If you have been wanting to visit South Lake Tahoe and only have 24 hours to do so, this guide is for you!

Blog post highlights

• Where to stay: South Lake Tahoe
• Snow activities: Skiing, Snowboarding and Sledding spots in South Lake Tahoe
• Sight Seeing: Zephyr Cover, El Dorado Beach and Emerald Bay
• Where to eat: Black Cabin Coffee, Fatburger and Heidi’s Pancake House

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Planning Your Trip- Where to stay

Since South Lake Tahoe is a super popular spot for all kinds of winter and summer activities, I highly recommend finding a place to stay at least a couple months in advance. We fortunately were able to book a room over Airbnb about a month out from our trip. If you’re trying to do just a quick weekend getaway, I recommend the Airbnb that we rented.

The location is great because it is about a 7 minute drive from downtown South Lake Tahoe which has a ton of restaurants, shops and is famously on the state line between California and Nevada.

What to do- Winter activities

Playing in the snow

If you are a skier or snowboarder, South Lake Tahoe is the place for you. We are not skiers or snowboarders, so we decided to just go sledding and see the sights, but if you are into those activities, check out this list.

We had bought a couple of cheap sleds before heading up to Tahoe and once we got there we visited a few different sledding hills that we had found on online. The first couple were good, but you did have to pay entry to then and sled rental fees.

After some more searching, we found a promising Google review for Kahle Park. It’s a public park on the Nevada side of South Lake Tahoe and the review said that it had a hillside that people had used to sled down. There were other people there sledding down the hill and playing in the snow. We stayed there for about two hours, and it was a lot of fun!

Sightseeing

Zephyr Cove

After we went sledding, we decided to go to Zephyr Cove, just a drive up from Kahle Park. I had wanted to go to Zephyr Cove because I had seen some stuff on it at Pinterest and thought that it looked super pretty. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint! We parked at a parking lot just past the Zephyr Cove marina and walked down the beach that is to the right of the marina.

El Dorado Beach

The next day, we went out to breakfast at Heidi’s Pancake House. On the way there, we saw this great beach that has a fantastic view of the lake, so we decided to stop there after breakfast.

The beach that was saw was El Dorado Beach, which is down the street from the main hub of South Lake Tahoe. It has great views of the lake is easy to walk down to from the couple of different parking lots that are near by.

Emerald Bay

The last sight seeing place that was saw on our short, 24 hour Tahoe trip was Emerald Bay. Emerald Bay is about a 20 minute drive from South Lake Tahoe, just a bit northwest from El Dorado Beach. It is along the same road that you would take if you wanted to drive along the lake from South Lake to the North Shore on the left or California, side of the lake.

First off, the drive up to Emerald Bay is gorgeous, especially when the mountains are blanketed in snow. Then there’s Emerald Bay itself: stunning with water so blue it looks fake. Let me stop talking, just view the pictures for yourself.

What to eat in South Lake

Black Cabin Coffee

As we were searching for a place to sled, we decided to stop for a quick cup of Joe or two. Black Cabin Coffee is on the main road that leads down to downtown South Lake and was also near our Airbnb.

Stepping through the front door of Black Cabin Coffee is like stepping into a cozy home that you wished you own. The decor is a mish-mash of furniture and decorations that gives off a great vibe. Now, the coffee situation: SO GOOD!

I got an almond milk cappuccino and it was super delicious. Before we left, I got a double shot of espresso and that got me going and jazzed for our sledding adventures.

If you don’t like coffee or aren’t in the mood for it, they do have a variety of teas, matcha and smoothies you can choose from. They also have bunch of food options that we wanted to try but were too full to try. Check out their beverage and food menu.

FatBurger

After sledding and exploring all day, we were super hungry and both of us were craving a burger and fries. Fatburger, a chain started in LA, just so happen to be in the Harrah’s Lake Tahoe casino and hotel on the Nevada side of South Lake Tahoe. We had never been there before and knew that we had to try it.

I got a western bacon cheese burger with sweet potato fries and my boyfriend got a three layer cheeseburger with fries. The burgers and fries were a bit expensive (about $20 for a combo) but we were so hungry that we didn’t care. I really enjoyed my burger and sweet potato fries, which were delicious.

Heidi’s Pancake House

Heidi’s Pancake House was the last place that we ate during our 24 hour trip in South Lake Tahoe. We had done some research on good breakfast spots the night before and Heidi’s kept coming up. I’m happy that we decided to go to Heidi’s because it was super yummy!

I got the blueberry pancake stack and my boyfriend got an omelet. We both had a bit of each others and by the end, we were both super full. Those two meals but two cups of coffee came out to about $34 after tip. In my opinion, this isn’t too bad for the price of breakfast in a super touristy town like South Lake. View Heidi’s full menu.

Final Thoughts on South Lake

Overall, we had a fantastic 24 hour trip to South Lake Tahoe. I would love to go back for longer and explore more of the lake, in both the winter and summer times. So much to see in this beautiful part of California!

Thanks for reading along. Have you ever been to Tahoe, what do you recommend? If you haven’t, does this inspire you to go? Let me know in the comments below!

Follow me on Instagram for more traveling adventures and view my other West Coast travels.