Kayaking and SUP to Fannette Island – Lake Tahoe, California

Fannette Island is the small island — and the only island — on Lake Tahoe, located in Emerald Bay. If you’ve ever seen photos of Lake Tahoe, you’ll definitely recognize it.

But did you know that there’s an abandoned tea house on the island?

The Emerald Bay area of Lake Tahoe was once privately-owned and in 1928, the tea house (and the nearby Vikingsholm) was built. The owners of the bay would often bring guests out to the island and serve them tea in this little stone structure.

Today, not much of the actual tea house remains; just its surrounding walls, but you are welcome to visit the island and climb the short path up to the tea house to check it out.

One of the easiest ways to get out to Fannette Island to see the tea house is to rent a kayak or a stand up paddleboard. That’s exactly what my sister and I did during one of our trips to Lake Tahoe.

Fannette Island/Emerald Bay Location:

Kayak rentals for Fannette Island and the teahouse are located on the beach at Emerald Bay State Park. Thus, you will need to park in the lot for Emerald Bay State Park and do a steep, 1-mile hike down to the beach. Vehicles cannot drive down to the lake.

This isn’t an ‘easy’ hike – sure, it’s easy going down, but you’ll have to walk back up, so keep this in mind if you have people with health conditions or mobility issues – according to the California State Park system, anyone with these conditions should not attempt this hike!

Emerald Bay State Park Information

Admission: $5 per vehicle. There is an automated pay station in the parking lot.
Hike: Mandatory 1-mile one-way hike down to the beach.
Dogs are not allowed

Parking: Parking to reach the beach area of Emerald Bay State Park is located in the Vikingsholm parking lot. Parking is a severe issue here – and I do mean SEVERE. The parking lot is tiny. You will absolutely need to get here well before park opening to get a spot. We arrived at 8am during the holiday weekend and got a spot.

The map above shows the small parking lot, where you can access the beach. The white line switchbacks you see leading down to the beach is not a road – that is the hiking trail you must walk to reach the beach.

We rented from KayakTahoe. We paid an extra fee so that we could try both kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding. My sister and I took out a double kayak and we each tried out our own SUP board.

Once you reach the beach, Kayak Tahoe will have a tent down there with kayaks and SUPs for rent.

Renting Kayaks or Stand Up Paddleboards at Emerald Bay

The entire rental process was super easy! We were there as soon as they opened (9am) and had no issues getting the watercraft. You simply pay your fee, sign a waiver, and they’ll hand over a lifejacket and off you go! If you do want to kayak out to the island, let the employees know – they’ll tell you the best spot on the island where to park your kayak or SUP while you explore.

We only rented watercraft for an hour and this gave us plenty of time to paddle out to Fanette Island, explore & climb up to the tea house, and then kayak back, with extra time to spare.

How difficult is it to kayak to Fannette Island and the tea house from Emerald Bay?

I’ll be honest, while I consider myself to be in great shape, I’m not much of a kayaker! So even though I don’t feel this is one of my strong suits, I felt perfectly safe using the kayaks here to paddle around Emerald Bay. The water was a little choppy but it wasn’t anything that I, as a beginner, couldn’t handle.

I ended up enjoying the stand-up paddleboard more than the kayak. At the time, this was only my second time on a SUP, but after paddling around near the shoreline, I felt confident enough to actually paddleboard out to the island! So that’s what my sister and I did; instead of taking the double kayak, we each SUP’d to Fannette Island!

Exploring Fannette Island and the tea house

It only took maybe 15 minutes to get out to Fannette Island, if that. Parking the paddleboard was easy – again, just ask the employees where to do this and you’ll be good.

Once we parked the paddleboards, we made the short climb to the top, where the tea house is. The trail is mostly made up of rock steps. Both of us were wearing cheap ol’ watershoes and had no issues walking up the short trail, but if I were to do this again, I would bring a change of shoes. Water shoes aren’t for hiking!

We brought along a dry bag for our cameras and phones

The tea house is neat to see, but there’s not much left to it; just stone walls, but it does make for some interesting photos.

Since we rented kayaks right at opening time, there wasn’t anyone else on the island when we arrived. It can get filled with people as the day goes on, as boaters, jet-skiers and other kayak rental folks come out here to explore.

After we finished up at the tea house, we made our way back down to our SUPs and made our way back. Since we had extra time, we explored more of the waters around Emerald Bay before turning our boards in.

Final Thoughts – Stand Up Paddleboarding and Kayaking to Fanette Island on Lake Tahoe

I thought this was a ton of fun and is a must-do when in the Tahoe area during summer. It was a blast getting out on the water on a beautiful day and paddling out to the island.

Pros:

• Fun, unique experience kayaking out to an abandoned tea house perched on top of a famous island
• You only need an hour rental to do this – even with only an hour, we didn’t feel rushed at all.
• You can either kayak out to the island or take a stand up paddleboard.

Cons:

• Parking is incredibly difficult as the lot is so small and no overflow parking is allowed on the side of Highway 89.
• The hike down to the beach is so steep (and a mile long), just accessing this can be difficult for anyone with mobility or health issues.

Have you ever visited Fannette Island to see the old teahouse? How was your experience?