Best location to stay in Belfast for the night, for nightlife?

Help me plan my Vegas/Reno/Tahoe/LA trip!

• Help me plan my Vegas/Reno/Tahoe/LA trip! Specifically I'm wondering what to do with my snowboard gear and I need some recommendations on transportation and things to see. On the second leg of the trip (Reno/Tahoe) we'll be skiing for four days. Problem is, we're staying in Reno and we'll have to drive to Tahoe back and forth every day. Prices for SUV's during the time are too expensive for us so we'll end up having to get a sedan. (We've considered a shuttle service as well, but we're thinking a rental would be more useful driving around places in Tahoe and Reno) I'm not sure if you can get a roof rack on non-SUV rentals (anyone have experience here?), but besides that, we're not sure we want to lug all of our heavy and expensive ski equipment for a multi-city trip like this. 1) Does anyone know of any recommended roundtrip equipment transportation services from Philly to Tahoe? Is fedexing a good solution for this? (and cheap!?) Next leg, we have a choice of flying our driving from Reno to LA. We'll probably break even price-wise either way, so that isn't so much an issue. We don't mind the 10hr drive (and extra night possibly) if there is anything cool to do in between. 2) So is it worth it to drive or should we just chalk it up and take a flight over to LA? Recommendations on stuff to do in between? 3) Any recommendations on places to stay in LA? Should we stay near the nightlife, or save some bucks and stay somewhere cheaper? Does location make that much a difference? And if it makes any difference, this is all over Christmas/New Year's break.

• Answer:

  alms: if a four-hour drive in the opposite direction down the "loneliest highway in America" counts as "a little out of the way", I'd hate to see what a real detour would look like. pooya: I-80 west over the Sierra to Sacramento is beautiful. The pass is way up in the mountains, all wild and snowy and beautiful. Donner Lake is nice to look at (and a pleasant place for a picnic during warmer weather). You may have to take it slow over the pass this time of year, depending on the weather. Then you come down out of the foothills into Sacramento, turn south on I-5 in the middle of its 500-mile haul down the Central Valley, and there's basically nothing to look at but farms until you pass Bakersfield. It's smooth, flat, fast, and mostly boring. It'd be fun, once, if you're into road trips, but there's not much to stop and do along the way. (If you *are* into really long detours, of course, you could try 395 south out of Reno instead of 80 west. It would take four hours longer, and the road is a winding two-lane state highway instead of a big, smooth interstate, but damn is it some wild beautiful country back there.)