Got the flights booked for a three night surprise visit in October. I Don't have a place to stay yet. Any Ideas? Was looking at Firesky.

It's our 5 year wedding anniversary, and her 30th birthday. Looking at an above average place with resort feel.

So far:
-Horseback riding
-spa for us or her
-Citizen Public House for a Meal
-Hot air balloon?

Never been, so any input is appreciated. Thanks!

I highly recommend the tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright house, Taliesin West. We did the sunset tour and thoroughly enjoyed it. The house is really neat and the grounds are lovely.

Thanks on the FLW rec. That was also on the list... just haven't committed. His studio/home in Oak Park, Chicago is a must too on an unrelated/related note.

Royal Palms is where you want to stay.

I enjoyed staying at The Boulders

I went to Citizen Public House back in June. Awesome place. Scottsdale is very nice.

We go to Scottsdale every year for two weeks. We have a timeshare at the Four Seasons. Been going for the last 15 years.

Its a great hotel/resort. First class all the way. Smaller than mega resorts, no lazy river, less kids though usually plenty, great for lounging around and relaxing. Nice hiking nearby. Pinnacle peak and browns ranch. Only caveat...it's pretty far north. Not carefree/cave creek far but north Scottsdale. 20 minutes to get to kierland mall area.

I assume you'll have a car. If not, get one. It's mandatory in Phoenix. Everything is really spread around.

really nice restaurants. We love the Chris Bianco pizza places. The Bianco at town and country has amazing pastas too. Casual but really first class food. His pizzas are truly fantastic but his pasta is overlooked. The downtown location has a nice bar in a house next door while you wait for your table. But from the four seasons it's easily 45 min drive.

the fox restaurant group restaurants are fantastic for the price. True food kitchen and flower child are delicious. Kinda hippie or yuppie or yoga like but great.

the mastro restaurants are fantastic and very nice. Steak and seafood very well done.

ive been to taliesin west and I was a little disappointed. If you like music, playing music, you need to go to the musical instrument museum. It's one of a kind. Amazing building, collection of instruments from around the world. Incredible what kind of donors they must have had to build it in freakin Phoenix. Looks like it belongs in New York, la or Chicago. Their cafe is quite good too. Some sort of culinary students train there.

since I live in a city without a Hopdoddy, we went there this last summer too. Great burgers and shakes.

if you like zoos, the Phoenix zoo is also amazing. Huge animal enclosures.

cant tell you much about the clubbing but old town Scottsdale has quite a few. I've seen a lot of young hipsters and college age kids walking around down there on the weekend nights. The W is downtown Scottsdale. Stayed there before also. Too hip for me. Too loud. Etc.

theres a great sushi place that I love. It's called sushi Hiro. Not fancy or hip. In Dumpy strip mall. It's east. Around Shea and 92-93rd just east of the 101. Best crunchy salmon skin rolls I've had. Great mushroom dish.

Enjoy your trip.

Great recs, thanks! Ended up booking at the Phoenician!!!

The Phoenician is really expansive and nice. Ate there years ago when Mary Elaine's was still open. Never stayed there but always heard great things. Center of town which is nice.

there some great restaurants near there. Can access downtown Phoenix and Scottsdale easily. Mastros city hall, t cooks, pizzeria Bianco both locations, cowboy ciao, the bar at the sanctuary hotel is supposed to be very hip with great views.

weather will probably be great.

enjoy.

I will be in PHX the week after Thanksgiving. Staying at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge. Please keep the suggestions coming for things to do & good places to eat. What about good Mexican food? Yes I know it will be different. What about a nice place to take a client for dinner? Thanks!

Desert ridge is pretty far north. Like Tatum and 101. Pretty nice area though. You are very close to the musical instrument museum. Like a mile or two.

id recommend pinnacle peak or browns ranch for hiking. That's east/southeast prob 15 minutes.

imo the restaurants out at desert ridge aren't that great. I'd recommend taking your client to mastros ocean club at kierland (steak/seafood) or Eddie v's at kierland commons (steak/seafood also but across Scottsdale blvd in newer shopping area).

for lunch, my wife loves true food kitchen at kierland commons or north at kierland. Kierland is probably 15 mins from desert ridge. maybe 20. Everything is going to be at least 15-20 minutes from where you are. Hopefully your client is north Phoenix/Scottsdale or else you need to plan on driving 45 minutes to get downtown.

i hate to keep recommending the same places but I love Bianco at town and country mall. Chris Bianco is a James beard award nominated chef for making pizzas. He was one of the first if not the first to start making napoletano styled pizzas in the country. Brought his first pizza oven to the us piece by piece. At least that's the story. I believe town and country is 20th and camelback. Probably 25 minutes from where you are. They're open for lunch and dinner which is nice.

we always stay at the four seasons and it's a long ass drive to get to Bianco so we usually only go there 2-3 times in two weeks. I love their pappardelle.

honestly ive rarely had Mexican food out there. I'm from San Antonio. There's a Mexican place up in cave creek that gets good press called el encanto. I went there once but almost all seating is outside by this man made duck pond and I hate sitting outside. Except at certain Phoenix/Scottsdale places where I can watch the young rich Scottsdale women lunch.

if you're willing to drive there, there's a restaurant in carefree called binkleys that has gotten great reviews for the past 15-20 yrs. I've never eaten there. I'd guess cave creek and carefree are prob 30 minutes for you. Don't take my word for it though. We don't usually drive up there. Might be closer.

If you are up for a drive, you some head up to Paige Springs Winery. We love their wine. I would also recommend Arizona Stronghold in Deadwood, Caduceus Cellars in Jerome of Arizona, and Burning Tree in Cottonwood. We love all of their wines and have 2 of the 3 shipped to us in Texas. I would still have Burning Tree if they shipped here.

I'm going on business next week to the area. The job is in Mesa. I have my choice of where to stay, so would everyone recommend staying in Scottsdale over Mesa or Phoenix??

One thing to keep in mind about the Phoenix area. It's really really spread out. If your job is in Mesa, that's a long way and commute from a lot of the Valley. As an example, if you stayed in desert ridge like another poster is, you'd be driving 45-60 minutes to get there each way and that's without traffic..

I'd recommend that you stay in downtown Scottsdale area (like the W) or southeast Phoenix/Paradise Valley area (royal palms or Phoenician). There are more restaurants and shopping than staying in Mesa. Scottsdale is a long narrow piece of the city that runs from Tempe all the way up to carefree along the eastern border of Phoenix. It's really hard to simply say 'stay in Scottsdale' because theres a huge difference between downtown Scottsdale and troon north. Those areas are 30-40 minutes apart yet still both in Scottsdale.

Theres a big indoor mall in downtown Scottsdale called the fashion show mall. Plenty to do in that area, hotels, shopping, restaurants and getting to Mesa wouldn't be that difficult.

You could also stay in Tempe which is where asu is. I'm sure it would be fun for a twenty something. Tempe would be closer to Mesa than Scottsdale or Phoenix. I'd recommend you take a look at a map which shows the various cities.

Of course there are plenty of other mid priced hotels in all those areas I've mentioned.

Thanks d....appreciate the advice!

Settled on Cafe Monarch for anniversary dinner. Thanks so much for the recs. I will let you know how the trip goes, D.

Did you do hot air balloon? I'm considering it.

No balloon.

Can't recommend the cave creek outfitters horseback riding enough in the Sonoma. Not a big horse guy, but it was an awesome couple hours. Relaxing and scenic. We spent so much time just lounging by the pool, we blew off the baloon.

Highly recommend citizen public house. Great lighting, decor, chopped salad, and scallops were excellent too.