Experience the best of Reno

In the high desert of western Nevada, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, Reno grew up on the Truckee River, which flows down from Lake Tahoe. The city is known for its casinos and for the arched sign over Virginia Street that calls it the Biggest Little City in the World. Along the river, a riverwalk passes parks and cafés and a whitewater course where kayakers play in the middle of town.

The National Automobile Museum displays vintage cars, and the Nevada Museum of Art is housed in a striking dark building. Lake Tahoe, an alpine lake, lies in the mountains to the south-west, with ski resorts such as Mount Rose close to the city. Virginia City, a silver-mining town of the 1860s with wooden boardwalks, is to the south-east, and Pyramid Lake, a blue desert lake with tufa towers, lies north-east.

Basque family-style dinners, a legacy of the sheepherders who came to the Nevada high desert, are a Reno tradition, and casino buffets and steakhouses fill the downtown. Skies are clear most of the year, summers are hot and dry, and winters bring snow to the nearby mountains.