Visiting Reno, United States: Top Sights on Foot

Reno is a Nevada city known for its casinos, historic churches, museums, theatres, and landmarks along the Truckee River. From the glowing Reno Arch and the Pioneer Center’s golden dome to a museum filled with historic automobiles, there are plenty of distinctive places to visit beyond the casino floors. Neywo offers a free audio guide for Reno with 46 narrated places.

What to See in Reno

Reno Arch

The Reno Arch is one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks. It spans Virginia Street at Commercial Row, creating a colorful gateway into downtown. The current arch is the third version: the original was built on October 23, 1926, to commemorate the completion of the Lincoln and Victory Highways. The present structure was installed in 1987, received new lights in 2009, and took on its blue-and-silver design in 2018.

National Automobile Museum

Just south of the Truckee River, the National Automobile Museum presents more than a century of automotive history across four galleries. Most of the collection comes from William F. Harrah, which is why the museum is also known as The Harrah Collection.

The more than 200 vehicles range from cars of the 1890s and 1900s through the 1960s, with some later examples as well. The galleries are connected by themed streets and faux shopfronts, creating the atmosphere of a historic town rather than a conventional row of displays. Notable vehicles include a Cadillac V-16, a Duesenberg, and an American Express DMC DeLorean covered in twenty-four-karat gold. The museum opened on November 5, 1989.

Nevada Museum of Art

The Nevada Museum of Art explores the relationship between people and the world around them, with particular attention to land and nature. It is Nevada’s only American Alliance of Museums accredited art museum.

Rather than arranging its collection strictly by period or style, the museum uses thematic groupings connected to natural, built, and virtual environments. Its permanent collection includes thousands of works from the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries. The building, designed by architect Will Bruder, became the museum’s home in 2003; a 50,000-square-foot expansion fully opened in August 2025. Educational programs, events, and workshops extend the museum’s focus beyond the galleries.

Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum

Known locally as The Discovery, the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum is a hands-on science museum for children and adults. Its interactive exhibits cover science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics.

The museum occupies 67,000 square feet in a former City Hall building that was extensively renovated before opening as a private nonprofit in 2011. Permanent highlights include Cloud Climber, a large structure based on the water cycle; Spark!Lab Smithsonian, focused on invention; Da Vinci’s Corner, which combines art and science; a NASA research and design hub; and Energy, or Energia, a bilingual exhibit about renewable energy and career paths.

Saint Thomas Aquinas Cathedral

Saint Thomas Aquinas Cathedral, also called St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Reno and the seat of the bishop of Reno. The cathedral was built in 1908 to serve Reno’s growing Catholic population.

A fire in December 1909 caused extensive damage and brought down the ceiling, but the church was repaired and reopened the following year. The complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2022. Inside, the wraparound mural around the altar depicts the Adoration of the Lamb of God, Our Lord in the Blessed Eucharist. It was added during a renovation in the 1950s.

Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts

The Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts is easy to recognize thanks to its gleaming gold geodesic dome. Completed in 1967, the building was designed by the Oklahoma City firm of Bozalis, Dickinson and Roloff.

The dome consists of 500 aluminum panels over an inner steel frame, supported by reinforced concrete arches. The orchestra level is below ground, allowing the roof to come close to the ground at the corners. The theatre was originally intended to be called the Apollo Theater, but it took the name Pioneer from a 1939 statue of a pioneer family by Byron S. Johnson.

Lear Theatre

Overlooking the Truckee River, Lear Theatre occupies a former church built in 1939 in the Classical Revival style. It was originally the First Church of Christ, Scientist.

After the congregation sold the building in 1998, theatre patron Moya Lear donated 1.1 million dollars to the Reno-Sparks Theater Community Coalition. The coalition used the funds to purchase the former church and rename it Lear Theatre. The building appears on both the Nevada State Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places.

Reno’s Historic Churches

Reno’s churches reveal the city’s religious and architectural history. First United Methodist Church was founded in 1868 and was Reno’s first organized church. Its present building grew from plans made in 1925 and uses Gothic Revival themes. It is one of Reno’s first poured-concrete buildings and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Bethel AME Church was built in 1910 for early Black settlers and became an important religious and community center. It also supported Black people seeking divorces in a segregated city. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. The congregation later moved to Sparks in 1993.

Artists Co-op Gallery Reno

Artists Co-op Gallery Reno occupies a restored brick building dating from 1906. Originally a French laundry, the space became a nonprofit cooperative gallery in 1966 after local artists renovated it themselves.

Roughly 20 local artists share permanent wall space, displaying oil paintings, watercolors, pastels, pencil work, photography, and mixed media. Many works take inspiration from Northern Nevada and the Sierra. The gallery is the longest continuously operating cooperative gallery in Nevada.

Stremmel Gallery

Founded in 1969, Stremmel Gallery combines modern architecture with a changing program of contemporary art. Monthly exhibitions feature paintings, drawings, and sculptures by mid-career and established artists from the United States and Europe.

The program can range from minimalist abstraction to figurative work, with sculptural installations adding variety. The 6,500-square-foot building is part of the experience, while the rotating exhibitions mean that each visit presents a different selection.

Brüka Theatre

Brüka Theatre has been part of Reno’s live-performance scene since 1992 and is one of the main theatres in northern Nevada. Most productions take place on the Main Stage, while Sub-Brüka provides a venue for less traditional performances and special events.

The company also tours children’s theatre beyond its regular venues, including an adaptation of James Thurber’s Many Moons.

Reno’s Casinos and Railway Heritage

Casino culture remains an important part of Reno’s identity. Downtown landmarks include Circus Circus Reno, Silver Legacy Resort Casino, Eldorado Resort Casino, Harrah’s Reno, Club Cal Neva, and Sands Regency.

The city’s railway history is represented by Reno station, an Amtrak intercity station served by the California Zephyr. It also connects with Sacramento through Amtrak Thruway routes. Nearby entertainment options include Century Riverside 12 in the Riverwalk District, while the Men’s Club combines live performances, dining, and nightlife.

Explore Reno with Neywo

Download Neywo for a Reno self-guided walking tour and explore the city without a group or schedule. The free Reno audio guide includes 46 narrated places, with stories that play as you reach each location, at your own pace.

Neywo currently offers:

• 3 walking tours, including Culture on the Truckee: Domes, Cathedrals and a Gold DeLorean at 2.57 km and 88 minutes with 11 stops; Neon, Slots and Rails: The Biggest Little City at 2.1 km and 66 minutes with 9 stops; and Old Southwest: Mansions of Reno’s Founders at 2.28 km and 71 minutes with 9 stops.
• 1 bus route, covering 12.7 km in 54 minutes with 5 stops.
• 1 bike route, covering 1.5 km in 8 minutes with 5 stops.

The narration is available in 11 languages. Let Neywo tell the story of each place as you arrive, whether you are following a walking route, taking the bus, or cycling through Reno.