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HAVING THE HOTS FOR PHOENIX As summer approaches we can expect the usual
influx of Zonies coming here because they find San Diego a cool
place -- literally. But while Phoenix visitors are moving into our
hotels (at high season prices) we can have the advantage on them:
checking into theirs for summer special deals. Already the Hell
of what their publicists call "the warm weather" has dropped
hotel rates in the Valley of the Sun and made it easier than ever
to get into the attractions. like the Desert Botanical Garden founded
in 1937 and well worth a visit as is the Heard Museum for those
interested in the art and culture of Native Americans. |
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The Heard has an excellent gift shop. For other shopping, check out a little mall, the Borgota, just north of McDonald Road on Scottsdale Road, supposedly designed to represent an Italian village. |
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Other attractions include desert jeep rides, spa treatments and the Art Walk every Thursday evening in Scottsdale. Restaurants vary from the Robert Del Grande upscale self-service Cafe Express at 2525 E. Camelback Road to the beautiful Windows on the Green at the Phoenician which brings new heights to the concept of a golf club restaurant. The Greater Phoenix area has a plethora of restaurants of all prices and the best ones are actually in the major resorts. The resorts have had the "beautiful people" all winter to fatten their budgets. That helps them reduce their prices in summer, bargain months when hotel rates can drop in half. Sure it's hot but summer visitors find more than 180 golf courses ready to welcome them -- and countless luxury resorts. Resort living is, indeed, the very essence of the Phoenix vacation. With rare exceptions the museums and attractions are hardly distinguished enough to justify dragging all over a city that during commuter traffic feels like driving in LA. Greater Phoenix has, in fact, just passed our San Diego as the sixth largest city in USA -- and it shows. If you're going to drive all over town you'll have miles to go before you sleep. So where are those great places to put your head on a pillow? Here are four in widely different locations. |
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The Wigwam, Litchfield Park (800 327 0396) was built in 1918 as a luxury escape for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company executives. It opened to the public in 1929. Now expanded to almost 500 acres, it offers three 18-hole golf courses, two designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. one of which has been named the top resort course in Arizona by Golf Digest. |
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It also features a John Jacobs' golf school and cuisine directed by Jon Hill who was Ronald Reagan's chef at the White House. Of all the top quality resorts in the Greater Phoenix area, the Wigwam is the one with a true Western feel.
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