South Lake Tahoe

The air smells like pine and cold lake water the moment you roll into South Lake Tahoe, and the blue of the lake through the trees stops you mid-sentence. It's that kind of place. Most travelers coming through make time for the Emerald Bay Overlook, where you pull off CA-89 and look down at one of the more striking views you'll find on a California road trip — the bay is small, the water is impossibly clear, and there's usually a crowd of people quietly staring at it. From there, the drive along the CA-89 corridor toward the lake's edge is the kind of stretch where you'll want to slow down. If you're staying the night, the Basecamp Hotel is a solid pick — it's casual, well-located, and doesn't feel like a generic chain. For dinner, Edgewood Restaurant just over the Nevada border is worth the reservation if you can get one. South Lake Tahoe sits in the middle of a lot of great road trip routing — whether you're coming up from the Eastern Sierra on US-395 or heading toward the coast — and a stop here tends to be one of those that earns its place on the itinerary.