Ely has no public transit. Almost everything inside downtown — the Hotel Nevada, the courthouse, the murals, the museums, the historic theatres — is within five blocks of the Aultman/Court intersection and easily walked. The railway museum in East Ely is about 1.5 miles east and most visitors drive, though it is walkable on a cool morning.
For everything outside town — Great Basin, Cave Lake, Ward Charcoal Ovens, the Robinson Mine — you need a car. Distances are large by anywhere-east-of-the-Mississippi standards. Fill the tank before driving out; gasoline between Ely and the next significant settlement in any direction is genuinely scarce.