South or North Tahoe lodging better for overall experience?

I'm going out to Tahoe so I can cross it off the list.

Anyway, for resort-hopping I'm assuming staying north is better?

South Lake Tahoe has one resort, and then it seems you are in for an hour drive to get either south to Kirkwood or north to Squaw...


Are the two big North Tahoe resorts more crowded because of their proximity to Sacramento, Bay Area, and Reno? I don't mind crowds; I do mind crowds on every lift and/or EXTREME crowds as I twice experienced elsewhere.*


If you had four skiing days there what location would you pick to stay? I refuse to go to Tahoe and not ski Squaw, but for various reasons I might not want to ski there every day I'm there.


*Vail and Beaver were fine during 2015 World Championships, partly because you can spread out. Breck was not fine during AFA parents weekend during a blizzard, nor was Tremblant during Quebec spring break.

There is prolly more choice of Lodging & cheaper in South Lake Tahoe.
The closest resorts are Heavenly, Sierra-at-Tahoe & Kirkwood.
N.Lake would mean actually staying at a Resort ($$'s), or in Truckee, Tahoe City, Crystal Bay(? I think...)
Near to Squaw, Rose, Alpine, Sugarbowl, Northstar, (Homewood, Boreal, Incline).

Shit, forgot about Reno.
Airport/Cheap etc.
North.
Prolly be crowded. Curse of cheap passes.

Stay in Tahoe City.
Ski Squaw, Alpine, Sugarbowl and Rose.

Sounds like you mostly want to ski Squaw. If that's the case, stay in Truckee or Tahoe City and do a bit of a drive if you want to go anywhere else. With 4 days, you'll have at least two weekdays where you probably won't have crowd issues. Sounds like Squaw's been having serious crowd/parking troubles the past month (check out the KSL bitch thread), so maybe don't do that on a Saturday.

During the week, fly into Reno, stay in Tahoe City.

If over a weekend, try to get a reasonable AirBNB or VRBO in Olympic Valley. Traffic has been truly godawful on 89 lately.

Kirkwood is an hour from South Lake due to weather, but it's not as far without weather. South Lake lodging will definitely be cheaper. Skiing Heavenly on a clear day is pretty damn sweet for views.

crowds depend on what's open. Even with horrendous traffic and full lots, if both Squaw and Alpine are full open lines are not bad. It's when we have storms or some non reason that shuts multiple lifts or whole resort as we had a few days ago when AM had a power outage for a dayand a half, that lines are bad to horrible. Get there early on weekends including Fri to avoid traffic and to get a decent parking spot. How early? Well, since everyone else is going early too the answer is earlier and earlier, theoretically.

If you stay in SLT you can ski all day and gamble and party all night at the bigger casinos so that is definitely a plus

I would say a lot depends on what you feel like doing after skiing. As mentioned above for SLT there's more going on at night, whereas in Truckee / Tahoe City it's a more mellow bar scene (which I prefer) and better restaurants. Small town feel vs. casinos, etc.

One thing to consider is the wind. If a storm comes in and it's really windy (which is extremely common), lifts are going to be limited at both Heavenly and Kirkwood, whereas on the north side you have Northstar and Homewood (and maybe Sugar Bowl) as backup plans if not much is going to open at Squaw / Alpine.

One thing you might give some thought to, sure, kirkwood's the middle of damn nowhere, but it is one burly-ass mountain. I could stay busy 3-4 days there hunting out lines, an absolutely no liftlines. Kinda like squaw was in the 90s.

I'm a touron, but have done northside and southside trips. Excepting above I'd strongly recommend the northside for a first time trip, as repeatedly stated apres ski VERY limited. There are casinos on the northside/incline but they are pretty small. You will spend time in the car period, so don't kid yourself. Did squaw last thursday and while traffic wasn't an issue the mountain was. only lower mountain opened. It's a roll of the dice, but likely this year you will not get the squaw expereince you want. So what else is on the northside. Sugar? Homewood? rose?

I say, give it some thought.