Palisades Tahoe to Require Paid Parking Reservations on Weekends and Holidays Next Winter

All of Palisades Tahoe’s parking lots will require paid reservations on weekend and holiday mornings next winter.

Earlier today, Palisades Tahoe announced via blog post that it intends to introduce a paid parking reservation policy for the upcoming 2023-24 season. The resort intends to mandate in-advance paid reservations on all holidays and weekends starting mid-December through at least March, with the policy potentially extending later depending on demand. Reservations will be in effect until noon, after which time all lots will become free.

Pricing has not been decided yet, and Palisades says the policy may be “eased off if demand is less than expected.” Achieve Tahoe, Palisades Tahoe employees, Ski Team families, and Village commercial tenants and their employees will be exempt from the new policy, but Ikon Pass holders will not be.

This development comes in the wake of serious access road traffic issues that have resulted in hours-long jams on weekend and holiday mornings. The resort says this policy is intended to curb traffic impacts during these times, and that funds will be reinvested into public transportation.

Our Take

Palisades Tahoe’s traffic has been horrendous during peak times in recent years. On peak weekends and holidays when the roads were clear, traffic jams of up to three hours long could form just for guests to get from Truckee to the resort. These backups have been a serious problem, and hopefully, a parking reservation policy will cut down on the number of would-be guests on the road each weekend.

However, the biggest losers are Ikon Pass holders—most notably locals—intending to use the access as a Palisades season pass. This development comes well after Ikon’s early bird deadline (there’s no alternative Palisades Tahoe season pass product), and many have already purchased their passes for the upcoming season without the expectation of having to pay for parking. While it might be fair to assume that many local pass holders time their visits during afternoons and off-peak weekdays to avoid the crowds anyway, it can’t feel great to buy such a high-cost pass and then learn you’ll have to pay extra to use its benefits on certain days. In future seasons, Palisades Tahoe might want to look into moving off unlimited on the Ikon Pass and splitting out a full season pass with unpaid parking reservations, just as Alta did.

Ultimately, we believe the effectiveness of this paid parking policy will come down to how much Palisades beefs up its public transportation options. As of today, the local bus routes just don’t cut it—the hour-long headways for the TART service between Truckee and Tahoe City are not even close to sufficient to provide reasonable transportation alternatives to driving to the resort. The Palisades-run Sherwood Shuttle, with its 45-minute headways to and from Lake Tahoe’s West Short, will need to see beefed up service to function as a practical driving alternative as well.

Access road traffic is a serious problem at Palisades Tahoe, but at this point, there are too many unknowns to understand whether the new paid parking program will provide needed relief or effectively just become an inexpedient revenue stream for the resort. We’ll be sure to stop by Palisades next season to check out the new policy and its impacts for ourselves.

Considering a ski trip to Palisades Tahoe this year? Check out our full Lake Tahoe ski resort rankings, as well as our comprehensive Palisades Tahoe and Alpine Meadows reviews from the 2021-22 season (a refreshed 2022-23 review will be out shortly). You can also check out our Tahoe rankings in video form below.