Playing Pokemon GO at Lake Tahoe

Pokemon: a game where you catch creatures known as “Pokemon” where players known as “trainers” train the Pokemon to go battle others within the region where the end goal is to become the Pokemon champion. The games have reached popularity throughout the years that six generations later Niantic Inc. released what is now known as Pokemon GO (an interactive mobile game that lets you catch Pokemon in real time). If you’ve never played Pokemon, here are the basic rules to know when playing (in Tahoe).

1. Location/time vary Pokemon.

Just like in the games, certain places can vary the types of Pokemon. Like in real life, there’s animals that come out during the night and others during the day. Tahoe is a perfect example of how different Pokemon are in different locations. Expect rock, bug, plant and bird types to be within residential areas, water type near the beach (e.g El Dorado, Regan, Timber Cove, Lakeside), popular/rare Pokemon in popular areas (Casinos, Heavenly Village) and ghost, dark Pokemon at night.

TIP: always be aware of your surroundings, if it doesn’t seem populated or there’s easy loss of signal chances are there’s no Pokemon.

2. The more popular, the better the Pokemon.

In the games, each town has a building known as a PokeMart (players can buy and collect items to help forward their training). In Pokemon GO, these are known as PokeStops. The cool thing with PokeStops is that they’re placed in popular or random places throughout your location. The more people at the PokeStop, the more Pokemon appear on your screen. To enhance the chances, players can use “lures” (a scent that is used to lure Pokemon to that Pokestop).

TIP: If you visit those PokeStops you get rewarded items that can help you catch Pokemon and look for pink petals around the PokeStops (Heavenly Village has many PokeStops with petals).

3. You can join a team!

This new feature is different compared to the games. After reaching level 5, Pokemon GO’s professor introduces you to 3 gym leaders (Valor, Mystic, and Instinct) also known as red, blue and yellow to join their team and take over gyms. After you choose what team you’d like to join you can then go to any gym in Tahoe and battle other people in town and take over that gym for your team. Most gyms are located alongside Lake Tahoe Blvd (highway 50)

TIP: If you see a Pokemon and team color, you’ve reached a gym (there’s actually a gym next to our visitor center)

4. Perfect for the outdoors!

Pokemon GO requires trainers to walk outside and be active and Tahoe is a perfect example of the outdoors. You have your popular places, your bodies of water, your residential areas and most importantly, the nature to accompany you on your quest to catch ’em all. Pokemon GO (in Tahoe) does a really good job at placing the PokeStops and gyms in popular places that anyone visiting Tahoe would want to see. So if you’re interested in Pokemon and also want to see what’s interesting to visit in Tahoe, Pokemon GO is an active, family friendly type of way to go.

For more information on where to find Pokemon at Lake Tahoe use this Map. Happy Hunting!