The Trip to the Casinos of Reno, Carson City and Virginia City!

Part III

Travel Information Provided by

GamblingResort.com

Reno, Nevada is a great place to visit. The traveling crew of the website, GamblingResort.com, can attest to that.

Reno seems like such a nice place to live as well.

The nearby towns of Carson City, the state capital, and Virginia City, home to the famous Comstock Silver Strike of 1859, are also great places to visit. Both locations seem almost unchanged by time as reflected in the architecture of buildings there that have mercilessly escaped the wrecking ball.

The Carson City Mint, built at the peak of the silver boom in 1866, now home to the Nevada State Museum, still stands. The Federal Building, also in Carson City, built in 1890, is another impressive landmark.

If you are going to Reno on business or if you are coming to explore the various gambling establishments on North or South Virginia Street and you have more than a few hours to spare, do yourself a big favor. Find U.S. Highway 395 south and head directly to these towns.

Carson City is 32 miles south of Reno. Virginia City is 26 miles south, but it takes a bit of effort to negotiate the twists and turns of Nevada State Highway 341 up Mt. Davidson as it leads you into town.

Carson City today has a population of about 55,000.  In area, the town covers a lot of ground, some 156 square miles. Downtown Carson City lies in a place called Eagle Valley. The Carson Range looms to the west and the Virginia Range to the east.

The casinos of Carson City and Virginia City are profiled on the travel pages of GamblingResort.com. Photos of the casinos are available there as well.

The casinos in Carson City are very modestly designed and cannot really be compared to their flashy counterparts in Reno or Las Vegas. These places have been built with the locals in mind.

Bodines Casino is a newer facility, very nice indeed. It is large and spacious inside. It lies at the south end of town on Highway 395, a road otherwise known as South Carson where it intersects Old Clear Creek Road.

The folks at GamblingResort.com spent a lot of time at Casino Fandango, south of downtown, also on South Carson Street. The visit here was a pleasant surprise. The low key exterior of the place gave way to an interior of lush tropical rain forest vegetation illuminated by a cool and mellow assortment of colorful neon.

The lunch buffet there was exceptional.

Two of the classic casinos in Carson City and ones that more closely reflect the character of the older part of the city are the Carson Nugget and the Carson Horseshoe Club. They sit smack in the center of town on North Carson Street.

Just inside the front doors of the Carson Nugget, a large glass case features a motley collection of nuggets of genuine gold, saved from the smelters, in all their brilliant and jagged-edged glory.

Carson City has a long and colorful history. It has been the capital of the Nevada Territory since it was established in 1861 during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Statehood came quickly, only three years later in 1864, as the Civil War raged on, and the city has remained as the capital throughout.

The population of the town has ebbed and flowed over the years. The boom and bust days of mining activity in nearby Virginia City and other towns, the construction and re-routing of various railroad transit points have contributed to major population swings.

The next dispatch from Carson City and Virginia City follows shortly, in Part IV.

GamblingResort.com visits gambling destinations on occasion so as to provide visitors with timely travel and casino information. The crew of GamblingResort.com recently traveled to Reno, Carson City and Virginia City, Nevada, to explore the many dimensions of these historical places.

Stay tuned!

Reno is a Long, Long Way from Las Vegas!

The Trip to the Casinos of Reno, Nevada

Part II

Travel Information Provided by GamblingResort.com

Reno has so much in common with other cities in small town America. Quiet tree-lined streets. Beautiful older neighborhoods. Free flowing traffic.

Cruise by foot along historic North Virginia Street, however, the main road through Reno. The buildings here stand in sharp contrast to the buildings in other small towns: sky high, fantastical casinos that throw long shadows over the narrow street below.

The neighborhood blocks of downtown where most of the casinos in Reno are concentrated barely seem able to contain these soaring structures.

Maybe this is why Reno is known as "The Biggest Little City in the World."

This city lacks the scale and scope of a place like Las Vegas. But to most folks, this is a good thing. Many a down low gambler prefers the small town atmospherics of a place like Reno. A dollar seems to go a long way here.

Reno, really a medium sized city with a small town pulse, has a current population of 210,000. It lies 26 miles north of the Nevada state capitol of Carson City, 22 miles northeast of Lake Tahoe and a long, long way from Vegas.

Believe it or not, Reno was the birthplace of Harrah's Entertainment, founded in 1937 as a bingo parlor by William F. Harrah.

Today Harrah's has evolved into the largest gaming company in the world that operates under many different labels.

The company, once publicly traded, is now owned by a group of private investors. This casino empire includes well-known gambling resorts such as Bally's, Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Paris Las Vegas and the Horseshoe brand in different locations.

The traveling crew of GamblingResort.com, which has been on a road trip recently to re-visit various gambling destinations, fell in love with Reno all over again because it believes that Reno is unique and special place.

Reno is a hybrid of positive attributes with its Wild West frontier sensibilities, its close proximity to small farms and ranches in the Carson Valley, to old mining towns like Virginia City and the ski resorts of Lake Tahoe.

One can gamble the hours away in a mega resort like Harrah's or the Silver Legacy or the Eldorado, all on North Virginia Street, then find oneself a few moments later, on the banks of picturesque Truckee River, a calming presence by any standard.

Step outside one of these casinos, head south for a few short blocks, and there you are.

The Truckee River flows through a fertile valley called Truckee Meadows from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake. It is a thumping life force that runs through the heart of downtown Reno.

Time spent on a patch of grass near a thicket of trees at the edge of the river could be the perfect antidote to any gambler who might need a spot to readjust his attitude after a run of bad luck at the nearby gaming tables.

The travel website, GamblingResort.com, provides information about all the casinos in Reno, Virginia City, Carson City and Lake Tahoe. It is a great resource for those planning to visit one of these gambling destinations.

One can find all sorts of useful stuff at GamblingResort.com, including photos, casino statistics, map locators, addresses and phone numbers for every casino in the USA and beyond. One can also book hotels here. Give it a try!

Stay tuned for upcoming dispatches from Virginia City and Carson City.

The Trip to the Casinos of Reno, Nevada

Travel Information provided by GamblingResort.com

The Trip to Reno, Part I

The privileged crew of GamblingResort.com has spent a lot of time on the road recently to see Indian casinos in the Central Valley of California and in the Gold Country.

Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in Coarsegold, California, some 35 miles northeast of Fresno, as been the highlight of the trip so far.

GamblingResort.com visits casinos from time to time so as to provide visitors to this ever popular website with timely travel and casino information.

Many days have been spent driving north through the Gold Country of California. But the time had come to turn the car around and head back home.

It also became time to face the reality that one was returning to a life in the asphalt jungle of Los Angeles and away from the towering pines and fresh air of the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The saloons, gambling halls and old haunts in the gold mining towns nestled in these hills once drew hopeful treasure seekers from around the world. Would be nice to spend more time here and learn more about the history of these places.

Yet the time had come to pull out the map to find the road that would get the GamblingResort.com crew back home in the quickest way possible.

Highway 49 is the main road that connects one Gold Rush town to another. It winds its way through narrow valleys and undulating hills of unparalleled beauty. Highway 49 ultimately leads to other California highways that will take one anywhere else.

As the car headed north to Highway 50, so as to make the connection west to Sacramento and Interstate 5, the members of this expedition were no longer in the best of moods.

Even though these travelers experienced some of the deprivations of roadside living for a spell, they did not like the idea of returning, so soon, to a life of Starbucks and flat screen TVs, nice as these things are.

The passengers were all looking for a way out of this polyurethane pillbox that was now pushing them headlong into Interstate 5.

I-5 is that highway through the Central Valley that truckers take when they need to get some place in a hurry. No consideration is given here to the geological stimulation that a slower road would provide.

Everybody in the car was looking at everybody else in the car wondering if what the others were thinking mirrored what he was thinking.  Was mutiny on their minds?

"Let's go to Reno," someone finally blurts out. "Turn this damn car around. Let's see what's going on in Reno."

Reno seemed so far away at this hour of the night. Reno is even located in another state, after all. But the idea of going there seemed too compelling to ignore. Reno, Nevada, is, by all accounts, "The Biggest Little City in the World."

No modern soul could ever hope to know the feeling a 49'er felt, after months of travel, across plain and prairie, over mountain trail and narrow mountain pass, or by ship upon a turbulent sea, when he first saw the faint glow of lights of the town of his final destination.

When the crew of GamblingResort.com finally reached the summit of Donner Pass over Interstate 80 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the mood inside the car reached new heights as well.

Reno was only minutes away now and everybody knew it. The close confines of the car would soon give way to the camaraderie and good cheer that only the casinos in a town like Reno could deliver.

GamblingResort.com showcases Reno and other gambling destinations on its travel pages. Hotels and casinos at these destinations are rated for overall quality on a "4 Ace" scale. A rating of "1 Ace" is nothing to brag about. A rating of "4 Aces" is.

GamblingResort.com actually tries to visit the places it rates. Over time, many of the gambling resorts in the world will have been personally examined, one way or another, by a member of the crew of GamblingResort.com.

Stay tuned for Part Two of the Trip to the casinos of Reno, Carson City and Virginia City, Nevada.