People traveling to Scottsdale are going for a resort vacation. Nobody goes for any other reason.
The resort may be large or small, but count on it being expensive, exclusive and impressive. They don’t make any other flavor in Scottsdale, the Beverly Hills/Highland Park/Nob Hill of Phoenix.
During a three-day tour of Scottsdale resorts this summer, I saw more pretty people than in my last look through Town & Country magazine.
They come to a resort in Scottsdale because this patch of the Sonoran Desert offers the saguaro scenery and throngs of art galleries that their golf clubs and health studios at home don’t have.
The refined community of 130,000 combines with Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa to form what’s commercially called the Valley of the Sun. Scottsdale does have an astonishing array of contemporary shopping enclaves and dealerships for Jaguars and Aston Martins, but it has a quaint side in Old Town, with Western-themed storefronts, horse-drawn carriages, art galleries, cappuccino bars and turquoise jewelry boutiques.
The resorts of Scottsdale have moved beyond the stereotype, offering more than the standard week of pampering. Today’s resort is fitness conscious, and all offer various programs to send guests away with a new, improved lifestyle.
First on the tour is the estatelike Phoenician, where a guard at the gatehouse checks off visitors’ names from a list. Down a hedge-lined drive is the resort, a grand work of post-modern architecture the color of cream. Past the giant trickling lobby fountain is a balcony, looking straight at Camelback Mountain. In early afternoon, the lobby salon is already set for tea.
Outside, the tiered pool spreads in every direction, and there’s a swirling slide that winds up in its own pool. Sun worshipers have little flags on their chaises, to be raised when they need another drink, towel or bite to eat.
Near the emerald golf course, we come to the Centre for Well-Being, consisting first of a cavernous room filled with shiny new Cybex weight, stair and cycling machines. An adjacent glassed-in exercise room, with a blond-wood dance floor, catches lots of light.
Three women standing outside the Centre in plush terry robes are smoking cigarettes, and another woman, looking at the snack bar’s selection of waters and juices, complains about the lack of coffee. Someone tactfully tells her that the idea here is to consume “healthful” liquids.
Perhaps all of them need a bit more of the Centre’s OJA (pronounced “Oh-shh”) Balancing Therapy, said to harmonize inner energies. Or, there’s the Shirodhara Therapy, a face and scalp massage with oils and pastes said to help clear the mind.
All three Phoenician restaurants offer spa cuisine choices, so newly healthy guests are able to dine well in even the fanciest room.
Nearby at the Camelback Inn, a Marriott resort at the foot of Mummy Mountain, the mood is informal. Kids seem to be everywhere, having a whale of a time.
The Camelback’s low-lying haciendas are carefully spread out to look more like condos than an inn. Many, in fact, have kitchens, fireplaces and private swimming pools, and a walk away are a 36-hole golf course, 10 tennis courts and five restaurants.
A big draw is the Spa at Camelback Inn. During a Saturday morning visit, the center was crowded with men and women, most of whom looked to be between 35 and 65. The receptionist said the center was filled to capacity, with guests in for 15 different exercise classes, physical therapy, weight training, massage therapies and body and skin treatments.
In the exercise room, a wiry 30ish woman took our roomful of people through the 11 a.m. yoga class, stressing benefits of stretching and strengthening. She was careful to explain various positions and helped class members who needed a little correcting.
This class was followed just after noon by an aerobox class, combining aerobics and boxing with heavy bag punching, rope jumping, shadow boxing and stomach strengthening exercises. Another informative young woman helped novices through this very intense workout.
Such strenuous labor should be rewarded, perhaps with an aromatherapy massage of herbs and essential oils. Or maybe the Deluxe Bindi Herbal Body Treatment-a hydrotherapy treatment that promised inner peace, rejuvenation, happiness and health. But, alas, all services were completely booked.
Ah, well. The Turkish steam bath, spiked with eucalyptus oil, was refreshing, especially when followed by hot and cold pool plunges. Then there was a cool salad and mineral water at the cafe Sprouts, where most guests dine in terry robes and workout wear.
A few minutes north, the Scottsdale Princess resembles a Mexican Colonial palace. It cheerfully offers a spirited mood, as though a celebrity were about to arrive.
The sprawling, fountain-laden plaza around which all activity swirls is made of a bronze-colored brick, a shade thoughtfully chosen, a staffer says, to match rocks at the base of McDowell Mountain.
Princess guests in casitas and villas are linked to the main plaza by walkways and bridges crossing the little streams framing the golf course, home to the PGA Phoenix Open. There’s another golf course, as well as nine tennis courts, including a 10,000-seat Stadium Court. There are three pools, banked in marine and dark blue tiles, plus a milelong fitness trail.
