Unprocessed Travel: Tucson, Arizona Recap

My mother and I spent Valentine’s Day weekend in Tucson, Arizona and it was so much better than I originally expected. Tucson exceeded my expectations in so many ways. We saw the most amazing mountain views, stunning sunsets, and way more cacti than I’ve ever seen in my life. We also saw a road runner, I was about 15 feet away from colliding with 6 deer crossing the street and I was about 30 feet away from two Javelina’s, except… it was dark outside and I could only see their shadows. #Scary  

It was an amazing trip and in this post, I plan to give you a 3-day recap, but mostly through photos! A lot of our time was tied up with the events that we went for so we didn’t get to experience the city in a way that we would have if we weren’t there for a specific reason. However, we still got to do some running around and see the beautiful city of Tucson!

We flew into Phoenix and drove to Tucson with the drive taking a little less than two hours. It seems as if it took us longer to get from the airport to the car rental building than it did for us to drive from Phoenix to Tucson. I went to sleep from Phoenix to Tucson (so my mom drove), but the trip didn’t last a minute over 2 hours. Side note: I’m not a bad passenger. I went to sleep because I was feeling extremely nauseous due to a high level of stress that had been put on my body in the past week and lack of sleep. I also stayed up all night packing because I had a huge school event to see through the day before our 8:00 am flight.

Travel Tip: We rented the car through Southwest (the airline that we flew with) so that rapid rewards could be added to my Southwest Rapid Rewards account.

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Our Hotel Accommodation

We stayed at The Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa, which is located near the Catalina Foothills (base of the Catalina mountains) area of Tucson. If you know my mother, you know that she’s very frugal so she wasn’t entirely impressed by the hotel considering what we paid. At no point during our stay did we have a comfortable shower. Our water temperature had no threshold UNLESS you found the sweet spot, which was not easy to find. She also wasn’t too impressed with our room. One of her primary complaints was that they didn’t have enough drawers to hold her clothes, haha. All in all, if I had to take a wild guess I’d guess her ranking of La Paloma as a 7, maybe a 7.5.

I, on the other hand, loved it. The room wasn’t the best and I’ve definitely seen and stayed in better, but as long as the beds are comfortable, the bathrooms are spacious, and the living space is squeaky clean then I’m pretty much good. The hotel grounds were beautiful. It was a bit chilly and we were always busy so we never got to fully enjoy the amenities of the resort such as the pool or spa. The only amenity that we indulged in was the bar – so much so that by the end of the trip they knew my drink. We also used the golf cart service on occasion, which was perfect when we had to get to and from the country club for an event on Friday night. It was also useful when we needed to take our bags to our car on checkout day. I was very very grateful on both occasions.

A 3-night, 4-day stay cost us a little over $1000. The room was $313/night and there were also additional fees that add up over time. Additional fees were: occupancy/tourism fee ($37.72/day), resort service charge ($29.00/day), and tax-resort service charge ($3.49/day). To be fair, we are usually frugal travelers and I also prefer Hilton since we are both Hilton Honors Members. However, we went for an event and this hotel put us right where we needed to be for said event. Lastly, this hotel was a part of the Marriot family and my San Diego solo trip made me hate the brand. So there’s that.

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Thursday Night Dinner at Vivace

Thursday night we went to dinner at Vivace, a fine-dining Italian restaurant. I love me some seafood so I had an amazing New Zealand Salmon topped with Rock Shrimp after splitting a mixed green salad with mommy dearest. It was phenomenal and I highly recommend eating at Vivace if you ever visit Tucson. The restaurant also has a seating area that looks out at Tucson, so at night you can see the beautiful city lights. It was a great atmosphere with great food.

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Sabino Canyon Recreation Area

Friday morning, Valentine’s Day, we started our day with a 4-mile walk at Sabino Canyon Recreation Area. Fortunately, we didn’t see any mountain lions, rattlesnakes, or coyotes but we did see 20-foot high saguaro cacti, beautiful mountain views, and the most calming creek running through it all.

The beautiful thing about this area is that you can choose how hard or light you want your terrain to be. You can walk on a paved street or hike through nature. They have so many trails and options for you to choose from. We chose the paved pathway mainly because it’s the most straightforward. We didn’t have hiking shoes and no one wanted any injuries. The good thing about the paved street is that you still get a good workout in. Although we only walked 4 miles, we could have walked 10 or more because the Canyon allows for it. Along the way, we were challenged with many hills so the constant incline with a brisk walk was a great way to start our day. This ideal travel morning consisted of a little bit of cardio coupled with a new experience.

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Shopping + Food at La Encantada

After going back to the hotel and freshening up we decided to go grab food (more Italian) and then do a little shopping! We had an event to attend on Friday night and as the day progressed we got increasingly more exhausted so we literally just ate, shopped, and went to our event on Friday. Although it doesn’t sound like a lot, it was.

Our first meal of the day was at North, an Italian restaurant. This was different though – it was a cuisine with a focus on North Italy, hence the name North. I got my all-time favorite Italian dish, chicken parmesan. It was delicious and North was affordable so I highly recommend the restaurant. We also got calamari and bruschetta as an appetizer. This was the best calamari I’ve ever had in my life might I add.

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Friday Night at The Country Club

After shopping, we decided to go back to the hotel to chill for about an hour before having to get ready for our night time festivities. My mom was so kind as to let me do her make-up and somewhat do her hair. When I began to pull out products to lay her edges she got a little suspicious, but when she saw the outcome she loved it!

Following the event, we came back to the room to a lovely Valentine’s Day surprise from my brother, Brandon. This was such a kind gesture. Thanks, Brandon!! We love you.

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Saturday Morning at Old Tucson

Saturday was eventful. We finally got out to see a small glimpse of local Tucson in all of its beauty. We went to Old Tucson, which is a Wild West attraction that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Before I get into the details about Old Tucson, I want to explain the drive over. This was my first time driving through mountains and although it took me a little bit to get over the nerves, I finally did and was then able to take in the experience at a higher level.

Driving to Old Tucson (from the Catalina Foothills area) is a mixture of driving through local Tucson and then through mountains. If you look at the photo below, there is only one road that leads to Old Tucson (the area in the bottom left – with all of the green) from the direction that we were traveling. That is where I drove through some of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. This is also when I saw a roadrunner, which I thought was pretty awesome since I grew up on Looney Tunes *beep beep*. (Only real ones will catch that reference).

Because the views are so mesmerizing, they have a couple of areas where you can pull into a small parking lot and get out to soak it all in. I highly suggest you make that drive if nothing else. This is also the route that you take to get to the Sonora Desert Museum, a tourist favorite.

So next, we arrive at Old Tucson. When you first pull in, you still don’t know what to expect. You can tell it’s an old Western-like town, but you can’t see how big and eventful it is from the outside looking in. However, as soon as you walk in you immediately enter a Wild West town – it’s like night and day. This place has so much Western film history due to the number of movies that have been shot here. As a matter of fact, the day before we arrived some rapper from the UK was shooting a video there (weird).

The neat thing about Old Tucson is that they have events throughout the day such as stunt shows, comedies, and musicals. My mom got to watch the Civil War battle on the North End at the Battlefield (I missed it) and together we got to watch September Gun, a Western movie remake.

The area is relatively big – it’s actually the size of a small town. One of the many areas in the town was a Native Village. Here I got to try a popover (it was split between 4 people) made by a group of local high school students raising money for prom.

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Gem & Mineral Show – African Art Village

Following Old Tucson, we decided to check out the Gem & Mineral Show. Apparently, this is a huge show that comes to town annually and they had vendors all over the city. We wandered to downtown and God lead us to the African Art Village where we found so many gems and pieces to purchase. We had a dinner to attend soon and knew we’d be pressed for time to be on time. That said, we didn’t stay and wander into other show areas like we would have wanted… but we did take our sweet time at the African Art Village.

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Last Night in Tucson, Arizona

Our last night was picture perfect – literally! We started the night with drinks at the bar because…amenities, HAHA (see above to understand the joke). Then, we spent the evening in Estates located closer to the Catalina Mountains (foothills). We got to watch the sunset in a way that I had never witnessed before. I captured the progression through a series of photos. Enjoy!

That pretty much sums up our trip! All in all, Tucson, Arizona is the perfect place to relax and enjoy the local culture. It’s also a nice place to visit if you enjoy art galleries and/or have an appreciation for art in general. I would certainly recommend visiting since the city 100% exceeded my expectations.

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Extra Tips/Takeaways

You can fly into Tucson’s local airport, but it’s honestly not a bad drive from Phoenix. I drove back and it was a breeze. It took no time at all.

Although we didn’t go to the Sonora Desert Museum, I’ve heard that it’s a favorite. We decided that Old Tucson would be more exciting and didn’t want to take our chances of seeing, or not seeing, the animals in the desert.

The weather was amazing. It was cool in the mornings and at night but warmed up during the daytime. I can’t say that that would be the case in the summer so be sure to keep that in mind for when you decide to visit.

Unless you’re going for the added amenities such as the spa or golf course(s), I wouldn’t recommend staying at La Paloma. I would have been so much more satisfied with staying at the Embassy Suites up the street with my made-to-order breakfast and managers reception (free) drinks during happy hour. As stated earlier, I love Hilton, I prefer to get my Hilton points, and I love Embassy Suites. This isn’t a knock to La Paloma – I enjoyed it greatly and the grounds were BEAUTIFUL!

Thank you for reading!