The river is wider than I expected. I stood on the steps of the Riverwalk District at nine in the morning, watched the Truckee run grey-green toward the arch, and thought: this is not Las Vegas’ little sibling. It is a town that stopped apologizing for itself somewhere around the murals.
Reno calls itself the Biggest Little City in the World, and the label is either a joke or an accurate description of its downtown, which you can genuinely cross on foot. I spent three days there and a day each in Virginia City and Carson City, and this is what I kept.
The climbing wall, and the wall I didn’t finish
BaseCamp Climbing Gym sits on North Virginia Street, and the thing it is famous for is the 164 ft (50 m) outdoor wall, which holds the Guinness World Record for the tallest artificial climbing wall. The routes run from 5.6 to 5.12, so the difficulty is not the problem. The problem is the last third, where your arms stop answering and the ground starts to look very small.
I bailed out midway. I am not the climber I was ten years ago, and I stopped pretending. My partner, who hates itineraries more than he hates effort, made it to the top and came down with a certificate, which I think he has framed. If you only want to commit to one thing in Reno, this is the one that actually tests you.
The arch is for photos, not for time
The Reno Arch stands next to the climbing wall, and it is the iconic tourist photo of the city. You will pass it more than once while walking downtown, which is fine. It does not need more than two minutes and one frame. The arch is the town’s way of saying hello; you do not owe it a visit.
Burning Man art, minus the desert
A lot of the large art that goes to Burning Man ends up in Reno after the burn, and it stays out in the open rather than in a warehouse. If you only have time to stand in front of one piece, the Space Whale in City Plaza is the one to pick. There is also a sculpture called Believe nearby, and murals scattered through the city that are worth noticing at walking speed.
The town runs a mural audio tour. Bring your own headphones, or borrow a speaker for free at the Visitor Center inside Reno Public Market. I did the latter and kept it through the whole afternoon, which was my only real complaint about the day: I was not ready to hand it back.
The Riverwalk District, and what it is for
If you are doing any of the above, you are already in the Riverwalk District, because it is where downtown Reno actually happens. The river runs through the middle of it, and people fly fish, float inner tubes down the current, and sit on the banks doing nothing. I sat on the patio at Sierra Tap House with a drink and watched all of it, which is exactly the ratio of doing to watching I want from a town.
Radical Cat, the bookstore I broke my own rules over
The Radical Cat is at 1500 S Virginia Street, and it is a bookstore that curates books focused on inclusivity and social justice, which is what the name promises. I do not usually buy books on a trip. I have a rule about it. The cats in the lounge broke the rule, and I left with two books and a cat-shaped gift for someone, which means I will have to pack lighter next time or accept that the rule was a lie.
Of the four bookstores I visited in Reno, this was the one I would come back to. It is the kind of shop that exists because someone decided the town deserved a spine.
Virginia City: 35 minutes for a different century
Virginia City is a 35-minute drive southeast of Reno, and it is the closest thing the region has to a movie set that is also real. The town was once the epicenter of the American West, and it still has wooden-plank sidewalks, saloons, and antique shops. It is the best-preserved Old West town in the state, and it does not ask you to slow down, because the pace here is already the pace of the 1860s.
Three things I would not skip on a first visit. The Mackay Mansion tour is the fifth most haunted building in Nevada, and it had the first indoor bathroom on the West Coast. Thomas Edison replaced the gas bulbs with electric ones there, and Johnny Depp reportedly had his first paranormal experience in it. The V&T Railroad is a short line that gives you a view of the area from the tracks, and it is the one that works best if you are traveling with kids. The Ponderosa Mine tour is cold, even in summer, so bring a jacket if you are the kind of person who chills in air conditioning.
If you are doing three or more activities there, the Comstock Adventure Pass at the Visitor Center saves money on the bundle. I would buy it before I started, not after.
Carson City: the quiet base
Carson City is a 30-minute drive south of Reno, and it is the capital of Nevada, which matters less than the fact that it is the quiet base between Reno, Virginia City, and Tahoe. It is the town for people who want the outdoors without the crowds, and it is not trying to be anything else.
The Carson Hot Springs has outdoor mineral pools and private indoor ones, first-come, first-served. The Nevada State Museum does a live coin press demonstration between 11 am and 3 pm on Saturdays, which is the kind of free thing that is worth planning an afternoon around. The Skunk Harbor Trailhead is 20 minutes from downtown Carson City, and the water of Lake Tahoe is the blue I keep comparing other lakes to. It was cold enough that I wanted a swimsuit I did not pack, which is the lesson of the trip in one sentence.
Tee Jay’s Corner Cafe is an Indonesian restaurant in a town that should not have one, and I cannot fully explain why that matters more than it should. We had the rendang, which is close to an Indonesian pot roast, and we talked to the owner, who used to live near us in a way that felt like a small coincidence. The room had the color scheme of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, and after the conversation I understood the painting a little better than I did before.
What I ate, and where to stay
Magpie Roasters is the coffee to start with, and it is small batch, and the people who know about coffee in Reno say it is the best in town, and I did not argue. Tadaima Shabu Shabu is the only Japanese hot pot in Reno and requires a reservation. I had the chibi wagyu, which was exactly the right amount, and they made a soup broth from the leftovers at the end of the meal to take home, which is the kind of detail I remember longer than the food itself. Kwok’s Bistro is ranked 12th on Yelp’s top 100 Chinese restaurants in America, and the Szechuan Eggplant and Chow Fun are the two dishes I would order again. Royce Burger Bar made the Royce burger with spicy jalapeno pickles and the Biggest Little Salad, and both were solid, which is the most honest word I have for a burger.
We stayed at the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino in Reno. The rooms are spacious, the parking is covered, which matters in the summer, and the pools are geothermally heated, which is a small luxury I did not expect in a casino resort. In Virginia City the B&B on C Street made breakfast worth waking up for, and in Carson City the Federal Hotel put everything within walking distance, which is the only reason to pick it.
If you only have one day, here is what I would cut
Skip the arch photo and the climbing wall. Do the Riverwalk in the morning, the mural audio tour on the way, the Radical Cat in the afternoon, and the Tadaima dinner if you have a reservation. That is a day that ends with you full and slightly tired in the best way.
If you have a second day, Virginia City is the one. Carson City is the one I would take if I had a third and wanted the hot springs and the trail. The trade-off is simple: Virginia City gives you a century, Carson City gives you a lake, and Reno gives you the walking. You do not have to do all three, and the town is not going anywhere.
Pack layers, because the temperature swing here can run forty degrees between day and night. Wear the shoes you will actually walk in. Drink more water than you think you need, because the high desert climate takes more out of you than sea level does, and you will not feel it until you are already behind.