Stay
Arizona Biltmore
Wright-inspired blocks, eight pools, and a lobby bar that's been eavesdropped on since 1929.
Biltmore
$$$Indoor + out
Staycation
Day passes, resort pools, and a check-in twenty minutes from your house.
September · The Turn
September is the turn — mornings and nights are workable, afternoons still aren't. Plan around 7am and 7pm.
Stay
Hotel Valley Ho day pass
1956 Rat Pack modernism with a pool day pass — a resort day without the room rate.
Old Town Scottsdale
$$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
$$Indoor + out
Escape
Sedona red rocks
Two hours and a different planet. Go on a weekday or leave Phoenix before 7am.
Sedona
$$Outdoors
Eat
Bacanora
Sonoran mesquite grill in a tiny courtyard. Go early, the line is real.
Grand Ave
$$Outdoors
Eat
Kai
Arizona's only Forbes Five-Star dining room. Indigenous ingredients, ceremonial pacing.
Chandler
$$$Indoors