Getting around Reno
The short answer: you can have a good Reno trip without a car if you stay downtown and do not leave it, and you will want one the moment the mountains enter the plan. Everything below is the longer version of that.
Getting from RNO to your hotel
Reno-Tahoe International is about eleven minutes from a downtown hotel, which is unusually close for an American city and is the single biggest practical advantage of flying here. There are three sensible ways in, and which one is right depends mostly on where you booked.
Does your hotel run a courtesy shuttle?
The airport publishes a list of properties offering courtesy shuttle service, and it is worth checking before you book any other transfer. The airport’s own instruction is to contact the hotel directly — it does not publish schedules, and arrangements vary by property.
Rideshare or a taxi
For most visitors staying downtown without a listed shuttle, this is the straightforward answer. Rideshare pickup is at the ground transportation loop just outside baggage claim Door D; the taxi waiting area is outside the same D Doors, north of baggage claim. Several taxi companies serve the airport.
A rental car
Renting at the airport makes sense when the rest of the trip needs a car — not automatically because you flew in. Downtown properties generally charge for parking, so a car you are not using costs money to leave still. Renting for the days you actually leave town is usually the cheaper shape.
Do you need a car in Reno?
It depends almost entirely on where you stay. Downtown is the only part of the city built for walking; everywhere else assumes a vehicle. This is the same advice each neighbourhood page gives, gathered in one place.
- Downtown Reno
Not needed, and mildly inconvenient — most properties charge for parking. Stay here without one if you are not leaving town. Rent for the day you go to Tahoe or Virginia City rather than for the whole trip.
- Midtown
Do not drive here to drink, and do not expect to park easily on a weekend evening. From downtown it is a short rideshare; the walk down Virginia Street is flat and direct if you would rather.
- The Riverwalk District
Not needed. This is inside the walkable core, and the ballpark, Wingfield Park and the whitewater park are all on foot.
- The University District
Useful. Campus is walkable once you are there, but getting to it and away from it is a drive or a rideshare, and event parking needs planning.
- South Reno
Effectively required unless you intend to stay on the property. Nothing here is walkable to anything else, and this is also the easiest part of town to park in.
- Sparks
Yes. Victorian Square itself is walkable, but everything else — including all of Reno — is a drive.
- East Reno
Yes, unless you are staying at the Grand Sierra and not leaving it. The airport is close enough that a hire car is easy to collect.
Tahoe and Virginia City without a car
There is no useful public transport up the Mount Rose Highway or over Geiger Grade, and rideshare pricing to the lake is punishing. If you do not have a car, the realistic answer is a guided trip whose operator collects you in Reno — and the site knows which ones actually do, because it reads the operators’ own pickup arrangements.
- Lake Tahoe Half-Day Morning Guided Tour from Reno | Small Group
- Virginia City Wild West Half-Day Tour From Reno | Small Group
- Virginia City and Lake Tahoe Full Day Small Group Tour from Reno
- Horseback Riding Adventure from Reno
- Sierra Historic Tour from Reno
- ATV or UTV Trap Excursion from Reno
Almost everything else bookable at the lake expects you to arrive under your own power — see Lake Tahoe from Reno for which is which.
What the buses actually do
RTC RIDE runs the Reno-Sparks bus network, and it is genuinely cheap: $2 for a single ride and $3 for a day pass at the regular fare. For getting around the city on a budget it is a real option.
As an airport transfer it is not. Route 12 — Terminal / Neil — serves the airport seven days a week, but it runs an east-Reno corridor taking in the Grand Sierra, Terminal Way and Glendale rather than heading straight downtown, and the airport’s stop is near Terminal Way and Villanova Drive rather than at the terminal door. With luggage, after a flight, that is not the trip you want.
If you are driving in, and where you can drive to
Most Californian arrivals come east on I-80 over Donner Pass, which is a mountain route and closes or goes to chain control in winter storms with little notice. California chain controls exempt all-wheel-drive vehicles only when all four tyres are snow-rated, and rental agreements typically neither supply chains nor permit fitting them — so book the drivetrain rather than the cheapest car if you are coming in winter.
- North & East Lake Tahoe
- Under an hour from Reno over the Mount Rose Highway
- Virginia City
- About 40 minutes from Reno, up Geiger Grade
- Carson City
- About 40 minutes south of Reno
- Truckee & Donner
- About 40 minutes west of Reno on I-80
- South Lake Tahoe
- Roughly 1½ hours from Reno — a long day, better as an overnight
- Pyramid Lake
- About an hour north of Reno; tribal permit required