Pampering -- and inner peace

VISITORS to Arizona’s high desert quickly exhaust their superlatives. Once they get beyond “stunning,” “awe-inspiring” and “the artwork of God,” many stumble trying to articulate how they feel amid the red cliffs and wind-sculpted rocks.

“There is a definite energy here,” says Steve Segner, who opened a 12-room inn here two years ago. “You just feel something’s different. When you’re looking up at 300-million-year-old cliffs, it puts things in perspective.”

Whether it’s the energy vortexes that psychics claim to have found here or just the overwhelming beauty of the place, Sedona has a powerful allure. It drew the 57-year-old Segner for good.

He sold his Los Angeles-based pet food company and his home in Pasadena and immersed himself in building one of Sedona’s distinctive new resorts. El Portal -- crafted of adobe, flagstone and salvaged bridge trestles -- is one of half a dozen such luxury retreats that have opened here in recent years, ranging in size from intimate to immense.

Two hours north of Phoenix and at an elevation of 4,300 feet, Sedona combines elements of the stark desert with the pines and deciduous trees of the Coconino National Forest. Greater Sedona is part artists’ colony, part sportsmen’s paradise and part New Age mecca. About 17,500 people live here; 3 million more visit each year.

So although no one can say Sedona has been newly discovered, it has continued to boom even as hotel development has slowed in other parts of the U.S. The growth reflects the town’s growing prominence and the lasting success of venerable retreats such as Enchantment and L’Auberge de Sedona.

Newcomers include Adobe Grand Villas, a boutique inn with custom-designed suites, and significantly larger accommodations such as Amara Creekside Resort and Sedona Rouge Hotel & Spa. Even the giants, Hyatt and Hilton, have entered a market founded on magnificent desert vistas.

New properties emulate the old standards but sometimes with a twist. El Portal, for example, next door to the opulent Los Abrigados Resort & Spa, treats visitors as “house guests” -- they pre-register by phone or Web, so there’s no formal check-in; snacks are dispensed from a common refrigerator on the honor system; and on checkout day, they find the paperwork at their door.

Rooms feature kivas (adobe fireplaces), walls 20 inches thick and other custom touches. In the evening, quiet soirees unfold in a grass courtyard lighted by quaint strings of electric bulbs.

At the year-old Adobe Grand Villas, the rooms are over-the-top customized, with waterfall showers, whirlpool tubs and living room and bathroom fireplaces. Guests arrive to the aroma of baking bread, a nicety fostered by bread machines in every room. One suite is designed to evoke a French country inn; others have western themes. In one, the bed is a covered wagon, and an iron pump fills the tub.

Villas guest Jeff Heimpel of Kitchener, Canada, brought his mother, Norah, for a weeklong visit. They were staying in the rustic, two-bedroom Silver Spur Suite and regretted only that they couldn’t sample all the themed environments.

Altogether, there are 16 squarish units, stacked irregularly around the swimming pool, with the feel of an upscale adobe village. Breakfast is served poolside. Afterward, those who seek special pampering are ushered into the spa for therapies that may include deep-tissue massage, reiki, reflexology or work with crystals or hot stones.

In Sedona’s coveted uptown area, Amara Creekside Resort is trading on its almost incomparable views. It faces craggy cliffs that feature two of Sedona’s most identifiable formations -- Lucy Rock and Snoopy Rock -- which evoke surprisingly vivid silhouettes of the Peanuts characters.

The 100-room resort was built two years ago on the tree-shrouded banks of Oak Creek, adjacent to L’Auberge de Sedona. Unlike that French-styled neighbor, Amara has a modernistic feel that bows slightly toward New Age. The design incorporates the elements of water, earth, wind and fire.

Earth is represented by a Zen garden in the lobby. Stylized, wind-propelled sculptures move languidly on the lawns above the creek. At night, guests dine and drink around a bonfire on the patio. And finally, there’s a saltwater swimming pool.

“Saltwater is excellent at removing toxins from the body,” explains Lisa Rocha, marketing director. “And it’s good for the skin.”

Aesthetics are paramount at Amara. Interior walls exhibit art from seven local galleries. Guests pass through a jumbo picture frame to enter the bar and restaurant, where other paintings and sculptures are available for sale.

Sedona Rouge, a few miles west, emphasizes the enticements of its spa. Built near the imposing flanks of Thunder Mountain, the 77-room resort opened just five months ago. Its contemporary -- some might say spartan -- look is accented with hints of antiquity; huge olive-oil vessels stand near the pool, hot tub and fire pit.

Sedona Rouge caters to stressed-out executives and others trying to escape the lower deserts. “What we’re finding is that the Phoenix people are coming here to get out of the heat,” spa director Toni Nurnberg says. “It’s 10 degrees cooler in Sedona.”

The drawback to the higher altitude is that it steals moisture from the skin. The spa at Sedona Rouge has countered by replacing the standard salt in its body wraps with white or brown sugar, which is less drying, Nurnberg says. One of the spa’s exfoliating treatments involves a custom sugar and honey blend, followed by a foaming bath of coconut milk.

Sedona is about more than getting scrubbed and massaged, however. The many family-oriented activities, including Jeep tours and day trips to the Grand Canyon, influenced the creation of Hyatt Pinon Pointe, a resort that commands an impressive promontory above Arizona 89A, Sedona’s main highway. Hyatt has opened 75 units so far, along with a gallery of shops and eateries, a health club, and a large trapezoidal pool that feeds a 15-foot rock waterfall. A second phase, with 34 more units, is due next summer, says Chuck Wimmer, marketing director.

Unlike other resort operators, however, Hyatt also sells its units as “vacation club” condominiums, which function as time shares. Short-term visitors can rent units from $150 to $350 a night. Buyers can purchase one week per year in perpetuity for $10,000 to $30,000, depending on the view and the season. Days can be exchanged for time at other Hyatt properties, including hotels and 11 other vacation club resorts, Wimmer says.

“By far, this is the fastest-growing segment of the entire hotel industry,” he says.

Hilton’s investment here, the Hilton Sedona Resort & Spa, takes the form of a more traditional hotel -- a stately, 219-room edifice in the Village of Oak Creek, just south of Sedona proper. It stands adjacent to the Sedona Golf Resort, and boasts many facilities of its own, including tennis courts, a sand volleyball court, saunas, steam rooms and an Olympic-size lap pool.

Although the resort opened seven years ago, Hilton recently spent $3.5 million on renovations, sales manager Sandy Rankin says. The spa was overhauled, as was the Grille at ShadowRock, a Tuscan-looking restaurant that features a nightly bonfire and entrees such as broiled elk chops with prickly pear with cascabel chile glaze.

“We’re trying to move toward a four-diamond” status, Rankin says.

Views from some rooms look out on the imposing vertical lines of Bell Rock, one of Sedona’s purported vortexes.

“We joke about it,” Rankin says. “If we’re having a bad day, we say, ‘We’re on the wrong side of the vortex.’ ”

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Harmonic convergence

GETTING THERE

From Southern California airports, America West, Southwest and United offer nonstop flights to Phoenix. Restricted, round-trip fares begin at $98. America West also has connecting service to Flagstaff. Fares from $158.

Driving from Phoenix, it is 116 miles to Sedona on Interstate 17 north. Flagstaff is 30 miles from Sedona via Arizona 89A. From Los Angeles, it is about 480 miles to Sedona.

WHERE TO STAY

Adobe Grand Villas, 35 Hozoni Drive, Sedona; (866) 900-7616, www.adobegrandvillas.com. Weekday introductory rates from $379; weekend rates from $399.

Amara Creekside Resort, 310 N. Highway 89A, Sedona; (866) 455-6610 or (928) 282-4828, www.amararesort.com. Weekday non-holiday rates from $139; weekend from $159.

El Portal, 95 Portal Lane, Sedona; (800) 313-0017, www.elportalsedona.com. From $225; weekends and holidays may require two-day stay.

Hilton Sedona Resort & Spa, 90 Ridge Trail Drive, Sedona; (877) 273-3762 or (928) 284-4040, www.hiltonsedona.com. Weekday rates from $149; weekend from $179.

Hyatt Pinon Pointe, 1 N. Highway 89A, Sedona; (928) 204-8820, www.hyatt.com. Vacation rentals, $150-$350 per night. One-week time-shares from $10,000.

Sedona Rouge Hotel & Spa, 2250 W. Highway 89A, Sedona; (866) 312-4111 or (928) 203-4111, www.sedonarouge.com. Weekdays from $169; weekends from $199.

-- David Ferrell