Adventure experts

Adventures of Reno helps you book tours of all kinds and equipment rentals for a variety of different outdoor activities in the Reno/Tahoe area. Liberty Zikos is a booking agent for the company. They are located at the adventure desk in the downstairs lobby of the Silver Legacy Resort Casino. You can also reach them at 325-7669.

Adventures of Reno is pretty broad—what do you guys do?

Well, we pretty much facilitate fun. We offer sightseeing tours, ATV tours, lake sightseeing tours, Jet Ski rentals, motorcycle rentals, bike rentals. So right now, we're coming up on summer, so our big thing is our bike rentals, hang gliding, Jet Ski rentals, Lake Tahoe cruises, rafting, kayaking, motorcycles—rentals and tours. And we're pretty much willing to, you know—anything people are interested in, we try to do. So we pretty much, our motto is we can do it.

What's your favorite activity or rental or tour that you guys do?

Right now I'm really into the ATV tours. They're out in Plumas National Forest. It's out on the California side. It's kinda up north from here. We have two different tours—there's one on the ranch, which is the one I've done most recently. And it's just a really cool thing. Ken Smith—he's the owner—and he just has really good vibes and he likes to have a lot of fun, so he makes the tours really neat. And there's a Crystal Peak tour, and that one takes you up on—it's like a four-hour tour—and it takes you up on the peak of the national forest. And it's called the Crystal Peak tour because you're pretty much in this crystal carved out valley.

Cool. How does the logistics of this all go? Do you have a lot of set tours? What about the rentals?

So, pretty much people call us, and we set up the tour for them. So we take care of all the booking and information. You know, we set up the date, and we figure out how many people are going on the tour, if they're going to be doing—well, for example, with the ATV tours—single or doubles, what time they want to go on the tour, and we kind of try to fit with whatever their group wants to do. So like for the two-hour tour, we do like skeet shooting and there's a barbecue. And then the more hardcore ATV-goers, they tend to move towards the four-hour one. It's a little more lenient on how crazy you can get on the ATVs. So yeah, we pretty much do the booking for anything.

And are they all tours with a guide?

Yeah. These ones are with guides. They're guided tours. Most of our guides up at the ranch, they've been there for quite a while, and they're really fun guides. They love what they do. So, you know, you get these people who are stressed out from their jobs and then they end up going on these tours, and they come back around being whole new people because they're just super relaxed and they've had a great time.

And you said you do rentals, too?

Yeah, we rent out the equipment, too. For ATVs, we have our own fleet that we rent out to people who want to come by with their trailers and go somewhere and do their own adventures. And then some motorcycles, too, which is getting really popular now with the nice weather. We do tours and rentals. So people like to come and rent their motorcycles and you know take them—we have this one group coming out who sounds like they're doing a coastal tour in the next month, and it sounds like a lot of fun. If people aren't familiar with the area, sometimes they like to do the guided tours and then a lot of people know exactly where they want to go, they just need the bike and we provide the bike for them.

What are the most popular adventures or activities that you guys do at this time?

Right now, definitely the sightseeing tours only because we're located inside the Silver Legacy, so we have a lot of people who haven't been to Reno or they want to see what we have to offer. So it's a really great way for people to see, you know, Lake Tahoe, which is beautiful, and then go through Carson City, the capital, and then Virginia City. Those are the three places our sightseeing tours stops at. It's the three big things surrounding Reno that make Reno a cool destination spot.

I'm sure you get more tourists, but do you get locals at times, too?

We do get locals, too.

What kind of stuff do you get them for typically?

We actually get a lot of locals who rent motorcycles from us. They have friends coming from out of town and maybe someone doesn't have a bike, so they'll rent out a bike from us. Or, you know, people who just want to take ATVs out to like Pyramid or something. And even, you know, Lake Tahoe has those catamaran cruises and Jet Ski rentals—we get a lot of locals that are interested in doing that. They just want to go up to Tahoe or another lake.

So definitely more of the equipment rentals for locals?

Right, right.

Which makes sense. What would you say are the best things that you offer for families?

For families? Believe it or not the ATV tours are really family-friendly. I would say that's probably the most family-friendly thing that they can do because we have the side-by-sides. So, if there's like a really young child, they can ride with them. We also have the tiny four-stroke ATVs that kids can get on. So, I'd say, yeah, the ATV tours are really family-friendly.

Do you package these things? How does that work?

We're actually trying to develop packages right now. Let me look at the one I'm working on right now. Like activity bundles—because the ATV tours, you do have to have your own transportation to get out there, so we're trying to do car rentals and tours where we bundle two singles or three singles or a double for couples and stuff like that. You can add barbecues to the combos as well for an additional price.

Besides the ATVs and motorcycles, what are people coming to you for right now?

Right now that's kind of it just because we're sort of in between seasons. We just finished up the snowmobile tours, so we're kind of in between right now. So right now the most popular thing is the sightseeing tour. The snowshoes and snowmobiles are really popular in the wintertime.

Coming up pretty soon, it's summer. What becomes more popular then?

Definitely the motorcycle rentals and the ATV tours again.

What would you say is the best deal that a family could do?

Probably the day trips to the ranch for the ATV tour because then they can do the lunch, and the trails are super fun. That would definitely be a good family outing that would be fun.

Have you done a lot of these tours, too?

I'm newer here actually, so I've done the sightseeing tour and the ATV tour. I came kind of at an odd time, and we didn't get a lot of snow so I didn't really get to go snowmobiling. This summer I'm definitely going to get up on the lake a lot and try out a little bit of everything.

What are you most excited to try?

I really want to try hang gliding, even though that's supposed to be one of the scarier adventures, it seems like a lot of fun.