THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP THROUGH
N E V A D A
Adventure begins here!
Nothing says freedom like a great American road trip, and Nevada is one of the best places in the world to buckle up and hit the highway. Known as the Road Trip Capital of the USA, exciting drives through awe-inspiring landscapes and intriguing historic towns await, enticing travellers to venture beyond the bright lights of Las Vegas and the hip, arty neighbourhoods of Reno. The state’s backcountry is pretty wild, so you’ll need to plan and prepare, but the experiences and encounters you’ll have along the way will ensure that every journey is just as memorable as your next destination. Prepare to get your motor runnin' with these road trips through Nevada...
How to get there and around
Whichever part of the Silver State you’re planning to explore, Nevada has an international gateway and multiple car rental locations, so you can land in style, pick up your pre-booked wheels and hit the road.
Exploring the mountain peaks, alpine lakes and luscious hot springs of the north?
Fly in to Reno-Tahoe International Airport.
Heading for the bright lights of Las Vegas and the stunning national parks of the southwest?
Harry Reid International Airport lands you right in the heart of the action.
Virgin and British Airways offer direct daily flights from London Heathrow to Las Vegas.
Direct British Airways flights from London Gatwick to Las Vegas run three times a week from March 26 to October 28 2023.
Travellers can fly the 725km between Las Vegas and Reno daily, too – a hop that takes less than an hour and will soon see you back on the road.
Make it happen
Turn the ignition and start crafting your road trip through Nevada now with the experts at Travel Planners. With heaps of itinerary inspiration and offers available, the company can help you plan your road trip adventure to this incredible part of the USA.
“In wildness is the preservation of the world,” said American author and naturalist, Henry David Thoreau, and northeastern Nevada’s alpine landscapes are an epic reminder of the natural beauty and biodiversity we need to protect.
Valleys, mountains, lakes and streams are your companions on the two to five-day, 603km-long Rubies Route from Elko in the heart of cowboy country. For outdoor adventures, you can’t beat the Ruby Mountains, Lamoille Canyon and Angel Lake, so don’t forget your hiking boots and a good map. In winter, snowmobiles and heli-skiers buzz around the powder-covered peaks, while summer blankets the meadows with a kaleidoscope of wild flowers.
Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge provides a secluded (and largely phone signal-free) escape for frazzled humans and a sanctuary for wildlife, or go further off-grid across the high-elevation dirt passes that lead to the remote frontier mining town of Jarbridge, where two historic Sagebrush Saloons and a Western-style trading post await.
The I-80 Nevada highway (known as the Cowboys Corridor) from Reno to West Wendover is a well-worn trucker’s route, but road trippers should saddle up for a slower meander through this fascinating slice of the Wild West.
Wannabe buckaroos can immerse themselves in cowboy culture on this 643km adventure, spending two-four days exploring the Western Folklife Center, Buckaroo Hall of Fame and Cowboy Arts & Gear Museum, and discovering the region’s local Basque and American Indian traditions, too. In Elko County, the Ruby Mountains – misnamed by early explorers impressed by the region’s abundance of red garnets – rise up to meet Nevada's big sky, offering hiking and biking trails through forests and the glacier-carved Lamoille Canyon.
Near Wells, you’ll find widescreen views and a tranquil spot to camp at the pristine Angel Lake, and an authentic guest ranch experience at Mustang Monument Eco-Resort & Preserve, a vital refuge for the iconic wild horses that helped shaped the American West.
While the glam array of 24-hour casinos remains a magnet for high rollers and hopeful travellers, recent years have seen Reno – 'The Biggest Little City in the World’ – revamping its reputation as a heady gambling mecca, and becoming one of the hippest kids in the West.
Vintage stores, boho cafes, music and murals draw an arty crowd, and provide the perfect starting point for ‘Burners’ to make their annual late-summer pilgrimage to one of the world’s wildest arts gatherings: Burning Man. The temporary metropolis of Black Rock City pops up in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert each year, welcoming tens of thousands to the event, but the region burns bright long after the crowds head home.
The 400km-long Burner Byway takes two-four days, driving through one of Earth’s flattest regions, the Black Rock Desert playa, and taking in the mesmerising Pyramid Lake, managed by the Pyramid Paiute tribe, who have inhabited the basin for millennia.
Taking two-five days, the 233km-long Lake Tahoe Loop leaves the bohemian city of Reno behind and heads to the ‘Jewel of the Sierra Nevada’, Lake Tahoe. Shimmering blue and surrounded by forested peaks, North America’s largest – and arguably most beautiful – alpine lake is perfect to explore by boat in summer, while its legendary ski resorts offer a playground for snow bunnies in winter.
Drive on to Nevada’s capital, Carson City, for a soak in the region’s natural hot springs, celebrated for easing the aches of US stars from Mark Twain to Clark Gable and a handful of US Presidents, and make a stop in Nevada’s oldest settlement, Genoa, for a cheeky Bloody Mary at its original ‘thirst parlour’, the Genoa Bar & Saloon, dating from 1853.
In the 19th-century silver-mining town of Virginia City, boardwalk-lined streets with old-school saloons, ‘haunted’ hotels and historic reenactments from ’ol VC’s boom time bring Nevada’s pioneering past back to life.
You’ll need a great playlist for this foray along the wide open Highway 50, plus the Highway 50 Survival Guide to steer you on this 804km-long, two-to-four day exploration. Despite its name, the Loneliest Road in America, you’ll find plenty of things to do (and people to do them with) out here.
Earn your first Highway 50 road-tripper stamp – and pick up supplies – in Carson City, before embracing the freedom of the open road. Historic mining communities, fascinating ghost towns and Sagebrush saloons await, with plenty of opportunities to get out and explore epic landscapes on foot. ‘The Oasis of Nevada’, Fallon offers farm-to-table cuisine in the state’s agricultural heartland, plus the chance for film fans to high-five at the Naval Air Station, former home to Top Gun fighter pilots.
Feel the need for speed? Head to the Top Gun Raceway to watch hot rodders race in the state’s summer drag racing series, or try off-roading on the 180m-high Sand Mountain.
In Nevada, art isn’t confined to its cosmopolitan urban centres, you’ll find it everywhere, rising up on the horizon like psychedelic hallucinations as you drive across the state.
Wander the Las Vegas Arts District and visit the Neon Museum in Downtown to see some of the city’s most iconic retired vintage neon signs in the outdoor boneyard, before hitting the Free-Range Art Highway (US-95) from Las Vegas to Reno, lined by no end of weird and wonderful artworks.Keep your phone or camera handy, as you pass desert installations, including the day-glo boulder towers of Seven Magic Mountains, and stop off at the Goldwell Open Air Museum in Beatty, which features seven giant sculptures, including a life-size version of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
The Goldfields International Car Forest showcases a colourful collection of automobiles-turned-canvases for visiting artists, while Tonopah’s crazy Clown Motel provides a suitably offbeat place to stay before motoring on to the funkiest town in the West, Reno.
Until Richard Branson starts offering package deals to Mars, there’s one place on our own planet where other-worldly experiences are already guaranteed: #WeirdNevada.
The Extraterrestrial Highway, a two-day 756km-long loop from Las Vegas, beams you straight into Alien Country and past the infamous United States Air Force Test and Training Range, which includes Area 51, the location of many reported UFO sightings. If the little green beings don’t show up for your own road trip, never fear: you can still explore the cosmic attractions along E.T. Highway, leave messages for unearthly visitors in the Black Mailbox and sink Alien Tequila at the Alien Research Centre, marked by a 10m-tall silver space man (natch).
Tempted to take a sneaky peek inside Area 51? Don’t try it – trespassers will be prosecuted or vaporised with a ray gun (just joking). Instead, drive on to the historic town of Tonopah, visit the volcanic Lunar Crater National Park, and stargaze under some of America’s darkest skies.
If you’re looking to enjoy some of America’s vast, star-spangled skies, this stunning road trip along the Great Basin Highway reveals some of the country’s most dazzling displays, so make sure you stop and look up.
By day, some of eastern Nevada’s most geologically diverse state parks wait to be discovered, including the striking Valley of Fire in the Mojave Desert, where red rock canyons pop against clear, cobalt skies. Starting from Las Vegas, look out for wild horses along the three-five day 940km-long journey, and indulge in some twitcher action at Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge.
The mountain bike hot spot of Caliente offers plenty of downhill thrills and spills, plus hot springs for a therapeutic soak, or hike the slot canyons and spires of Cathedral Gorge State Park on foot. For the grand finale, Great Basin National Park offers groves of 5,000-year-old bristlecone pines to explore, and majestic views of 3,962m-high Wheeler Peak.
Leave the glamour and glitz of the Las Vegas Strip behind and drive into a land of dazzling natural wonders on this 595km-long, three-day adventure.
The USA’s largest national park south of Alaska, Death Valley is also the driest, hottest and lowest place in North America, dropping to 279m below sea level. This land of extremes yields spectacular sights, as you drive through desert landscapes and snow-capped peaks, passing candy-coloured canyons, sweeping dunes and sparkling salt flats.
Despite its foreboding name, Death Valley is bursting with life, home to more than 1,000 species of wild flowers and plants, along with some of America’s most iconic animals, including bobcats, coyotes and bighorn sheep. Biker bars and wineries offer entertaining roadside breaks, and be sure to stop for a browse around the historic gold-mining centre of Rhyolite, one of the most photographed ghost towns in the West.
It’s not going to be easy to tear yourself away from your super-sized hotel room, 24/7 world-class entertainment and some of the best international cuisine on the planet, but worry not – the neon lights of Las Vegas will shine even brighter when you return from a day trip into the natural wonderland beyond on the trio of routes that make up the Neon to Nature road trip.
Drive the 177km-long Red Rockin’ Loop, which leads to the rugged Red Rock Canyon and the historic Goodsprings Ghost Town, home to the oldest bar in Nevada, the 1913 Pioneer Saloon. Or mosey along Lake Mead on the 280km-long Fire and Water Loop to see Ancestral Puebloan petroglyphs decorating the Aztec sandstone as sundown sets the red rocks of the Valley of Fire State Park aflame.
Lastly, the 402km-long Colorado River Corridor route visits the impressive Hoover Dam, before taking in the Art Deco marvels of Boulder City and heading to Laughlin for watersport action on the mighty Colorado River.
Make it happen
Turn the ignition and start crafting your road trip through Nevada now with the experts at Travel Planners. With heaps of itinerary inspiration and offers available, the company can help you plan your road trip adventure to this incredible part of the USA.
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