Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner...

sipafz

sipafz

Caught the Bug
Every once and awhile, life throws ya a bone. In our case, my wife won a trip to Phoenix, Arizona for 4 nights at plus airfare for two. We are thinking about going during January or February 2019 when the Wisconsin winter is at its worst. I’m hoping to rent a Jeep for our sightseeing trips. We will have 3 full days to do some exploring.

Having never been to the area, I’m hoping that all of you can make some recommendations on what to do and where to go (or what to avoid). I’m not looking to do any “wheeling” per se, but just some exploring that maybe includes some light hiking.

The only plans we have thus far is to make the trip up to the Grand Canyon. We might do the Grand Canyon Railway trip out of Williams, cowboys and all 🤣. Other than that, we were thinking about exploring Sedona.

I appreciate any recommendations (or warnings) you care to give.

Thanks,

Sipafz - Chris
 
Congrats on the trip. If you decide to do the Grand Canyon railway upgrade to the bar car with the upper deck seating. No kids and better views. My friend took the trip and highly recommended that as he took a regular car to the canyon and upgraded for his return.

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Sedona is fun but not a quick trip, bit of a drive not sure how much traveling you want to do in three days. If you like hiking there’s plenty of mountains (you can also drive up them If you’re like me and don’t feel like climbing hundreds of feet for the view). Phoenix itself has pretty much everything imaginable as well.


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jesse3638 said:
Congrats on the trip. If you decide to do the Grand Canyon railway upgrade to the bar car with the upper deck seating. No kids and better views. My friend took the trip and highly recommended that as he took a regular car to the canyon and upgraded for his return.

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Thanks for the recommendation! Looks like they include breakfast items in the morning along with snacks and champagne on the return trip. Seems like a nice, relaxing way to travel and we are definitely doing this! We might add on a bus tour to complete this “spoon fed” sightseeing trip.
 
Jsouder53 said:
Congrats!!! Have never really been to the area so I can’t help with any recommendations
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Thanks! We’re looking forward to it!

WJCO said:
Visit Sedona.
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Edwrds said:
Yes very nice
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Snboarder113 said:
Sedona is fun but not a quick trip, bit of a drive not sure how much traveling you want to do in three days. If you like hiking there’s plenty of mountains (you can also drive up them If you’re like me and don’t feel like climbing hundreds of feet for the view). Phoenix itself has pretty much everything imaginable as well.
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Sedona looks to be less than 2hrs from our hotel, so not a bad drive. The plan includes visiting Cathedral Rock, some winery stops and some light hiking TBD. Finding a Jeep to rent has been a bit challenging. So far, Enterprise is the only company I found, but $210 a day isn’t going to happen. I might end up with a convertible sports car or something like a Ford Explorer for $70 a day.

Sounds like we will spend the third day at the hotel just relaxing before heading home the next day. We will be staying at the JW Marriott and it looks to be quite extravagant!
 
sipafz said:
Sounds like we will spend the third day at the hotel just relaxing before heading home the next day.
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Screw that! You can relax back home the next day! Spend the day exploring the outskirts of Phoenix. Scottsdale has some rally cool areas to check out too. If you can spend a couple hours walking around Old Scottsdale. There are some really cool shops there.

X3 on Sedona. The drive up Oak Creek Canyon is very cool!
 
Ddays said:
Screw that! You can relax back home the next day! Spend the day exploring the outskirts of Phoenix. Scottsdale has some rally cool areas to check out too. If you can spend a couple hours walking around Old Scottsdale. There are some really cool shops there.

X3 on Sedona. The drive up Oak Creek Canyon is very cool!
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Haha, you just made my wife’s day! Shopping around Old Scottsdale is added to day three. Thank you for the suggestion Jerry!
 
There's an area outside of Phoenix, I think it's called Cave Creek? Old Western theme with shopping and restaurants, etc.
 
Congrats on the win! I’d agree on all the above if you can work it in. The Canyon is a must, and Sedona is a beautiful place. Just be aware that the scale of the place will be different than you might be used to. Phoenix is huge, it’s almost 90 Miles across the metro area. That’s like you driving to Green Bay and you’re still “in town”. Let me know if you plan to get to Sedona and I’ll send you some directions to a couple out of the way spots for pictures. Oh yeah, and you should know that coming out here in Jan/Feb can be dangerous. All my neighbors down here in Tucson are from Wisconsin. [emoji6]


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Cave creek is awesome. Was were sonny started another hells angels chapter. Do Sedona definitely, you can get there in an hour and 15 from cave creek, or under 2 hours from Scottsdale.


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WJCO said:
There's an area outside of Phoenix, I think it's called Cave Creek? Old Western theme with shopping and restaurants, etc.
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elgordomucho said:
Cave creek is awesome. Was were sonny started another hells angels chapter. Do Sedona definitely, you can get there in an hour and 15 from cave creek, or under 2 hours from Scottsdale.


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Cave Creek looks to be just less than 10 miles North of the hotel. We might add that to the list since it’s so close. Thanks guys!
 
Steve Williams said:
Congrats on the win! I’d agree on all the above if you can work it in. The Canyon is a must, and Sedona is a beautiful place. Just be aware that the scale of the place will be different than you might be used to. Phoenix is huge, it’s almost 90 Miles across the metro area. That’s like you driving to Green Bay and you’re still “in town”. Let me know if you plan to get to Sedona and I’ll send you some directions to a couple out of the way spots for pictures. Oh yeah, and you should know that coming out here in Jan/Feb can be dangerous. All my neighbors down here in Tucson are from Wisconsin. [emoji6]


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No worries about moving there on a permanent basis. Too hot most of the time! I’ll shoot you a pm when we get closer to going. It’s always nice to hit a few spots off the beaten path. Thank you Steve!
 
sipafz said:
Thanks! We’re looking forward to it!







Sedona looks to be less than 2hrs from our hotel, so not a bad drive. The plan includes visiting Cathedral Rock, some winery stops and some light hiking TBD. Finding a Jeep to rent has been a bit challenging. So far, Enterprise is the only company I found, but $210 a day isn’t going to happen. I might end up with a convertible sports car or something like a Ford Explorer for $70 a day.

Sounds like we will spend the third day at the hotel just relaxing before heading home the next day. We will be staying at the JW Marriott and it looks to be quite extravagant!
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Barlow rents Jeeps in Sedona.
https://barlows.us/

--
Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
 
sipafz said:
Haha, you just made my wife’s day! Shopping around Old Scottsdale is added to day three. Thank you for the suggestion Jerry!
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:thumb: Welcome! Arizona is awesome. We've been there 3 times and love it. It and the whole Southwest is so different from our neck of the woods - its almost like being on a different planet.
 
Sedona is awesome. Plenty of hiking to do. My favorite trail is West Fork at Oak Creek Canyon. As others have said Jerome is nice too especially if you want to do Wine tasting. If you are able to rent a Jeep, the Mogollon Rim (FR 300) is a nice drive in Payson.


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Slimebones said:
Another cool place is Jerome, Az. Check it out if you go to Sedona. Make a day trip of it.
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So many places, so little time. Looks like we might be able to swing that way on the way back to the hotel.

uberc4 said:
Sedona is awesome. Plenty of hiking to do. My favorite trail is West Fork at Oak Creek Canyon. As others have said Jerome is nice too especially if you want to do Wine tasting. If you are able to rent a Jeep, the Mogollon Rim (FR 300) is a nice drive in Payson.


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Wow, the West Fork looks spectacular! I don’t think we’ll have time to hike the whole trail (6 mile round trip), but a couple of miles shouldn’t be a problem. We’re hoping to hit a winery so we might drive out toward Jerome on our way back. A Jeep is looking unlikely at this point, but I haven’t made any phone calls yet. Just going by what I’m seeing on the net as to what’s available at the airport.
 
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