NORTH AMERICA
ARIZONA
Sedona
Sedona is one of our favorite places with all the red rock spires, valleys and energy vortexes. It's truly a magical place. There are seemingly endless hiking opportunities throughout the red rocks. The back-country jeep tours are recommended too. Our daughter and her husband honeymooned there and took an overnight horseback trip where cowboys came out to make dinner and breakfast in the red rock back country. A day trips the Grand Canyon is possible, although a long day. Oak Creek Canyon and Slide Rock State Park are fun too. Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village has great arts and crafts shopping and restaurants. Check out Rene Restaurant.
Sky Ranch Lodge, Sedona, AZ
This is the Sky Ranch Lodge on top of the hill where the Sedona airport is located. This picture is from the patio of our room overlooking Sedona and the red rocks. The rim rooms have kitchenettes and gas fireplaces. It's a great place to watch the sunset with a bottle of bubbly. Add a pool with hot tub and what more could you want? Rim rooms are about $175.00 per night. The also have courtyard rooms for less and there's a great overlook near the hotel.
Jerome
Jerome is a very cool old mining town that was the largest mining town in the late 1800's. You can tour the old mining camp for a fee. It's an artsy town and a cruise along the main town street shops is a must. There's a classic biker bar too.
This is the Jerome Grand Hotel in Jerome, AZ, about
one-half hour southwest of Sedona. It's a very old hotel located at the highest
point of this mile high old mining town overlooking the Verde Valley. This view
is from our room on the 4th floor overlooking the valley. That's the San
Francisco mountains on the horizon, the highest peaks in Arizona. The rooms are
rustic, B & B style, but not extremely plush, some with claw-foot
tubs. The are only a small number of rooms only on the fourth floor that open to
a shared balcony. 
Make sure you ask for one and request a private bath. The hotel used to be an asylum
and has named the restaurant The Asylum. It's a top-end restaurant with a great
view, especially the outdoor tables, 
and has a great wine list. A casual place for a burger is in town is The Haunted Hamburger, which overlooks the valley too. A nice day trip is the Verde Canyon Railroad that goes about 4 hours into the canyon. There's food & bar available. Tickets can be purchased through the hotel.
Grand Canyon South Rim, AZ
There are two choices of accommodations at the Grand
Canyon South Rim, outside the park or inside the park. We've done both, but
inside the park is the better option. Outside is really commercial with hotels
and restaurants, like most any other touristy place. The Best Western is a safe
bet. Grand Canyon Village is about 7 miles further and there are a series of
hotels all operated by Xanterra for the National Park Service. Of all the rooms
at the Grand Canyon South Rim, there are only a handful of rooms that actually
have a view of the canyon and they are in the El Tovar Hotel where you need over
a year advance reservation for. Others are the Kachina, Thunderbird and Bright
Angel Lodges. We stayed at the Kachina Lodge and actually could see the rim of
the canyon from our room, not that you'd want to stay in the room, which is
nice, but basic.
.
A visit to the El Tover, the grand lodge of the South Rim is a must, also the location of an up-scale restaurant and some great outdoor porch lounges. (Advance reservations required). Sometimes there's a resident moose grazing in front of the hotel. A stroll down the Bright Angel Trail is recommended, but is strenuous and a lot harder coming up than going down. Once in my younger days, I hiked down to the river and back and it took 9 1/2 hours. A less strenuous option is a rim walk, which is level and has overlooks. Even less strenuous is to drive and stop at the overlooks, a good thing to do for sunset.
Grand Canyon South Rim
Grand Canyon North Rim, AZ
The Grand Canyon North Rim is less commercial and only has one lodge, The North Rim Lodge, that has cabins and hotel units. A few of the cabins actually overlook the canyon, but require one + year advance reservations. No matter where you stay the accommodations are rustic and cabin-like, with no TV's or phones, but do have showers. We stayed in the hotel section on the second floor where the common, wrap-around balcony backed to woods with a distant view through the trees of the edge of the canyon. The is about the quietest place on earth where the wind and insects is all you hear. The Grand Canyon Lodge sits directly on the rim of the canyon and has a sitting room full of leather couches and chairs with picture windows that overlook the canyon.
It also has outdoor patios that lead to fairly level hiking paths in each direction to views beyond compare. The lodge is also the location of the restaurant. Reservation for rooms and the restaurant are required in advance. There are shops and actually a funky little saloon nearby. The lodge is only open mid-May through October, since it is impassable due to snow the rest of the year (8,000 foot elevation). Hiking is more difficult here than at the South Rim. We went a few hours down the Kaibab Trail and it was very difficult coming back up. The level trails from the lodge are recommended.
Grand Canyon North Rim, AZ
The Copper Queen Hotel, Bisbee, AZ
Bisbee is a cute little old mining town in southeast Arizona, near the Mexican border. It's where all the old hippies went; a real laidback, artsy town. When driving down from Tucson, stop to visit Tombstone, but don't stay there; it's too touristy; check out Boot Hill Cemetery.
Here's the place to stay in Bisbee. It's rumored to have a ghost (a naked woman with a bottle of whiskey) running around the halls at night (great excuse for all those drunk miners who get caught by their wives). It's like a B&B, about 100 years old and furnished with antiques.
Palm Springs, CA
Best Western La Brisa, Palm Springs, CA
This is a gorgeous hotel on the outside, but the rooms are small and simple with no views. So, we hung around outside a lot. It's located in the heart of downtown, so you can walk to all the restaurants, clubs and even an American Indian owned Casino.
This is the pool at the Best Western La Brisa in Palm Springs, CA
Marriott, Rancho Mirage, CA
I had a business trip to a convention here and my wife joined me. They picked a great location, just north of Palm Springs.
La Jolla, CA
This is in the heart of La Jolla, north of San Diego. We didn't actually stay here, just took a day trip from Palm Springs (long day trip), but there are hotels with this view. Watch out, they are very expensive and mostly booked for the peak season.
This is the sunset at La Jolla which would be from our room if we had one.
Nevada
Mt. Charleston Lodge, Mt. Charleston, Nevada
This lodge is atop Mt. Charleston which is about 45 minutes outside Las Vegas. It is about 10,000 feet in elevation. The rooms are all cabins with balconies that overlook mountains. The rooms also are well-decorated like a B & B and have gas fireplaces and Jacuzzis. There's a restaurant that is open 24/7. This is a relaxing alternative from the Las Vegas "Strip".
Monument Valley, Utah
This is the view from our room at Goulding's Lodge at Monument Valley, Utah. It is a basic motel with extraordinary views of Monument Valley from all rooms. It is also the only lodging at Monument Valley, so well worth the trip. There is a restaurant with basic food, but note that Goulding's is located on a Native American Reservation, therefore no alcohol. If you have time, drive about 20 miles north to Mexican Hat where there's an outdoor restaurant that cooks steaks and burgers on a swinging grill. And, they serve beer, like Palimony Ale. Pay a fee at the entrance to Monument Valley Park and drive the circle to see some amazing landscape. Many western movies have been filmed here for over 60 years.
Scene in Monument Valley State Park, Utah
