My sisters and I are spending 5 days in sedona for a spa, girl vacation for my sister's 40th...any restaurant recommendations, "must do's" none of of have been to Sedona and would appreciate any info.

Sedona's nice, Michelle, but I think I might go nuts for things to do during five days there. Have you considered Scottsdale, and maybe a day trip to Sedona? Personally, that would be my preference. Have a great time!

Happy Trails,
Paul

Hi Michelle
Sedona is great, although I agree with the above, I think 5 days is a bit too long. One of the "must do" is to take a pink jeep tour to the red rocks. It is a guided tour (the guide drives the jeep) to red rock, its is so beautiful and a lot of fun.
have a great time

I find Sedona very centralized. I might suggest a daytrip to the Grand Canyon. There is also Jerome not that far away or an afternoon trip on the Verde Canyon Railroad. Also there is Montezuma's Castle. And by all means a Pink Jeep tour or two.

Ginny has given some excellent advice.

There's plenty to take advantage of with Sedona as a base, and I second all her suggestions. Also, since this is a "spa" vacation, there's nothing wrong with relaxing a bit. It's not always necessary to run around every minute of every day.

Scottsdale/Phoenix is OK, and there are a few points of interest, but by and large, it's just a flat city, sort of like Dallas. You might want to spend a night there upon arrival or takeoff (assuming you're getting to Sedona via PHX). In that case, you could see Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesan West or the Heard Museum, but I wouldn't make a special day trip from Sedona for it.

Umm... Michelle... I'm noticing that nobody has mentioned any restaurant recommendations or "must do's" in Sedona other than the Pink Jeep Tours. The scenery is what draws people to Sedona I guess, not the restaurants or nightlife. Guess Sedona must be a "chick" kinda' thing with the shopping for folk art and trinket turquoise jewelry. I could recommend some terrific spots in Scottsdale!

Happy Trails,
Paul

I suppose if you are a party animal Phoenix and Scottsdale are right down your alley but the question was about Sedona. Sedona is a very beauiful nature area. Wonderful place to hike or take drives. Great for photographs too. We spent a week there and loved it. Like the food at Heartline Cafe BTW. The drive out Schnebly Hill road is breathtaking! The oak creek canyon area is also nice but not as spectaular as the rock formation areas such a Bell.
Be sure to go to the Chapel of the Holy Cross even if you are not religious to see the view from INSIDE the church...it might be enough to make you religious if you aren't already! Good expensive restuarant is L'auberge de Sedona.

Pink Jeep Tour - definitely - take the more exciting one. And lots of hiking - absolutely stunning scenery.

it's very much a relax and veg vacation..we will have spa stuff everyday and would also like to do some activity (hike, bike etc) each day...any recommendations on hikes? A good work out but not dying.

1) The Broken Arrow tour with Pink Jeep.
2) A biplane ride with the tour company at the airport. Try it! It's fun and a great way to see the red rocks.
3)Drive up Oak Creek canyon (towards the Grand Canyon) and buy from the Indian vendors next to the ice cream store.
4) Continue on to the Grand Canyon. You are too close not to go!
5) Spend a day relaxing as a spa day. We went to a day spa. I understand Enchanment is wonderful.
6) Lots of hikes in the area. Search the web for lots of resources.
7) The vortex tour with the red jeep company was kind of lame, but took us to fabulous scenery. It was worth it for that.
8) Drive up to the mountain town of Jerome. The hamburger place there is supposed to be fabulous.
I went on to Scottsdale for a business trip. I'm not sure I'd go back, but if you do...
9) Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West was the highlight of my trip. I went back for the second time in a week for the Friday night tour.
10) If you want to venture further, Meteor Crater is just amazing. If you do that, you might as well do the Petrified Forest. That would be a very long drive day, but both are memory-makers.
We did a "girl trip" to Sedona for three days, drove to the Grand Canyon, down to Meteor Crater and then the back way to Scottsdale. If you want to bond and relax, you can find plenty to do in Scottsdale for 5 days.

1) The Broken Arrow tour with Pink Jeep.
2) A biplane ride with the tour company at the airport. Try it! It's fun and a great way to see the red rocks.
3)Drive up Oak Creek canyon (towards the Grand Canyon) and buy from the Indian vendors next to the ice cream store.
4) Continue on to the Grand Canyon. You are too close not to go!
5) Spend a day relaxing as a spa day. We went to a day spa. I understand Enchanment is wonderful.
6) Lots of hikes in the area. Search the web for lots of resources.
7) The vortex tour with the red jeep company was kind of lame, but took us to fabulous scenery. It was worth it for that.
8) Drive up to the mountain town of Jerome. The hamburger place there is supposed to be fabulous.
I went on to Scottsdale for a business trip. I'm not sure I'd go back, but if you do...
9) Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West was the highlight of my trip. I went back for the second time in a week for the Friday night tour.
10) If you want to venture further, Meteor Crater is just amazing. If you do that, you might as well do the Petrified Forest. That would be a very long drive day, but both are memory-makers.
We did a "girl trip" to Sedona for three days, drove to the Grand Canyon, down to Meteor Crater and then the back way to Scottsdale. If you want to bond and relax, you can find plenty to do in Scottsdale for 5 days.

Oops, I meant plenty to do in SEDONA for 5 days. Our 3 days before we headed to the Grand Canyon and then on to Scottsdale via Meteor Crater was not enough time.

If this is a spa week, then Enchantment and Sedona are the perfect place. You can take day trips to the Grand Canyon, the meteor crater. Take a driving tour of Sedona (just ask the concierge desk for a map). Take a number of great hikes right on the Enchantment property, some to indian ruins and even a large cave in the rocks. Take the pink jeep tour to the indian ruins (great hike and informative, the tour will pick you up from Enchantment). See my review of Enchantment at http://www.epinions.com/content_26413010564

The spa is amazing. If you plan on doing things every day, I would recommend going to the spa at night. We thought that this would be the perfect end to the day and we plan on doing this when we visit Enchantment again in September. Check into the spa packages, you can get some great deals. Three of us are going for two nights, two treatments each and paying $245 per person. You can't beat that. See my review of the spa at http://www.epinions.com/content_41383923332

Restaurants. Enchantment's restaurants are great. Eat at the casual restaurant, but order off the nicer menu for a great meal with casual atmosphere. Red Planet is fun and good, the Coffee Pot is a must for breakfast and Oxaca in town had great mexican food.

Have a great time. Sedona is fantastic.

My wife and I were very disapointed last June when we stayed at this resort. Beautiful location, extremely overpriced.

Not worth the money except for maybe one night.

IMHO

Definitely do a Pink Jeep tour, they are fabulous. Our fvorite restaurants in Sedona are the two Shugrue's. One is sort of a BBQ place and the other has more continental fare with fabulous views. Both are yummy! Do see the church built into the side of a mountian.....it's worth a visit, religious or not! Lots of good places to shop for southwestern stuff and pottery. Enjoy your trip!

Suggestion for a nice restaurant in Sedona: Robert's Creekside Cafe. The entrees we had were really good but the Peach Cobbler a la mode was AWESOME!!! Save room for dessert... and you might want to make reservations during the weekend.

Add my vote for Robert's Creekside Cafe. Try to get a table in the back & you'll have a nice view of the red rocks while you dine on great food. Also recommend Dahl & Deluca for Italian and Javelina Cantina for Mexican.

The Pink Jeep's Broken Arrow tour was the highlight of our stay. A visit to Jerome is also fun. You can tour an abandoned mining area. But the road leading to it can be nervewracking if you're not comfortable with heights. The hamburger place referred to is the Haunted Hamburger. Certainly not "fabulous" but a cute place for a quick lunch with great views. And of course, there's always the Grand Canyon, which is only two hours away for a great day trip.

Go to Tlaquapaque (pronounced " ta-la-ka-pah-kee". It's a recreation of a Mexican village. It's gorgeous, has shops and restaurants, and you can spend an enjoyable few hours walking around there. (It's in Sedona).

Question about road to jerome. You say it is nerveracking getting there. I had called the chamber of commerce there to ask about that and they said it wasn't bad at all to get there. Are we talking extremely steep and windy roads and if so, how many miles of it? Thanks

Also would like to know about the route to sunset crater and wuaptki from Sedona - is this also a nervewracking drive with steep and winding roads that are dangerous? Looking for interesting things to do but not sure if we want to drive it if it's rough or out of the way.