Nevada Mining History Tour: South Lake Tahoe to Virginia City

142 Ratings

Virginia City

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Embark on a thrilling Wild West adventure with a day trip to historic Virginia City from South Lake Tahoe. Discover the rich mining history, ride the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, and immerse yourself in the Old West atmosphere of this National Register of Historic Places town.

Duration: 7 hours

Cancellation: 24 hours

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Highlights

Virginia & Truckee Railroad - 7 mile train ride from Virginia City to Gold Hill and back.
Comstock Lode - Comstock Lode - Silver City, Gold Hill, Virginia City
Virginia City Visitor Center - On C street
The Delta Saloon - Great place for refreshments
The Way It Was Museum - Recommended museum by Discover Lake Tahoe Tours
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What's Included

Scenic train ride
Comfortable air-conditioned shuttle transport
Convenient hotel pickup and drop-off (selected hotels only)

What's Not Included

Lunch
Admission to attractions (optional)
Gratuities

Additional Information

Embark on a journey into Nevada’s storied mining past on this trip from South Lake Tahoe to Virginia City, a prosperous mining town recognized in the US National Register of Historic Places. Accompanied by an expert guide, navigate a portion of the Pony Express on your way to Virginia City, where you’ll enjoy a scenic trip on the Virginia & Truckee…

Location

Virginia & Truckee Railroad

165 F Street,

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings

4.2

(142 Ratings)

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Alan_b

Oct 26, 2025

Great experience - First off this is not a train ride to Virginia City. This is a 90-minute narrated bus tour from South Lake Tahoe to Virginia City where you then take a 30 minute train ride. That said, it was a great day! Our guide on the bus, Nevada Smith told us all about the area and its history. We rode through a spectacular mounatin pass, through the historic town of Genoa and on through the desert to Virginia City. There we took a short train ride out and back, learning more about the history of the Comstock Lode and the railroad itself. The conductor, Don was equally informative. After that we had three hours in Virginia City for lunch, shopping and to experience a real "old west" town. There is a great museum, The Way It Was, with artifacts going back to the pioneer and mining days... a lot of cool old stuff and a video. The town has several saloons that serve pizza, burgers and drinks. I recommend the Red Dog Saloon. There's also Hi Me Cafe which serves the most amazing iced coffee! And there's plenty of gift shops, ranging from simple souvenirs to unique clothing, artwork and jewelry. All in all I definitely recommend this excursion for anyone who wants to step back to the 1800's without leaving the present day. A perfect day trip from Tahoe.

Review provided by Viator

Ronald_c

Oct 17, 2025

It was interesting and... - It was interesting and informative, the driver/tour guide was extremely knowledgeable. Well worth the money.

Review provided by Viator

Gilbert

Oct 9, 2025

Great for a family trip - The trip was awesome. The driver kept us up on the history on the way. Pretty cool Got us to our location on time. The train ride was cool.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Catherine_g

Oct 3, 2025

Great trip - Our driver was so informed about the area and made the bus ride so much fun . We even sang ! Our adventure in Carson city allowed plenty of time to see everything and shop and have lunch

Review provided by Viator

Wandaso317ei

Sep 26, 2025

Virginia City, Nevada tour and train ride experience. - My husband and I were delighted with our trip on the Train Ride experience in Virginia City, Nevada. The emcee was very knowledgeable and personable. If we are ever back in this area, we will definitely take this outing again! And the price was a great value. Also, we really enjoyed touring Virginia City!

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Pamela_b

Oct 17, 2025

Carson city and Virginia city - Great tour guide! Learned lots of info. A little too long in Virginia city . Great little church to see.

Review provided by Viator

Lorifr3010ja

Sep 21, 2025

Virginia City Fun - The trip to Virginia City was fun however I think the description is a little misleading! We thought we were going on a longer train ride. It .9 miles not 9 miles. With that being said the shuttle driver was great and knowledgeable. And Virginia City was cool! We saw wild mustangs. Lots of mines! Bucket of Blood Saloon was my favorite!

Review provided by Tripadvisor

129kandacem

Sep 27, 2025

Underwhelmed excursion - The trip was a little deceptive. We thought we were gonna get to have a sightseeing train ride and it was only about 5 miles back and forth and then we were dropped off at Virginia city for three hours.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Lionna_s

Oct 16, 2025

Very informative!!!! - Overall, the experience was very “informational”. The driver was very knowledgeable about the tour as well as keeping people on the bus entertained with the trivia questions he was giving us. But I must say, I thought the tour would be different than what we envisioned. I thought the train ride was going to be several hours as we overlooked Lake Tahoe and other significant landmarks. Instead, we has roughly a 1.5 hour tour by bus (both ways) and a roughly 30 minute train ride. We got dropped off to visit “old school” markets and stores which was kinda refreshing. We made some homemade candles which was pretty fun and we also had a good time speaking to the locals.

Review provided by Viator

Misty_p

Sep 29, 2025

Do not recommend - The tour had too much down time and people were sitting on benches waiting for the bus to load and leave. We waited at a the Golden Nugget for a gentleman who was in line at Starbucks for a bottle of water. The tour guide dropped us off across the street as he didn’t want to turn the bus around. Never again.

Review provided by Viator

Check Availability

From $80

up to 10 guests

1 - Adult