Sunnyside-Tahoe Park, Tahoe City, CA

Sunnyside-Tahoe Park is the west-shore strip just south of Tahoe City where the lake does the talking. Its anchor, the Sunnyside resort, grew from a 1908 summer home into a lodge and marina by 1946, and the current restaurant and lodge relaunched in 1987 under a pair of restaurateurs who had helped start the Rusty Scupper chain. The neighborhood threads between Highway 89 and the shore, cabins and mid-century homes with a tier of lakefront mixed in. For everyday outdoors this is a strong pocket: the Sunnyside marina and its watersports, and William Kent Beach and campground a couple of miles down the highway, named for the congressman who gave Muir Woods to the nation. Tahoe Park has its own private HOA lakefront as well. The tradeoffs are the west shore's standing ones. Highway 89 is the only artery, two lanes that feed back into the Tahoe City Y and are subject to winter closures in the Emerald Bay corridor to the south. The beaches and marina crowd in summer, and the cabin stock is older. You are buying lake access and quiet, in that order.