Bonus: You’ll get to practice dodging weekend warriors in rented SUVs.
- Interstate 80 (From Reno/San Francisco) – A wider, more forgiving route… until you hit Donner Pass, where the ghosts of stranded pioneers remind you that chains are required in winter. Bring a snack—you might be up there for a while. The Donner Pass route is epically beautiful. I highly recommend taking a pit stop near Donner Lake. Hike around. Do some fishing. Let your dog swim. Do a quick hike at the Donner Summit Trail (4.5 miles round-trip). Take a moment to remember the Donner Party way back in 1846 and ten feet of snow.
- Highway 89 (Around the Lake) – This scenic route will have you white-knuckling the wheel as you navigate hairpin turns, tourists jaywalking in ski boots, and watch for rogue cyclists. Please remember to give cyclists five feet of space. Highway 89 is scenic and the only way to get from Carson City to Tahoe City. It is a beautiful slup around half the lake, as you take in the mega-millionaire’s mansions near Incline Village (Or Income Village to the locals)
- Highway 50 from Carson City- Wow, this is the way to go! We have driven multiple routes to travel to Lake Tahoe in a motorhome and this was the easiest to reach the Tahoe Basin. Also, the highways in Nevada are so much more well-maintained and believe me, you notice in a motorhome! Take an overnight stay at Carson Valley Inn RV Park. Relax with some gambling in scenic Carson City. Go out for an all-you-can-eat sushi dinner at Oishi Sushi at not Tahoe prices. From the Carson City Inn to Spooner Lake in the Tahoe Basin, it is only a seventeen-mile drive. On your way up Highway 50, take a pit stop at Spooner Lake right off the main highway. The walk around the lake is only two miles. Trek the whole thing or just go on a short hike and let your dog go for a swim.
- Kingsbury Grade (From Nevada) – A steep, winding climb that will
The 80’s; Our family’s idea of “RV Camping” test your engine, brakes, and patience. Your motorhome’s transmission may start filing a formal complaint. If you are traveling from Los Angeles up Highway 395 to South Lake Tahoe, this is the fastest way up the mountain.
To RV Park or not to RV Park? That is the question.
I grew up camping with my family in the eighties. My dad had an eighties-era Ford van. Yes, we slept in tents. This was my introduction to camping. Setting up the eighties-era tent was the real version of roughing it. Yet still, as I began adulting, I loved camping in a tent, on the hard dirt ground. I just love being in nature. I even backpacked a few times in my early twenties before deciding backpacking was not for me. If I can’t have a gourmet dinner with wine after a twelve-mile hiking day, that is not a vacation. I thought I was a hardcore camper until I graduated to the motorhome life. Call it glamping if you wish but our family does like to have the finer thing
s in life when we go on vacation; Starlink and an outdoor TV screen so we can gamble on the ponies in the afternoon on FanDuel (Yes, I realize my glamping is not your glamping) a working outlet so I can plug in my Nutribullet to make smoothies in the morning, and lots of kitchen space for the fifteen different Indian spices we tot around across the country in case I want to make an Anglo-Indian Lamb Jalfrezi one evening.
Personally, our family loves to disperse camp in the forest away from other campers. Not if you are planning to travel to Lake Tahoe in a motorhome, though. Dispersed camping is not allowed in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Fair enough with the fifteen million campers in North Face hoodies who call Lake Tahoe their camping haven every summer. Keep in mind that Lake Tahoe is only a third of the size of Yosemite National Park, so yes, it gets absolutely packed on long weekends with trekkers in the newest REI yoga pants. If you want to actually disperse camp near Lake Tahoe, you basically have to drive fifteen miles away from the Lake in any direction.
Want to disperse camp near the Tahoe Basin? Check out these free campsites.
When it comes to motorhome camping, yes, staying at an RV park can be an easy solution. You have full hookups but you also have neighbors close enough you can hear them fart after too much camp food. If you are traveling to Lake Tahoe for a month like we do, then RV parks can get very expensive also. An RV site with hookups can run you around eighty to over a hundred dollars a night. Maybe if you are traveling to Lake Tahoe in a 2025 Prevost motorhome with a balcony, you can afford that.
There are some very pretty RV parks around the Tahoe area, from Zephyr Cove to Meeks Bay RV Resort. These RV resorts are so great as they are within walking distance of the lake. However, Meek’s Bay RV Resort does not allow pets, WTAF? What is camping without Fido? Meeks Bay is located in a very scenic spot if you happen to be traveling without pets. It’s very close to some amazing hikes, such as Eagle Lake and Stony Ridge Lake Trailheads.
Traffic? Oh Yeah, There’s Traffic.
Think you’ll just zip up to Tahoe real quick? Cute. Tahoe sees over 15 million visitors a year, and in the summer, it feels like they all arrive on the same day. The key to survival is timing:
- Avoid arriving on a Friday evening unless you enjoy sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, watching your gas gauge drop.
- If you take Highway 59 through Carson City, get to Costco at 10 a.m. when they open to fill up your gallon tank and thank me later. Maybe grab a rotisserie chicken for the drive. Believe me, you don’t want to be paying seven dollars a gallon in Lake Tahoe! Keep in mind, once you reach Lake Tahoe, gas stations in small mountain towns are closed sometimes between the hours of 10 p.m. and six a.m. Don’t be stranded in Meek’s Bay camping on the side of the highway because you can’t fill up until after dawn!
Lake Tahoe in your future? Pack the mountain bikes! - Leaving on a Sunday afternoon? Expect a long goodbye. It’s like the great blue lake itself doesn’t want you to leave—but in a passive-aggressive way.
Celebrities? Yes, They’re Here.
Keep your eyes peeled—Mark Zuckerberg, Aaron Rodgers, and various actors and billionaires own homes here. But don’t expect to see them in the RV park—they have driveways larger than most campgrounds. Maybe you will see Elon Musk out on the lake on an E-Foil wearing a speedo, a Make America Great Again red hat and a blazer. If you are lucky.
Vintage Motorhome? Be Prepared or Be Stranded.
If you’re rolling into Tahoe in an older rig, you might want to prep your vehic
le before the long drive and carry a few essentials:
- Extra coolant – Mountain grades = overheated engines.
- Brake pads – Change your brake pads before you embark on this road trip. It’s really not that hard to change the brake pads at home with the help of any impact driver to remove the big ass tires. And as long as you can fit in those small spaces under the weight rig. You’ll thank me later. Watch this video.
- Duct tape & zip ties and maybe an extra water pump – Because something will rattle loose, guaranteed.
- Spare tire, high torque impact driver, jack – Potholes happen. If you are living the motorhome lifestyle, you may want to ask for an impact driver for Christmas. A flat tire in a motorhome means waiting half a day for a big rig tow truck to help you change it if you don’t have the right equipment.
- Flashlight & headlamp – So you can actually see what you’re fixing at 2 a.m. in a parking lot.
- A sense of humor – Critical for all breakdowns and delays.
Booking a Campsite: Do It Yesterday.
If you’re thinking of booking a campsite less than six months in advance, you might have better luck buying beachfront property in the South Lake Tahoe Keys. If you have a longer rig, options get even scarcer. Holiday weekends? Forget it. People book those sites faster than concert tickets to a Taylor Swift show.
Book early. Like as early as you can. Lake Tahoe sees 15 million visitors every year. They all want to book the same campsite as you do! For our family, we travel in a 34-foot motorhome so our needs are harder to meet to find a space with a lot of room. If you are a newbie to camping or the motorhome life, just remember you can typically book a camp spot six months out. Some private campsites have different booking windows. Almost every private campground website I looked at in the Lake Tahoe area was terrible. Good luc
k with that.
Holiday Weekends: Tahoe’s Version of the Apocalypse
Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day weekends turn Tahoe into a high-altitude version of Disneyland on a Saturday. Or a Taylor Swift concert. With less Molly. Kind of. Here’s what to expect:
- Parking? Nonexistent.
- Hiking trails? Packed.
- Boat launches? Full by 7 a.m.
- Fireworks? Yes. Sanity? No. Your dog hates you.
If you enjoy crowds, loud music from someone’s portable speaker, and dodging paddleboarders with Labradoodles in life jackets who don’t understand basic lake navigation, holiday weekends are for you! Otherwise, come midweek for a slightly more peaceful experience. If you do happen to be visiting Lake Tahoe on a holiday weekend, plan to get up at 6:00 a.m. to go for a scenic sunrise hike to Eagle Lake if you even want to find parking. If you plan to visit Lake Tahoe on the 4th of July or Labor Day, if you want to do any hiking at all, you want to be hitting the trail at 7:00 a.m. Bonus! Those Lake Tahoe sunrises! It’s worth it to rise before the sun for these epic Lake Tahoe sunrises.
If you plan to travel to Lake Tahoe in a Motorhome over a holiday, try to make sure you don’t have to drive more than two miles away from your campsite. Walk to the lake to swim. Buy your groceries days before. Enjoy just chilling with the bears in your awesome Tahoe City campsite at William Kent Campground. Honestly, if you plan to visit Lake Tahoe any holiday weekend, the further away from South Lake Tahoe you decide to stay the less crowded it will be. Campsites near Donner Lake are preferred.
Holiday weekends in Lake Tahoe are just insane. If you are in Lake Tahoe over a holiday weekend like the Fourth of July, plan on activities that are close to your campsite. Nevada Beach is well-known as the place to witness the famous fireworks on Lake Tahoe. However, it is also just nuts to get there with the holiday traffic.
You finally reached camp! Now, why won’t your Starlink connect? Elon! Shakes fist angrily at the sky towards Incline Village.
Hey, man, you are in the alpine wilderness. There are a lot of trees here and the internet can be scarce. There can be so many tall trees that it’s hard to get a connection with Starlink. If you need reliable internet, your best bet is to stay in an RV Park like Meek’s Bay. Being that it’s an RV park, Meek’s Bay has far fewer tall pine trees. It’s much easier to get a view of the northern sky for Starlink.
Travel to Lake Tahoe in a motorhome and be prepared for anything!
Heading to Lake Tahoe for the weekend in a 34-foot motorhome? Pack extra ice, and make sure to stock up on all that booze and rotisserie chicken at the Carson City Costco. Run into Trader Joe’s in Reno to stock your rig with the best wine. When you finally reach the south shore of Tahoe, grocery options are expensive. Yes, South Lake Tahoe has a Grocery Outlet now, huzzah! Grocery Outlet in South Lake Tahoe is basically the only inexpensive place to buy groceries anywhere around the lake. South Lake Tahoe also has a Rally’s grocery store, which is kind of one step down from Whole Foods. Definitely a great place to stock up on fancy things like lamb shanks, microbrews, and delicious artisan cheeses. But if you need to run to the market because you ran out of half and half for your coffee, expect it to be Lake Tahoe prices.
Be a Sustainable Traveler: Don’t Be That Person
Tahoe is stunningly beautiful, and it should stay that way. Some tips to avoid being an environmental menace:
- Leave No Trace – This means zero trash. That includes your beer cans, dog poop bags, soiled diapers and mysterious socks people seem to abandon.
- Dump Your Black Tank Properly – Yes, someone actually thought dumping their sewage in the woods was a good idea. It is not. Use designated dump stations. Seriously, don’t be a Snow Pig. Do better. We are not animals.
- Keep Tahoe Blue – Every year, over 1,000 tons of trash are left behind by careless visitors. Don’t be that guy.
Boating on Lake Tahoe
- First of all, renting a boat is incredibly expensive. Like five times more expensive than you would expect. Check out Boatsetter for the best rates but expect to pay about a thousand dollars a day.
- Renting a boat slip. Dear Lord, renting a boat slip in Lake Tahoe is expensive in the summer months. When we are at home in Big Bear Lake, California, we pay around $900 for a dock for the summer. If you are renting a slip in Lake Tahoe, expect to pay over $22,00 just for one month! Plus a $95 fee to launch your vessel and remove it from the lake, eventually, when your Tahoe summer fun comes to a close.
- You can also pay a much cheaper rate to keep your boat at a buoy. However, there is a reason it is much cheaper. Anytime you want to go to your boat, you have to take the little dinghy ferry to your vessel. They typically run those dinghies from 8 a.m. to 6p.m If you are a sunrise or sunset nerd like I then you miss out on a lot of good Lake Tahoe lake time.
- You also can’t just relax on your boat in the harbor easily also, if you don’t get a slip for the season. Lake Tahoe is 72 miles around the lake. It takes at least four hours to drive that whole circumference. Make sure that if you rent a slip, it is very close to your campground
Lake Tahoe is worth every bit of the effort, stress, and motorhome maintenance woes. If you plan ahead, pack smart, and follow the golden rule of not being a trashy tourist, you’re in for an unforgettable trip.
Now, go forth, enjoy the lake, and try not to cook your brakes on the way down.
