Tips for driving from Mountain View to South Tahoe

February 8, 2008 2:48 PM

What's the fastest way to South Tahoe from Mountain View this afternoon?

I'm driving up to South Tahoe from Mountain View in about an hour. I've never done this trip before, but I can see there are lots of options.

What's the fastest way given conditions? I think snow is an issue today. I can obviously get traffic conditions around the bay area, but is 50 or 88 a better choice? Should I go through Stockton instead of Sacramento?

The address I'm going to is:
4130 Lake Tahoe Blvd, South Lake Tahoe

posted by jewzilla to Travel & Transportation around Lake Tahoe, United States (3 answers total)

Best answer: I live in Reno and do the Reno/Tahoe -> Bay Area thing all the time. I would recommend to you to take 50 - definitely not 88. There are no snow issues that I am aware of (it is 55 degrees in Reno!) so you shouldn't have to worry about that. I would take 880 -> 262 -> 680 -> 580 in Livermore -> 205 -> 5 -> Up to Sacramento -> Over on 50 and take that through the hills all the way over to LT Blvd. This route cuts off North Sacramento which will save some of the Sac rush hour traffice. You might want to think about alternate methods of getting to 50 without heading straight to the middle of town but this route will generally work. I'd avoid the 80/880 Oakland to Fairfield route as that will be nasty.

Have fun this weekend! It is going to be beautiful up there. I'm snowshoeing on the east side of the lake, yeah!
posted by rlef98 at 3:12 PM on February 8, 2008

The 880 -> Mission jump is a shorter hop between 880 and 680, but I think the traffic would lean me to recommend just taking 237 all the way over to 680 from Mtn View. The rest of rlef's directions are good, too. Don't even think of taking 80 all the way out from SFBA, I've done it on a Friday before and it's no fun. Get thee to the Central Valley as fast as possible.
posted by rhizome at 3:37 PM on February 8, 2008

Everything rlef98 told you. As a local as well, you may want to subsitute Pioneer Trail (Rd/Blvd I forget) for Lake Tahoe Blvd as you come down on Hwy 50 after Echo Summit before you actually start to enter South Shore (right hand turn - not far after the Hwy 89 turn as I recall). If Mapquest is correct about your end destination, you'll pass a bunch of traffic and learn about a little shortcut we locals use. It's longer miles wise, but way faster, especially on a Friday night. Just a suggestion.

BTW, traffic will be nuts any way you go. Allow enough time.
posted by elendil71 at 3:54 PM on February 8, 2008