Relaxing in Tucson

We come here to do absolutely nothing, but do it in luxury and style. The Arizona Inn is the perfect place to escape the everyday world and pretend, at least of a few days, that we can live like the 'other half' lives.

Quick Tips:

Winters, when the snowbirds head south, the Inn is pretty well booked and quite expensive. We always go in summer when the rates and the crowds go down.

Best Way To Get Around:

Every summer we go to Tucson and bask in the luxury of the Arizona Inn. We usually plan three days of doing nothing surrounded by impeccable gardens, manicured lawns, fabulous food, and quiet.

The Inn consists of several buildings set amid gardens and trees behind a high adobe wall. The rooms are all generous and the closets speak of days when guests arrived with steamer trunks. The furniture ranges from antiques to the heavy, carved furniture made in the 30’s in the inn’s own furniture factory. Most rooms have a private balcony or an enclosed patio and the focus is on privacy. A lot of rich and famous come here and they have a policy to never, ever tell who is staying there.

If you’re in the mood, there is table tennis and real tennis, a gorgeous pool, endless gardens (they have 14 acres and 6 full time gardeners) library bigger than my house where you can sit and read, or borrow a book to take back to your room, and a gift shop of interesting trinkets. The concierge, or even the bellboy, will answer all your questions and if they don’t have the answer, they will find it.

If you are looking for a place to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, this is it.

In winter, regular guests (many the great-grandchildren or the original guests who came here in the 30’s, friends of founder Isabella Greenway) book their favorite rooms from year to year, so getting a reservation is hard. Not that you should show up in summer without one. Summer rates are also considerably lower and they often have packages that include things like breakfast and evening ice cream by the pool.

There are enough places to eat within the Inn that you never need to leave the compound. There’s the elegant dining room with its high ceiling, antiques and guitarist in the evening. Until a few years ago, you needed a coat and tie to eat here. It’s become more casual, but they still provide you with a finger bowl filled with warm lemon water to dabble your fingers in after eating – even at breakfast!

At the Audubon Bar you can sip an afternoon cocktail surrounded by a collection of Audubon’s original prints. There’s the wicker and plant filled Catlin room where you can get sandwiches and salads. During happy hour, there is a pianist here to play your favorite tunes – as long as you like piano-bar music. We usually opt for the patio outside the Catlin room, or we dine poolside. The attraction at the pool, other than the fabulous food, is the cats who have discovered people like me who are willing to slip a morsel of fish to them under the table.

Wherever you chose to eat, the view is spectacular and the food exquisite, and the service impeccable.

Fourth Avenue is six blocks of shops and restaurants, galleries and nightspots. If you can't find it here, it might not exist. There's everything from furniture to cappuccino, deli to Greek. We spent the better part of an afternoon just wandering and poking into shops. I'd forgotten to bring a hat (something this desert dweller should know not to do) so I found a great, floppy replacement. I dawdled in the vintage clothing stores (and found some great pieces) while my husband wandered further down the street looking for something more interesting, like ice cream. I dragged him into an assortment of gift shops, jewelry shops, dress shops, art shops – in fact, by the time we got back to the Inn and the margarita I'd bribed my husband with, doubt there was a shop we didn't look into.

This is a place where you can spend hours and a considerable amount of money. You can pick up a map of the place most anywhere on the Avenue (I think I got mine at the Inn). Fourth Avenue's shopping area is located between 9th and University. On weekends they have a little trolley that takes you up and down the street.

Murder is always relaxing, don't you think? We've always thought so, which is why one of our few ritual excursions the Arizona Inn is to Clues Unlimited. Here, we can revel in death and mayhem. We've been coming here for years, back in the days when it was called the Footsteps of a Gigantic Hound, which had little to do with the Baskervilles and more to do with said hound who loved to sleep in the doorway. Now, we no longer have to step over the pony-sized pooch, and can head straight for the bookshelves. Row upon row of neatly alphabetized mysteries, backed up with informed staff who can always find that mystery your best friend mentioned, even if all you know about the book is the color of the cover. They'll also send a newsletter to let you know when murderous authors will be there to meet their public.