Tucson or Sedona over Thanksgiving?
 

I just can't decide! Should it be Enchantment Resort in Sedona or Loews Ventana in Tucson. It's our first anniversary trip and typically love beach vacations..we even got married on a beach. Anyway, had to cancel Mexico plans due to the hurricane and am now trying to decide which part of Arizona to visit. I have been to Tucson..but not managed to see much around Tucson and have also heard Sedona is gorgeous. We are looking forward to some basic hiking...lots of relaxation, good food and something different... :)
Would appreciate any advice folks may have!
Thanks. P.S. We probably have only 3-4 days.

If you have never been to Sedona,I would say go there. The Sedona area (not the town) is one of the most beautiful areas I have ever seen. If you have not been to the Grand Canyon yet, it is close enough for a day trip from Sedona.

I live in Tucson, and Tucson also would be a nice spot, but Sedona is magical. We have gone to Sedona a number of times for a quick anniversary getaway.

Thanks. Couple of quick questions...how far is Sedona from Tucson and do you think it will be very cold during Thanksgiving...am assuming we wont be able to use the pool.
You've almost got me convinced to go to Sedona...however, have someone we would like to see in Tucson and have heard rave reviews about the desert museum...

Sedon is about a 4 hour drive from Tucson, maybe a bit more, depending on Phoenix traffic.

Sedona will be quite a bit cooler than Tucson. In Tucson, and I am talking "averages" here, you can figure daytime temps around 70 and nighttime around 45. Here is a website that shows the averages and the record highs and lows:

http://www.wunderground.com/NORMS/Di...e&IATA=TUS

If that is too much to copy and paste, just go to www.wunderground.com

If you do come to Tucson, the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum is a "must-see":

http://www.desertmuseum.org/

Another thing I would consdier a "must see" is Kartchner Caverns:

http://www.pr.state.az.us/Parks/parkhtml/kartchner.html

There are many areas to go hiking, from easy to difficult, and a lot more things to do around Tucson, such as Old Tucson, Tombstone, Bisbee, Tubac, Sabino Canyon, Mt Lemmon, and more. If you want more web sites, send me an email and I will give them to you. It seems on Fodor's you can't add "clickable" links. Either that, or I am just not savvy enough to figure out how to do it.

Thanks so much MikePinTucson! I am so confused...almost wish my husband or someone else would make the decision :). Guess if we had more time off I could do both....
Well, hope to decide tonight...will let you know. Thanks again for the links..

The weather in Sedona will definitely be cooler, the November average is 64F for high and 36F for low.

We always go to my parent's house in the Phoenix area for Thanksgiving. About five years ago (I think) we drove up to see friends that live in Williams (east of Flagstaff) the day after Thanksgiving. There had been quite a lot of snow already that year. On the way back to Phoenix, we did the cut off onto Highway 89 to go to Sedona. As we were driving through Oak Creek Canyon, it began to lightly snow. By the time we got into town a dusting of snow was covering the red rocks. I was raised in Arizona but had never seen the snow in Sedona. It was absolutely one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.

Anyway, I think it is rare that they get snow in Sedona at Thanksgiving but no matter what the weather it's amazing there. My dream is to round up all the family down in the Phoenix area, rent a big house in Sedona for Thanksgiving and have our holiday there. There is usually about 12 or us. My Mom had knee surgery this year so it didn't work out-maybe next year.

I know you will have a great time in either Tucson or Sedona and will enjoy your Thanksgiving vacation in Arizona.

I spent last Thanksgiving week in Sedona, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Pleasantly warm (with a jacket) during the day, and jacuzzi-perfect at night.

PS - I am the only one on this board who is not absolutely infatuated with Enchantment Resort. I think you could do the same trip with a much less costly lodging option and use the saved $ for gourmet meals and other luxuries.

I hope you have a fantastic first!

Thank you Paula1470, wsoxrebel and Mike...you guys have helped convince me! Sedona it is. The desert musuem and Katchner caverns will have to wait..
wsoxrebel...any suggestions on places to eat and alternate places to stay?

Good choice, Sedona is a very romantic place.

We have always stayed at B&B's. We think they are just cozier than resorts. I would have to look up which ones we stayed at, but I remember the first one had a bottle of champagne waiting in our room when we checked in for an anniversary visit. But B&B's are a personal preference, as we are not into spa treatments and such.

Shugrue's Hillside is a nice place to eat. Go early and view the sunset.

In Town, the Cowboy Club has good food, and the specialize in buffalo steaks (you can also get rattlesnake). I know others have posted on some good places to eat also. We went out to a steakhouse (can't remember the name), on the west side of Sedona, had a good steak then went into the bar and did some country/western dancing.

Here is a good website for exploring Sedona:

http://www.gatewaytosedona.com/

We went to Sedona and I don't think you will regret it. We don't like the hype of the mega-resorts, nor the hubbub of the tourist town so we stayed at Sky Ranch Lodge, this is on a mesa above the town before the small airport.

It has beautifully landscaped grounds, a pool and a spa. Several rooms overlook the town and the red rocks on the other side of the canyon. We had one with a gas fireplace and a small 'efficiency', so that if we didn't feel like going out for breakfast we could make coffee and eat fruit and pastries we had brought in.

There are also 2 cottages with views.

I haven't checked, but I would imagine a google would turn up a web site.

Have a great visit.

My experience has been with an RCI condo and the Hilton resort. Both were great. It seems like there are many options, though.

I don't really like the middle-touristy section of town so I would advise picking a section either by the Hilton and golf course or by the Enchanctment and hospital.

Regardless, I'll be jealous of your time there!

wsoxrebel, you are NOT the only one. I have stayed at Enchantment more than once and I don't like it at all either. Many much more friendly places to stay, some just as nice for alot less $$$$.

So mvs1, I've been watching your thread but not participating since I know nuttin' from nuttin' about Tucson. But ask away about Sedona. Posters here have raved about Amara resort also.

Look into Cucina Rustica or Dahl and Deluca for dinners. I second Shugrue's Hillside.

OK -- I found the B&B we really liked on our first visit. It was the Canyon Villa. But that was several years ago, and I'm not sure if the same people run it. But we really enjoyed it. You can find it in the B&B section of the Gateway to Sedona web site.

For a very nice place in a great location with romantic atmosphere, we loved L'Auberge de Sedona.

My sister and her husband really liked Casa Sedona.

Have a great trip!

msv1 - You will love Sedona-good choice. Mike-I just checked out the website for Canyon Villa and also their reviews on tripadvisor. It looks amazing and doesn't seem like it has the B&B feeling as much as it does an intimate hotel. msv1-I would definitely check Canyon Villa out. Now I really, really want to go to Sedona.

BTW, in my original post I said Williams was east of Flagstaff, actually I DO know that it's west of Flagstaff, just made a typo.

Wow, I just checked the TA reviews for the two places I recommended.

I can't believe the poor comments on L'Auberge. I wonder if there has been a management change or something. We were there about 3 years ago and it was great. Our cottages were really special and well-appointed, and the service was excellent.

Anyway, you will have a wonderful time in Sedona. It is gorgeous.

Have fun!

Fairhope on this forum just got back from staying at Canyon Villa w/his wife for their 30th anniversary. He wrote a trip report w/comments on Canyon Villa and just posted it a few days ago. Put Fairhope in the search box and it comes up as #1- Sedona and GC trip report.

Others have made disparaging remarks on this forum recently about L'Auberge, both on it being pretentious and not the service people used to rave about.

Alot of people do like Enchantment and rave about it. While I am not a fan, it does have an amazing location, right in Boynton Canyon. You can hike right there on site in the Canyon, or there are other hiking trails right there off Dry Creek Road - personally I think it is some of the best hiking in Sedona in that area. The casitas are nice at Enchantment, they have fireplaces. It is more the elitist attitude that turned me off, both in the dining room and the spa. Once i had taken a big client and her husband to Enchantment - I worked w/the client during the day and took them both out to the Yavapai dining room that night. There was hardly anyone dining. I had very nice designer black jeans on and a nice jacket and nice boots. They would not let me in. And I was staying at the hotel w/two $495 casitas booked. ANd there was hardly anyone there, and I looked very nice. This place is in the middle of a canyon, and they won't let me eat w/black DKNY jeans on and my client standing there. And her husband had black jeans on, but they didn't care about him for some reason, and they didn't get the irony when we pointed out to them that he also had black jeans on! They said his "didn't look like jeans." Please, mine looked better than his! The spa takes itself way too seriously IMO. But others rave about it. You might be one of those who ends up loving it and not having any problems at all.

Look up Amara resort. I have heard very good things about it on here and from friends who have gone there.

I have heard from friends who stayed there that Amara has a nice spa too - not huge but more intimate w/a nice relaxing attitude, and it is not so heavy on the "new age" aspect like Enchantment's spa. If you just want a normal massage you can get one without having your third eye opened...

Time for a reality check. Notwithstanding the number of Sedonaphiles on this board, and the responses I will get, let me offer another view. Sedona is now, I can't speak to what is was in the past, a glorified tourist trap. The town itself is t-shirt shops and knick-knack souvenir stands. There are excellent hiking opportunities available, but you also have to endure the new-age babble about vortexes and spirits.

For lodging, I have stayed at Enchantment and L-Auberge and much prefer the former. L'Auberge is much too impressed with itself. Dinner there is very overrated; it would be a one-star restaurant in any major city in the U.S., but at five star prices.

Tuscon has much more to offer, both culturally and aesthetically. The hiking is just as good. The dining choices are better and more varied and, you do not have to drive several hours, possibly in bad weather to get there.

Hey, come on, now, TBurke99. At least learn how to SPELL TUCson.

I live in TUCson, and I did give some suggestions for mvs1 if she decided to come here. She / they decided on Sedona, which I think is also a great choice. But I don't know why you keep trying to define Sedona as just the town and put it down as if that is all there is to Sedona (Oh, right, you DID actually mention there is some good hiking) Many of us have posted that the town is really nothing but shops. It is the absolute beauty of the surrounding area that is the draw (unless you are a new age vortex junkie, that is).

Oh, and seeing as how it is their FIRST anniversary, and only for 3-4 days, they might not be spending all that much time wandering around. They can save Tucson, where they would want a couple of weeks, for their next anniversary.

tburke99-I looked at your old posts and saw that you went to Sedona for the first time and didn't enjoy your trip. I am sorry that Sedona didn't turn out to be what you thought but people on this forum don't make a secret that it has its touristy areas.

Most people on this forum are seasoned travelers and know to stay away from the tourist shops, etc. And I have been to Sedona many times and never felt like I had to get involved in the new age babble you talk about.

There are plenty of places to stay in Sedona that aren't in town and unless you want to eat at one of the restaurants there you don't need to see all the tourists. You can go hiking, relax at your hotel and just enjoy the beauty as Mike said.

I also like Tucson and agree there is a alot to do there but Sedona is much more romantic.

I don't think anyone needs to try to disavow tburke of his views on Sedona. I was one of the ones who answered one of his first posts when he was taking his former-girlfriend there and wanted info. When he got back and first posted about how much he didn't like it, I was surprised too, and wondered (and even posted) asking if he had looked around outside while he was there. But he just doesn't like it and had a bad experience there. I'm not sure what tburke was expecting, but it didn't meet his expectations.

The OP will read all the posts and what everyone says overall and weigh it and decide.

We visited Sedona in Feb. 2004 and stayed at the Enchantment Resort. The setting of the resort is spectacular--right in Boynton Canyon. We stayed in a studio casita--living area with Murphy bed, fireplace, sitting area, very well eqipped kitchen and dining area, large bathroom with granite countertops, large patio with built in grill. The drive out Dry Creek Rd is spectacular--the sunset we saw while driving this road was beautiful.

We enjoyed eating at the casual restaurant onsite--during the day we could eat on the patio surrounded by the canyon. We also enjoyed eating at Dahl and DeLucas and Roberts Creekside Cafe (great peach cobbler.

We loved hiking there ---great views from Brins Mesa and Doe Mountain. If you enjoy hiking, I would think you would love visiting Sedona. It was a wonderful change of scenery vacation for us since we had never travelled to Red Rock country.

We ended up spending an extra 2 nights in Sedona when a snowstorm blocked the roads to the Grand Canyon so we did a lot more hiking than we planned--lots of area hikes are listed on www.hikearizona.com.

We have not visited Tucson but must say we enjoyed Sedona and the Enchantment. We only went into town to join the jeep tour. People rave about the jeep tour but since we had hiked so much, we weren't as awed by the experience as the couple with us who had only driven around the area. Hiking alone with my husband in the spectacular canyons was a great experience.

We found the Enchantment Resort to be an extremely romantic spot and found the staff to be helpful and friendly.

The whole town was excited about the snowstorm--they hadn't had a "good" storm in 2 years--we were less than excited--nothing like cacti covered in snow.

Some really great suggestions for places to stay...just as I get things figured out..more choices pop up :)
I am really looking forward Sedona. Have the flights booked..now just the B&B/hotel/ resort and car reservations await...
Thank you all! You've been most helpful!

I'm with tburke99 - Sedona is overrated. The area is gorgeous but it just doesn't do a lot for me.

Are you following the current thread on the single woman going to Sedona? Good advice on that thread re how you need to give yourself a l-o-n-g time to drive from Sedona back to Phoenix and return the rent car before you catch your plane.

MikePinTucson,

Sorry for mis-spelling the name of your fine city. I guess I rely too heavily on spell-check.

I hope you were not as offended as your post seems to indicate.

Oh, no, not offended at all. Happens all the time, probably because the airport code for Tucson is TUS (and not TUC). I guess I should have put a smiley face after my comment so you would know it was just tongue in cheek. Sorry you thought I was offended.

tburke, I have been wondering something. If you didn't like Sedona the time you went and stayed at Enchantment, how come you went back the second time when you stayed at L'Auberge? Were you giving it a second try to see if it was better? Or did the girlfriend want to go? I just wonder why you would go back when it was not to your liking. I went to Vegas once and just really didn't like it ( I know, everyone else seems to like it) but I just haven't gone back....

ttt

I wanted to give it a second chance. The first trip was business (not bad as business trips go) and I had read (and otherwise heard so much) about Sedona, I thought it was worth trying again.

I agree with you about Vegas, though I've come to be able to tolerate it. (I've almost convinced myself to try Sedona again.)

I am starting to understand why you really disliked the trip at L'Auberge...If you do go back, I have a suggestion. You might try staying up in Oak Creek Canyon, about 15 min. up 89A in the canyon at Junipine (but not in summer as there is no AC in the "creekhouses", which are nicely furnished townhome type places w/huge stone fireplaces, some w/hot tubs under the most incredible stars because there is almost no ambient light up in Oak Creek canyon). Oak Creek is stocked w/trout in spring and runs right through Junipine resort. You can drop your line in w/a piece of corn on it and catch many trout and use the kitchen in the unit to cook it. I have a feeling that staying outside Sedona and just going in to hike or go to a spa or a nice dinner reservation might be a better approach for you rather than being subjected to the things you don't like about the town, which I understand to be he tourists and the tacky shops (which are mostly clustered right in uptown area- I totally avoid that area). When you stayed at L'Auberge you placed yourself right in the middle of the heaviest tourist area, plus Auberge can be pretentious. I think that might be why you liked Enchantment better and had a better experience there - it is further out and away from the tourist area. The atmpsohere at Junipine is much more relaxed and quiet. And there are some hiking trails right there in the canyon- one is a switchback trail that starts right on Junipine's property, and one is West Fork, famous and very good trail that crosses Oak Creek (althought it is not deep, you can rick hop it usually) several times- there are sheer rock walls on both sides of you at the end of the hike, just beautiful. And the drive down into Sedona from Junipine is just lovely as you come down from the canyon to the red rocks (and just look straight ahead and drive right on through uptown Sedona to get where you are going to hike or dinner or whatever.)
I never stay anywhere near uptown Sedona. Much prefer either the Village of Oak Creek if I am on a budget, or Junipine up in the canyon, or way out in West Sedona if we are renting a house for a week. I can't stand uptown either.

Oh, and from Junipine it is a hop yo the canyon and 89A to Flagstaff, where you can visit Lowell Observatory where Pluto was discovered. They open some of their biggest telescopes to the public at night once a month, which is a very cool thing to do. And Flag has the San Fransisco mountains.

I got married last year in Sedona and it is absolutely gorgeous. It is surrounded by beautiful red rock mountains and Oak Creek Canyon is awesome (although I hate driving down that road!).

It's hard to compare Tucson and Sedona because they are completely different. Sedona is sort of artsy fartsy and it will be busy that time of year. If I remember correctly, October is the start of their high season. It will be crowded.

Depending on how long you plan to go, you can rent a car and drive to Flastaff (about 30 minutes away on the Oak Creek Canyon road or one hour by I 17) and then to the Grand Canyon which is another 1-1.5 hours from Flag.

We got married at The El Portal in Sedona. The food is fantastic, it has a beautiful courtyard and each room is a different theme. The woman who runs it can be a bit abrasive and pushy, but she runs a tight ship.

emd - can't find the report you mentioned about driving from Phoenix to Sedona. Thanks.

EMD - Found the thread and all those driving stories are quite freaky!!! Gosh...it sounds like I'll be lucky to reach the airport and even luckier if I catch my flight. Thanks for the tip off!
And for others - we decided to go all out and go to Enchantment... the only thing we are a bit wary of is the "formal" dining at one of the restaurants...we are "blue jeans" people and typically don't carry formals including Khakhi pants with us on vacation. Anyway, based on all the feedback sounds like I have many options beyond the resort so wont have to eat there each day.