Camelback Inn
Hotel Information: Upgraded through a $60-million renovation in 2004, this famed resort grew to 125 acres and 452 guestrooms since opening in 1936, while retaining an easy-going Navajo/Western ambience characterized by the original adobe-brick lobby, including a gas fireplace, leather seating, painted-beam ceiling, and wagon-wheel chandeliers. Highlights of the resort's expansive grounds include bronze Native American sculptures, fountains, boulders, cactus gardens, bougainvillea, desert plants, flowering bushes, and palm trees.
Amenity highlights: The resort is home to the renowned Camelback Golf Club, with two championship courses offering challenging play and spectacular views. The Spa at Camelback contains a healthful-food restaurant, a lap pool with sunning terraces and rental cabanas, outdoor and indoor spa tubs, a fitness/exercise center, and Southwestern-styled treatments. Surrounded by cacti and boulders and bordered by sunning terraces, a pool complex offers a 150-foot-long, freeform pool with a lap-pool section; two 20-person spa tubs; and a children's play area with interactive fountains and sprays.
Insider tip: When the town of Paradise Valley was formed, it excluded all commercial development. Because the town surrounds the resort, the resort had to be grandfathered in as part of Scottsdale. Guests joining the resort's guided morning power walk through Paradise Valley encounter no fast-food franchises or neon, just expensive low-rise residences and desert flora.
Camelback Inn offers 453 spacious guestrooms in one- and two-story, cream-colored casitas with log-and-lodge pole trim bordered by cactus gardens. Southwestern pottery and art grace rooms, which feature balconies or patios accessed through French doors and furnished with two-chair dining sets and lounge chairs. Wet bars include compact refrigerators and microwave ovens, and rooms also have minibars.
Beds feature pillowtop mattresses, 300-thread-count sheets, down blankets, lightweight down comforters with off-white covers and jewel-tone trim, chenille throws, and five pillows per bed.
For surcharges, Internet access is available through high-speed connections and televisions with wireless keyboards. Televisions also offer video games (surcharge). Each room includes two speakerphones, one cordless.
Decor includes cream-colored stucco walls, log ceilings, and rustic-finish furniture, including desks. Dressing benches, suit valets, and cushioned reading chairs/ottomans provide convenience and comfort. Bathrooms have two vanity sinks, shower/tub combinations, curved shower rods, bathrobes, and slippers.
Smoking is not permitted inside hotel rooms.
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