All-Inclusive Resorts in Sedona, Arizona

Flagstaff Airport (FLG) is 45 minutes from Sedona, or Phoenix Sky Harbor (PHX) is 2 hours. The drive from Flagstaff south on AZ-89A through Oak Creek Canyon — a red-wall canyon of switchbacks and creek crossings — is one of Arizona's finest approaches to any destination. Check into your resort and drive immediately to Cathedral Rock Crossing Trail — the most photographed view in Sedona, where Oak Creek's reflective pools mirror the soaring twin buttes of Cathedral Rock in the late afternoon light. Sunset on Cathedral Rock is one of the great American landscape moments: the stone turns from orange to crimson to violet in 20 minutes as the sun drops below the horizon, and the colors are unlike anything available elsewhere. Dinner at Elote Cafe (reservations essential — no phone reservations, walk-in only) for the finest Mexican food in Sedona, or L'Auberge's on-the-creek terrace restaurant.

• ✦ Cathedral Rock reflections at sunset — the iconic Sedona image
• ✦ Oak Creek Canyon drive from Flagstaff — one of Arizona's finest roads
• ✦ Red rock color shift from orange to crimson to violet
• ✦ Elote Cafe — the finest Mexican food in northern Arizona

A dawn hot air balloon flight over the red rocks is Sedona's most spectacular experience — the valley in pre-dawn darkness with the stars still visible, then the launch as the sun rises and the red formations emerge from shadow in extraordinary colors that no midday photograph captures. The 60-minute flight typically crosses the formations east of Sedona toward the Oak Creek Canyon rim, with views of Cathedral Rock, the Courthouse, and the entire red rock country laid out below. Post-flight champagne in the desert. Afternoon: a pink jeep tour (Pink Jeep Tours is the original and best-known operator) into the backcountry on 4x4 trails that access canyon formations, ancient ruins, and views unavailable on foot. The Broken Arrow Trail and the Schnebly Hill Road are the most dramatic routes.

• ✦ Hot air balloon at dawn over the red rocks — Sedona's finest experience
• ✦ Red formations in pre-dawn darkness and first light
• ✦ Pink Jeep Tours backcountry trail to Broken Arrow
• ✦ Schnebly Hill panorama over the entire canyon system

Sedona has over 200 hiking trails and four famous vortex sites (Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock, Airport Mesa, and Boynton Canyon) where the electromagnetic energy of the earth is said to be especially concentrated. The Bell Rock Trail is one of Sedona's most accessible and most beautiful — a 3.6-mile circuit around the base of Bell Rock with excellent views of Courthouse Butte. The Devil's Bridge Trail (4.2 miles round trip) reaches the largest natural arch in the Sedona area, spanning 54 feet above a canyon floor. The hike back through the slickrock desert is beautiful. Airport Mesa at sunset — the vortex site on the mesa above Sedona airport — provides a 360-degree panorama of the entire red rock basin and is particularly crowded at sunset but particularly beautiful. Tlaquepaque Arts & Shopping Village for the afternoon.

• ✦ Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte circuit trail
• ✦ Devil's Bridge natural arch — the largest in the Sedona area
• ✦ Airport Mesa vortex sunset panorama — 360-degree red rock views
• ✦ Tlaquepaque arts village for pottery, jewelry, and fine art

Drive north on AZ-89A into Oak Creek Canyon — one of the most beautiful canyon drives in Arizona, with red walls rising on both sides and the creek threading through willows and sycamores at the bottom. Slide Rock State Park, 7 miles north of Sedona, is a natural water slide in the red rock — a chute of smooth sandstone worn by Oak Creek into a sloping natural slide that ends in a pool of extraordinary clarity. The slide is genuinely fun and the surrounding red rock canyon walls make it one of the most beautiful swimming holes in the US. The Upper Oak Creek Canyon above Slide Rock has excellent fishing (rainbow trout in the stocked creek), hiking to the canyon rim, and the transition from red rock desert to pine forest as you gain elevation toward Flagstaff.

• ✦ Oak Creek Canyon drive —kat red walls and creek crossings
• ✦ Slide Rock natural water slide in the red sandstone
• ✦ Crystal-clear swimming hole in a red rock canyon
• ✦ Transition from Sonoran Desert to pine forest in 20 miles

Boynton Canyon, accessible via the trailhead behind the Enchantment Resort, is the most beautiful and most spiritual of the Sedona canyons — a narrow red-rock canyon with 300-foot walls that is a vortex site and contains Sinagua people cliff dwellings visible in the canyon walls. The 6-mile out-and-back Boynton Canyon trail passes ancient ruins, follows the canyon creek, and ends at a beautiful slot canyon view. The Mii amo Spa at Enchantment Resort is one of the finest destination spas in the Southwest — a Native American-influenced full-service wellness sanctuary with a treatment menu that includes Sedona stone massage, crystal healing, and Native American healing ceremonies. A full spa day here — treatments, the indoor and outdoor pools, the meditation room — is a genuinely transformative experience.

• ✦ Boynton Canyon trail with Sinagua cliff dwellings
• ✦ 300-foot red rock canyon walls in the vortex site
• ✦ Mii amo Spa — one of the finest destination spas in America
• ✦ Sedona stone massage and Native American healing traditions

Arizona's wine industry has developed significantly since 2010 — the Verde Valley appellation south of Sedona and the vineyards around Cottonwood produce genuinely interesting wines from varieties that thrive in the high-altitude desert climate. Alcantara Vineyard on the Verde River, Page Springs Cellars, and Javelina Leap Vineyard are all excellent for tastings. Jerome, perched on the side of Mingus Mountain above the Verde Valley, is a former copper mining ghost town that has reinvented itself as the most interesting small town in Arizona: art galleries, boutiques, restaurants, and bars in buildings clinging to a 30-degree slope with extraordinary valley views. The Jerome Grand Hotel (the former hospital, perched at the top of the hill) has the best views in Jerome. Return to Sedona for a final dinner at René at Tlaquepaque — the most romantic restaurant in Sedona.

• ✦ Verde Valley wine trail — Arizona's developing wine region
• ✦ Jerome — the hillside ghost town turned arts village
• ✦ Verde River vineyards — high-altitude Arizona wines
• ✦ René at Tlaquepaque —kat Sedona's most romantic restaurant

Sedona's sunrises are as extraordinary as its sunsets —kat set an alarm for 6am and drive to the Cathedral Rock parking area for the dawn light on the twin buttes in the cool morning air before the day-trippers arrive. A final breakfast at the Coffee Pot Restaurant —kat Sedona's most beloved local breakfast institution, open since 1950, famous for 101 varieties of omelette. Take home Sedona red rock pottery from the Tlaquepaque galleries, local honey and jam from the Sedona Farmers Market (Saturday mornings on Posse Grounds), and a bottle of the finest Verde Valley Cabernet. The drive to Phoenix over the Mingus Mountain or back through Oak Creek Canyon is the correct way to leave — slowly, stopping often.

• ✦ Cathedral Rock dawn light before departure
• ✦ Coffee Pot Restaurant breakfast — Sedona since 1950
• ✦ Red rock pottery and Verde Valley wine to take home
• ✦ Drive to Phoenix PHX or fly from Flagstaff FLG