Cruises for Spring Summer 2026

Tahoe Cruises began in 1978 owned by the original family and has been cruising continuously for 47 years.
Owner of 2 of the largest boats on Lake Tahoe, ‘The Spirit of Tahoe’ and ‘The Safari Rose

‘The Spirit of Tahoe’ was built by the Lydia boat builders of Stewart
Florida in 1984 as a commercial ocean-going tour boat.
She is considered a wide-body boat for greater interior room and exterior deck seating. Her large windows provide great sightseeing with an upper snack drink bar and a lower inside bar on the main deck
She has 2 passenger decks with a heated interior for the colder weather and a sun deck outside on the upper deck. She operated in Florida as a sightseeing, dolphin and whale watching tour boat until 2018 when Tahoe Cruises bought her. We moved the boat into the Gulf of Mexico and cruised 1000 miles to Pier 77 in Galveston, Texas for a complete restoration, including new clean diesel engines and all new electronics. From there She was put on a 150 ft boat trailer and moved to an elevation of 6,200 ft up the Sierra mountains to Lake Tahoe. She was considered a Super Load, in truckers terms, meaning too wide, too long, too tall and too heavy and required full Hiway Patrol escorts through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California a total of approximately 2000 miles by road for a total of 3000 miles from Florida to Tahoe and launched in April of 2021 and christened Spirit of Tahoe.

The Safari Rose was built by Allied Marine of Florida in 1959 for the 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) Corporation, famous for popular items such as Scotch Tape, sandpaper, and Post-it Notes, to name a few.
Allied Marine was best known for building Navy mine sweepers for World War II.
She was originally named “Scotchie 3” and cruised the Great Lakes and the eastern coast of the Bahamas. She eventually sailed through the Panama Canal to the Pacific and up to Seattle, Washington, and her name was changed to Safari Rose. She did exclusive excursions to Alaska, cruising between the Puget Sound and Anchorage, Alaska.
We purchased the boat in Lake Union, Washington in 2001, worked on her for one year and then sailed her down the Washington coast to the Columbia River up to Lewiston, Idaho, where she was hauled out on to a custom-made trailer, then eventually trucked over the High Sierras to Lake Tahoe. She was considered a “super load” on the roadway… too long, too wide, too high, and too heavy, only able to move at 20 miles an hour…

Arriving at the Lake and launched in the spring of 2003, she has made Tahoe her home for the past 22 years.

Tahoe Cruises has operated both The Spirit of Tahoe and The Safari Rose for the past 8 years at Ski Run Marina in the heart of South Lake Tahoe…
Some well-known celebrities over the years are Neil Diamond, the Pointer Sisters, Christopher Cross,
Joe Walsh of the Eagles, Howie Mandel, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stephen Curry, to name a few… and many corporations, including Microsoft, Google, Cisco Systems, Oracle, Adobe, Mondavi, and Rombauer Wineries. Also
Exclusive American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament yachts 35 years since the first tournament in 1990

The Safari Rose & The Spirit of  Tahoe Dockside