Ronak and I celebrated our one year anniversary back in November 2020 by visiting beautiful Sedona, AZ. Unfortunately, our international travel plans had to be cancelled thanks to COVID-19 (as did our honeymoon plans…still have yet to do that *insert eye-roll emoji*). While Sedona wasn’t the number one pick on our destinations list, we actually really enjoyed it! It was a beautiful and relaxing trip, and I think it’s a great weekend getaway for a little R&R!
Where we stayed:
We stayed at the Hilton Sedona Resort at Bell Rock. It was a beautiful resort located on the top of a hill, so the views of the mountains were gorgeous! It’s also located right across the street from the Sedona Golf Resort, so our room particularly had a beautiful view of that. If you have Hilton Honors, this hotel also provided a great breakfast option that was fast and convenient right downstairs in the bar area. Finally, our favorite perk – the hotel had a happy hour every day from 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm, with $5 prickly pear margaritas!! FIVE. DOLLARS. They also had other great drink options too! But if you don’t already know, Sedona (or AZ in general, I think) is known for prickly-pear-anything. And these margaritas were SO good!
We did have a couple of downsides to this hotel though. We felt that the property felt somewhat dated, and didn’t quite have the “resort” feel we were hoping for. Additionally, while we were there, they seemed to be short-staffed, so some services were either limited or extremely delayed. Finally, the WiFi connections were A.W.F.U.L. Although, this seemed to be an issue for both Ronak and I across Sedona, but our phones barely had any signal anywhere. While this may sound like a great break and being disconnected, both of our jobs at that time were requiring us to check our emails periodically and the crappy service made that a little tough.
What we did:
Our trip was from Friday through early Tuesday morning (our first anniversary was on Monday). So below is a breakdown of what we did throughout the trip, as a sample itinerary for your own trip:
Friday:
- Fly in to FLG airport; rent a car and drive the scenic route to Sedona (it’s about a 45 minute drive and so beautiful along the way. We also highly recommend renting a convertible car if you’re adventurous like that!)
- Check into hotel, relax and grab a drink at the hotel’s happy hour/bar
- Grab dinner at Tortas de Fuego
Saturday:
- Grab coffee and breakfast to-go at hotel’s complimentary breakfast (for Hilton Honors members)
- Drive to Devil’s Bridge Trail for a hike – most hotels or gas stations in the Sedona area have Red Rock parking passes for ~ $5. Our hotel had them easily accessible at the front desk and they just put it on our room tab.
- After the hike, pick up some food from anywhere you spot along the way, and head back to the hotel to enjoy on your balcony or hotel patio
- Do a little R&R at the hotel – take a nap, enjoy a book on the balcony, spend time with each other 🙂
- Make dinner reservations at The Vault Uptown – recommend making these around sunset because it has gorgeous views! The food was delish also – we recommend getting the ahi wonton tacos, and white truffle garlic bread. Yum!
Sunday:
- Grab coffee to-go at hotel’s complimentary breakfast (for Hilton Honors members)
- Grab donuts from Sedonuts (go earlier so you can get them fresh! I’ll be honest though – I wasn’t completed amazed by these donuts, but worth trying if you’re there)
- Book a couples massage – unfortunately, our hotel was booked solid on couples massages, so we ventured out to Namti Spa and loved them! Great service, clean, and we came out feeling so relaxed. 🙂
- Head back to the hotel for a little Sunday funday
- Grab pizza for dinner at Rotten Johnny’s Wood-Fired Pizza Pie – while we ultimately enjoyed the pizza, the service here was SO bad. We must’ve waited 30-45 minutes after being seated before even having brought some water… our food took SO long to come out and our server just kept forgetting about us, that we had to walk up to the front a couple of times to ask for things.
Monday:
- Get breakfast-in-bed (if you can!) – We were really hoping to get breakfast-in-bed this day for our anniversary, but unfortunately the hotel couldn’t accommodate this. So again, we grabbed coffee and breakfast downstairs at the bar.
- Play a round of golf at Sedona Golf Resort right across the street – like I mentioned earlier, our hotel was right across the street from this world-renowned golf resort so we knew we absolutely had to play here! Be sure to book your tee time ahead of time though, as they do book up quickly. They have club rentals for you, which is nice and convenient. The 10th hole is one of the most photographed golf holes in the country!
- Grab a late lunch and/or drinks at the hotel, or Sedona Golf Resort restaurant.
- Do a little R&R at the hotel – take a nap, enjoy a book on the balcony, spend time with each other 🙂
- Make dinner reservations at Cucina Rustica – be sure to book ahead of time as they get busy! The food was SO delish, as was the service and ambiance! We recommend getting the Greek goddess salad, house focaccia, Barcelona pasta, and the blackberry serrano margarita. This was the perfect spot for our anniversary dinner!
Tuesday:
- Check out and catch some more views on your drive back to FLG – we had a super early morning flight from FLG so we had to be up and out of the hotel by ~5:00 am, but the drive back was still really beautiful.
Our Eat, Drink & Be Merry Recommendations:
Eat: Cucina Rustica
Drink: Tortas de Fuego // prickly-pear margaritas, anywhere.
Be Merry: Devil’s Bridge Trail & round of golf at Sedona Golf Resort (these were both super fun)
let me know in the comments below if you’ve been to Sedona, or if you’re planning your trip there now! 🙂
xo,
gopi
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