Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Staycation

Last weekend Adam and I did our first staycation! We love to travel, but with our work schedules it’s hard to get away as much as we’d like (and you know, the whole money thing). A staycation is the perfect way to get away from home without having to spend money on flights/car travel.

It’s a million degrees in Phoenix right now and no one wants to visit, so it’s slow season for hotels. During the summer all of the amazing resorts around the valley lower their rates and offer deals, so it’s the perfect time to stay somewhere that wouldn’t normally be in our price range. After a bit of research we decided to book at room at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. It’s a beautiful resort in North Scottsdale with 5 restaurants and bars, 6 swimming pools (including one with a white sand beach), a spa, and 2 championship golf courses.

I used Groupon to book our stay. The price was better than from the actual resort and I got 6% cash back from Ebates! AND they waive the $32 resort fee when booking through Groupon. Adam works Sundays now, so I only booked one night (Friday), but we still had plenty of time to check out a couple restaurants, the pools, and explore the resort. The only thing I’m bummed that we missed was the spa. We talked about going, but we decided to splurge on a nice steak dinner instead.

Anyway, I left work a little early on Friday and we headed to the resort to check-in. Guess what?!?! They have dog greeters in the lobby! That afternoon they had an older golden retriever out, but the next day they also had a yellow lab. I overhead the guy say that they’re rescue dogs…and now they live in North Scottsdale and get belly rubs all day long! That’s the life!

Our room was just the standard Fairmont Room, but it was still huge and had its own balcony. We don’t usually splurge on hotels when we’re traveling, so it was definitely the nicest hotel we’ve ever stayed together. Our room faced one of the golf courses, so we had a partial view of the course and lots of trees.

For dinner we made reservations at Chef Michael Mina's BOURBON STEAK. We both ordered the filet mignon for our main, but Adam had the wedge salad and I ordered the truffled macaroni gratin. Our steaks were cooked perfectly and so delicious. Oh, and they bring out a duck-fat fry sampler as a starter. It had 3 different kinds of fries with 3 different dipping sauces. All of them were delicious! For dessert we shared the roasted strawberry cheesecake and it was pure heaven! It was the fluffiest cheesecake I’ve ever had and the roasted strawberries were genius. I think it was the most we’ve ever paid for dinner (we also had drinks), but #treatyoself.

After dinner we walked around the entire resort. We found the giant Adirondack chair photo op and luckily a couple walking by offered to take our picture. We’re so bad about getting pictures together, so I’m happy we got this one.

We walked to the pool with the white sand beach and ordered drinks for the rest of our walk (I ordered the Frose All Day). They were doing a dive-in movie that night for the kids, plus they had a foam/bubble area for the kids. That was definitely the place to be for families.

On our walk we noticed that there were only a few people at the adult swimming pool (18+ years old), so we went back to the room to grab our suits. It’s so hot outside that the water was a little warm, but eventually we got used to it and it felt amazing to soak. Right next to that pool is the big one with water slides and they were having a huge party! They were blasting music and we saw fog machines and glow sticks. So we got to enjoy the music, without dealing with the people.

The next morning we got up and went to brunch at the resort’s main dining room, the Ironwood American Kitchen. The food was buffet style, but was amazing quality. They had avocado toast, eggs benedict, brioche French toast, an omelet station, and of course delicious looking pastries. They also had a mimosa and bloody Mary bar. We really enjoyed our breakfast and drinks.

After brunch we walked back to our room stopping at two of the other summer photo ops around the resort. They had this Best Summer Ever painted wall and these giant popsicles. It was such a fun touch and a great opportunity for summer pictures!

We had such a fun and relaxing night away together. It’s exactly what we both needed! I wish we could have stayed another day, but we didn’t want to let our work schedules stop us from enjoying something new. We’re still getting used to not having the whole weekend together, so this was the perfect opportunity for us to both realize that we can still have a great weekend even if it’s just a day.

Have you ever done a staycation? What time of the year is the slow season for your area?