Stay
Arizona Biltmore
Wright-inspired blocks, eight pools, and a lobby bar that's been eavesdropped on since 1929.
Biltmore
$$$Indoor + out
Resorts, boutique hotels, staycations, day passes
Stay
You don't have to leave the county to leave your life. Day passes, cabana rates, and rooms worth the drive across town.
September is the turn — mornings and nights are workable, afternoons still aren't. Plan around 7am and 7pm.
Stay
Hotel Valley Ho day pass
1956 Rat Pack modernism with a pool day pass — a resort day without the room rate.
Old Town Scottsdale
$$Outdoors
Stay
The Global Ambassador
Sam Fox's maximalist hotel — five restaurants, a rooftop, and the valet line as theater.
Arcadia
$$$Indoors
Stay
Royal Palms Resort & Spa
Mediterranean courtyards at the base of Camelback. The anniversary default for a reason.
Arcadia
$$$Indoor + out
Stay
Mountain Shadows
Midcentury lines, a short course you can walk in sandals, and the best Camelback view in a lounger.
Paradise Valley
$$$Outdoors
Stay
The Clarendon rooftop
Skyline deck, small pool, and the most affordable good view in central Phoenix.
Midtown
$$Outdoors
Stay
Castle Hot Springs
An hour of dirt road, then geothermal springs and no cell service. The reset button.
Morristown
$$$Outdoors
Stay
The Boulders Resort
Twelve-million-year-old granite piles, casitas tucked between them, and desert quiet.
Carefree
$$$Outdoors
Stay
Rise Uptown
A reborn motor lodge with a Don Woods pool bar and the best hotel patio in Uptown.
Uptown Phoenix
$$Indoor + out