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Resorts and spas abound in sleepy Scottsdale, Arizona
Resort-spas where you can unwind in 'West's Most Western Town'
Scottsdale, Arizona Hotels & Club Scene
Scottsdale, Arizona Pool Scene
Scottsdale, Ariz.
It's been a long time since cowboys parked their ponies on Main Street in what was once proudly marketed as the West's Most Western Town.
Today's Scottsdale is two P.F. Chang's, two California Pizza Kitchens and two Merrill Lynch offices.
It is art galleries and turquoise shops and boutiques and Beemer convertibles and monster shopping malls serving monster subdivisions hidden behind faux-adobe walls.
Fortunately, though you may have to look carefully, Scottsdale is still desert and the mountains -- or at least a short drive from desert and mountains.
To those who pine and whine over "the old Scottsdale," we offer this from Jennifer Franklin, an actual native Scottsdalean who represents the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess:
"My old Scottsdale is the view of the mountains and seeing them turn purple in the afternoon," she says. "I grew up with these mountains. They still turn purple in the afternoon ... "
The Scottsdale Convention and Visitors Bureau guide lists 71 hotels and resorts. We won't.
But among the 71 is a collection of resort-spas, often with a golf component, that's a concentration of the breed rivaled in this country only in and around Palm Springs, Calif. To provide just a real good hint of what Scottsdale has to offer, we bring you profiles of seven, some among America's premier resort properties and all with Scottsdale mailing addresses -- which knocked out The Boulders (Carefree) and Royal Palms (Phoenix) and a couple of other good ones. Sorry.
The seven are not listed in any meaningful order. This isn't a ranking. That's for magazines, guides and TripAdvisor.
A couple more points before we begin: The listed room rates, though accurate as can be, turn to fiction as occupancy loosens or tightens -- so do check the resorts' Web sites or call ahead; also, from mid-May (and sometimes earlier) until Labor Day (and sometimes later), when the weather here tends to get a little toasty, rates plummet, bringing luxury to within Best Western budgets. Packages (golf, spa, honeymoon, etc.), as well, can be attractive any season.
Finally, regarding our featured "favorite spa treatments": None was actually attempted in the making of this picture. We were just intrigued by the menu descriptions. You will be too.
Fairmont Scottsdale Princess
This large spread manages to be an astounding desert resort without screaming, "Aren't we an astounding desert resort?"
Take the spa, called Willow Stream. Remarkable. Inspired by the Grand Canyon and its Havasu Falls, cascades tumble down its multiple levels. "Just the power they have, in the middle of nowhere -- it's breathtaking," spa director Jill Eisenhut says of the originals. "We tried to depict that feeling." There's more. Briefly: If Troon North is heaven for serious golfers, Willow Stream Spa is no less for serious spa-sters. (Both those suppositions are, naturally, open to debate -- but not in this paragraph.) The resort's La Hacienda regularly appears with Chicago's Topolobampo at the top among upscale Mexican restaurants in the U.S. Just added: Bourbon Steak, from award-winning chef Michael Mina.
Kids? Here's a clue: Across from the adult check-in area is one for kids -- yes, for kids -- with a mini-staircase to ease communication with the desk clerk. The big people tell the little ones about such diversions as a covered sandbox, four-story water slides and catch-and-release fishing lagoon.
Bigger kids? The TPC Stadium club, one of two on-site 18-hole courses, is home to the FBR Open, renowned among PGA tour events for its unique tolerance for, um, fan participation (that is, noise).
Five pools. A "fragrance garden" (fragrance seasonal). There's a resident desert tortoise ... but explorers will find ungroomed desert "within five minutes of leaving the parking lot," notes a spokeswoman.
The rooms? Really, really nice.
Downside: It's a little away from the action. Minor.
Favorite spa treatment: Desert Moonlight Massage, $179.
7575 E. Princess Dr.; 800-344-4758; fairmont.com/Scottsdale. 651 rooms, including suites 25 suites and 125 casitas; rates from $459.
There's nothing wrong with this hotel other than it feels like it got lost on its way to downtown Phoenix. Or downtown Dallas. Or suburban Kansas City.
This is an 11-story, 732-room (plus suites, plus casitas) godzilla of a hotel in low-rise country that, try as it does (and it really tries), can't escape the sense it's a convention hotel with privileges, not the resuscitative "resort & spa" the name suggests.
Businesspeople who haul the spouse and kids along will make the family happy. The requisites are in place: pools, water slides, a "lazy river," Kids Club, Teen Lounge, spa. But.
The overwhelmingly marble lobby feels about as leisurely as the Sears Tower concourse. Yes, you can see golf though the lobby glass -- lots of bunkers glare menacingly on the finishing hole of the Acacia nine. But.
There's even a designated "director of fun": cannonball contests, watermelon-eating contests.
Of course, adjacent to the hotel is Kierland Commons: 70 "high-end" retailers, along with restaurants everyone comes to Scottsdale to enjoy: Morton's, the Cheesecake Factory, Tommy Bahama's Tropical Cafe and Emporium ...
The three nines of golf are here. Also here: air-conditioned golf carts. Explains a spokeswoman: "Keeps you cool on the back of the neck when you're dripping sweat."
 The shop stands alone a cobblestone street in a neighborhood that used to be way busier. |
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