Lake Tahoe Vs Manmouth Mountain

Hi

I am coming to the USA end of March and intend to do 5 days at South Lake Tahoe (Staying at Harveys) and the 5 days in Manmouth.

However the prices for hotels in Manmouth are way more expensive so I was wondering if I would be better doing 5 days in North Tahoe instead of Manmouth.

My Questions

1)As I've never been to the USA before I was wondering if Manmouth was that much better than North Tahoe.

2)What is the difference in prices between Tahoe and Monouth say for a pint of beer and burger and chips, infact what is the average price for a nice meal.

3)Any suggestions for the best place to buy Ski passes as I have seen that you can buy till end of season passes when we go as we are English

Any info would be great

Thanks

Mark

Mark: I would say that there's plenty to do in the Lake Tahoe area. Mammoth Mountain is a fair distance away, and I'm not sure that the direct route is open in the winter. You may effectively lose two days transiting between the two locations. I've stayed in Heavenly three times and it's a fairly big area. If you're an off-piste junkie then the double diamonds will keep you busy. If you have a hire car you can drive round the lake to the south, north to Beaver Creek etc. so you have a lot of choice locally. I would stay put in the Tahoe region myself. I've also been to Mammoth, but only once and just for a long weekend, so I may be biased. Overall I'd say either one or the other, but not both.

Thanks for the heads up.

We have a hire car as we are coming from San Francisco then off to Vegas after before dropping down to Mexcico for a little rest.

We are intermediate skiers so I'm sure there are enough runs to keep us going.

What is the price of beer and food in Tahoe? any indication would be great as I'm going to get my dollors soon

Thanks again

Mark

be aware that even the direct route from SFR to Tahoe is fairly lengthy - you need to be sure the final single-carriageway part of the route is open. Try and do it in the daylight. I don't recommend coming off the London flight at 4pm and then doing the drive, but you may have no alternative. The other route is to drive all the way up to Reno and then down from the north on freeways, but this is tedious and the direct route is preferable.
Food on-piste in Tahoe isn't gourmet and is typical American fast food fare, so while it obviously costs a bit more, it shouldn't be extortionate. Alcohol is free if you are in the casino :-) although of course, you'll probably end up spending more more on bets than you save on drinks. Evening dining is varied but as always in vacation resorts, keep an eye out for the cost ramping-up from the baseline menu prices shown outside.

Mammoth Mountain is an excellent place to ski - I worked the 1999 season there so I'm sure it's a bit different now. You can also use your lift pass to ski June Mountain, about 30 minutes away. A lot smaller but very pretty and worth spending a day there too The snow depths are superb at the moment. Someone mentioned writing off two days to travel ... Tahoe is on the border of California and Nevada and is about 3 hours from Mammoth. Beaver Creek on the other hand is close to Vail in Colorado ... probably about an 20 hour drive from Tahoe so I'd forget that one! Tahoe is quite glitzy - almost like a mini Vegas in parts. Mammoth is much more relaxed.

Oops, I meant Squaw Valley, across on the north-western side of Tahoe, not Beaver Creek.

I enjoyed the best ever holiday in 2009 at South Lake Tahoe.
I stayed at the Californian side, close to the gondola and minutes stride from the "border" with Nevada(opposite kerb).
We had a voucher allowing us to ski at Heavenly , Kirkwood, Sierra, Squaw Valley through Crystal but you may get the passes at the incumbent resort counter; transport to the resorts are FREE!! except for Kirkwood which was a menial 5$ fare return