Start from 27 curated places around Virginia City, NV, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Red Dog Saloon
A 19th-century tavern that became ground zero for the 1960s psychedelic rock movement — Big Brother & the Holding Company and the Charlatans both got their start here. Today it is a reliable pizza-and-bar stop on C Street with Chicago-style pies, live music on weekends, and walls covered in rock-and-roll memorabilia that repays close looking. At 4.5 stars across 1,432 Google reviews it is the most-reviewed restaurant in town.
Palace Restaurant & Saloon
Operating since 1875, this is the most complete C Street saloon experience — cold beer, a full lunch menu of burgers and sandwiches, and an interior that has not been over-restored. The boozy milkshakes are a local signature, and the cheddar beef dip sandwich with house fries is what regulars order. At 4.4 stars across 1,100 Google reviews it outperforms most of the strip on consistency.
Trails & outdoors
V&T Railroad Grade Road
The original Virginia & Truckee Railroad right-of-way from Virginia City down to Gold Hill, now walkable as a 3.9-mile out-and-back trail with a gentle two-percent grade the whole way. Historical interpretive markers sit at 17 mine sites along the route, and the alignment gives you the same view of the canyon that V&T engineers had in the 1870s. At 4.5 stars across 303 AllTrails reviews it is the most popular trail in the Virginia City area.
Ophir Hill and Mount Davidson
The most demanding trail in the Virginia City area, gaining 1,627 feet over 4.4 miles to reach the highest point in Storey County. The upper section follows OHV jeep roads and single-track through high-desert scrub with expanding views over Washoe Valley and the full Comstock range. At 4.2 stars across 97 AllTrails reviews it is best attempted in May, June, or October — summer midday heat on the exposed ridge is serious.
Things to do
Virginia & Truckee Railroad
The most famous short-line railroad in American history — once connecting the richest silver mines on earth to the Pacific Railroad at Reno — now runs 35-minute narrated excursions between Virginia City and Gold Hill aboard restored 19th-century passenger cars. The route passes through 17 numbered mine sites and the conductor's narration explains what each collapsed headframe or tailings pile once produced. At 4.7 stars across 1,342 Google reviews it is the most-reviewed attraction in the area.
Bucket of Blood Saloon
A genuine working saloon in continuous operation since 1876 — the name comes from a fight that left evidence across the walls in the establishment's early years. Period-costumed staff, live piano music, and specialty Bloody Marys fill a room lined with Gold Rush-era memorabilia that is neither manufactured nor curated — it accumulated here naturally over 150 years. At 4.6 stars across 1,391 Google reviews it is the best-reviewed saloon on C Street.
Landmarks & sights
Historic Fourth Ward School Museum
The last surviving Second Empire-style four-story schoolhouse in the US, built in 1876 when Virginia City was flush with Comstock silver money. Original student desks, graded exams, and a functioning letter press share space with deep-dive exhibits on Mark Twain's Comstock years and the mechanics of underground mining. The upper floors reward the climb with wide-angle views down C Street toward Gold Canyon.
St. Mary in the Mountains Catholic Church
Nevada's oldest active Catholic parish, rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1875 consumed its predecessor — the congregation returned to celebrate mass in the new building by 1876. The basement museum holds relics from historic Catholic churches across Nevada, a detailed history of the fire itself, and an Abraham Lincoln library wing that surprises nearly everyone. Free admission makes it one of the best value stops on the hill.