Sedona is well known for its red rocks and mysticality, but there is much more to the charming Arizona town than buttes, yoga and crystals. In addition to its breathtaking scenery and pervasive spiritual culture, there are world-class resorts and a sophisticated culinary scene focused on food that is local and organic and nourishes the mind as much as the body. The jewelry and art in local shops and galleries echo millennia of Native American and Western history, and outdoor recreational opportunities are boundless. If you know where to look, vacationing in Sedona rewards you with sights, the supernatural and then some.
Visit a Vortex
Even skeptics agree that something feels different in Sedona. Locals insist that the difference comes from vortexes. The town’s rock formations are believed to create swirling centers of concentrated energy that you can actually feel, and that are conducive to healing, meditation and self-exploration. Get the full vortex experience, complete with an expertly guided “cosmic energy shift,” through Sedona Mystical Tours (sedonamysticaltours.com). Or you can just choose a hike to one of many famous vortexes to experience the energy for yourself, including Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock, Boynton Canyon, and Airport Mesa.
Board a Train
For a unique perspective on the area’s natural and cultural treasures, Verde Canyon Railroad offers daily vintage train tours through the scenic wilderness surrounding Sedona. You’ll pass ancient Native American cliff dwellings, historic mining sites and lots of nature. You may even glimpse a bald eagle or two (verdecanyonrr.com).
Shop the Town
Sedona’s highly strollable Main Street is lined with local shops surrounded by views of the town’s famous red rock buttes. Beyond the touristy trinket hubs, there are fine art galleries, clothing stores, eateries and, of course, rock shops selling crystals. Watch for bronze plaques with handprints or bootprints of the stars of the western movies filmed in the town and its surroundings. Nearby, Tlaquepaque (tlaq.com) is a picturesque shopping destination replicating a hacienda-style village, complete with flower-filled courtyards, splashy fountains and its own rustic chapel. An added bonus is its collection of dining spots and small stores selling mostly art, clothing, jewelry and home décor.
Dine
Sedona has a thriving fine dining scene that includes one of the town’s coolest and most innovative restaurants Mariposa, a creation of Chef Lisa Dahl. This Latin-inspired grill is set on a bluff and offers amazing 360-degree views of the surrounding red rock bluffs (mariposasedona.com). Another option is Cress on Oak Creek, where tables overlook a rushing stream under rustling sycamore trees, and Chef Michael O’Dowd’s menu focuses on local, foraged ingredients presented with Italian influence (lauberge.com). For more casual dining, try the wood-fired pizza at Chef Dahl’s Pisa Lisa (pisalisa.com), or margaritas and lively Mexican food served in colorful digs at 89Agave (89agave.com). Or take out the tastiest tamales in town from casual Tamaliza Café (sedonatamaliza.com).
Travel the Wine Trail
The Verde Valley, located about twenty minutes outside of Sedona, is Arizona wine country. Surprised? This unlikely wine terroir is increasingly considered a wine region of note. One of the first wineries in the region, Page Spring Cellars overlooks Oak Creek and has beautiful grounds and vineyards to stroll, as well as a charming tasting room and bistro on site (pagespringscellars.com). In fact, the area offers more than two dozen wineries and tasting rooms to visit (vvwinetrail.com).
Revive at a Spa
Few spa destinations are associated with spiritual awakening like Sedona, where even the most mainstream spas offer unique “alternative” services. L’Apothecary Spa (lauberge.com), at L’Auberge de Sedona, offers resort guests signature services exploring the spiritual connections with nature, like “Feet in the Creek” and “Forest Bathing.” Enchantment Resort is home to the Mii Amo Spa (miiamo.com), particularly famous for its Crystal Grotto, a circular sauna designed around a crystal center where therapists burn sage to prompt enlightenment. For those seeking a day spa experience, Sedona’s New Day Spa (sedonanewdayspa.com) offers natural, desert-based body treatments and Native American-inspired spa rituals using organic indigenous products.
Learn Some History
Sedona has many stories to share, and The Sedona Heritage Museum tells them—at least from 1876 to the present, focusing on the area’s development by its most recent settlers. This charming trip to the recent past is brief but worthwhile. You can cover the whole museum in about an hour (sedonamuseum.org).
Explore Native American Ruins
Within twenty minutes of Sedona are three places that visitors can visit to see how the area’s first, Native American inhabitants lived. The Palatki Ruins are filled with ancient cliff dwellings, pictographs and petroglyphs created by the Sinagua people between 500 and 1425 AD. The Sinagua also built the picture-perfect Montezuma Castle, one of the oldest, best-preserved cliff dwellings in the Southwest. At V-Bar-V Petroglyph Heritage Site, there are no structures—just a few (over 1,000) of the most well-preserved petroglyphs in Arizona.
Stargaze
Sedona’s night sky seems so vast that it feels like the entire universe is directly above you. Take it all in with a telescope and an expert. With Evening Sky Tours, a Sedona astronomer will meet you about twenty minutes from uptown Sedona with a high-powered telescope and a textbook’s worth of knowledge to share as you view planets, stars, distant galaxies and even the International Space Station if its orbit permits (eveningskytours.com).
Jump into a Jeep
Off-roading is more fun when someone else is driving, especially when your driver is a professional familiar with every boulder, crevasse and canyon you’re traversing. Jeep tour companies are pervasive in Sedona, but the most popular (and most colorful) is Pink Jeep Tours, which offers over a dozen tours of area sites, from rugged buttes to tucked-away Native American ruins. Just be prepared for a little white-knuckling (pinkadventuretours.com).
Take a hike
Sedona, a destination treasured for its impressive red rock setting, is equally prized by outdoor lovers for the amazing hiking trails that traverse its scenic landscape. The area’s hikes offer a broad range of challenges, from easy walks and flat footpaths for beginners to steep scrambles and long-distance hauls for the more experienced.
Devil’s Bridge Trail is, hands down, the most iconic (and social media-plagued) hike in Sedona, thanks largely to a photo opp at the end—a razor-thin plateau of rock that forms a dramatic bridge with a precipitous drop beneath. The four-mile round trip hike, from Dry Creek Vista Trailhead about six miles northwest of town, is moderate in intensity. There is little shade on this hike, but that doesn’t deter the crowds. Don’t count on unfettered access to the bridge—a crowd-enforced line often forms of those wanting to experience it one at a time for IG posts.
Boynton Canyon Trail, which is nine miles west of town and attracts fewer hikers, tracks the gradual rise of its namesake canyon through low scrub, then thick pine woodland. The trail ends at the back of the scenic canyon, where a short climb leads to a magnificent view over the terrain you just hiked. Along the six-mile round-trip trail, there are two detours to make the hike even more memorable (taking both will add about a mile to your hike). Near the start, the clearly marked Boynton Vista Trail provides stunning red rock views. Another unmarked offshoot farther along leads to a cave and ancient cliff dwellings. Boynton Canyon is also the location of one of the four major Sedona vortexes and a sacred Native American site marked by brightly painted lodgepole totems.
Snoopy Rock Trail, at the base of a natural landmark visible from Uptown Sedona across Oak Creek, provides a short loop just over two miles long that is ideal for families and beginners. Named for the popular Peanuts character that the red rocks above it are said to resemble, the trail is relatively flat and easy to walk. Be forewarned: It has limited shade and can be hot on sunny days.
West Fork, Oak Creek Canyon Trail, about ten miles north of Uptown Sedona, is a scenic shaded hike through the high, ancient curved walls of a pine-filled, red rock canyon carved by the creek the hike follows. Perfect for beginners, it also presents the ideal opportunity to tailor a hike to your schedule. The hike ends at a spot where the creek spans the canyon floor leaving no room to walk without wading. Because there’s no “destination,” you won’t miss anything if you decide to turn around earlier, whenever your timing requires. If you have them, hiking poles are useful to steady yourself on rocks and fallen trees as you traverse the dozen or so creek crossings the hike requires.
Cathedral Rock Trail satisfies recreational hikers looking for another iconic red rock experience. This three-and-a-half-mile, round-trip hike to the top of a famous Sedona landmark is just a few miles out of town. The trail is low intensity at the beginning and becomes gradually more difficult as it rises. Many hikers turn around when the trail becomes challenging, but the ninety-minute hike to the top is worth the effort for the views, particularly at sunrise or sunset.
Trekking Tips
With 3 million visitors every year, Sedona encourages all to engage kindly with the land and take the city’s Leave No Trace pledge (visitsedona.com). To help navigate to your chosen hike’s trailhead, consider using alltrails.com or the AllTrails app. Remember parking lots at most trails fill up early, so plan your day accordingly. Most also require a $5 Red Rock Pass, so secure yours in advance at recreation.gov. And always take a screenshot of the trail map at the start of your hike, before you lose your cellular service, to help navigate your return.
Lodge in Luxury
It’s not just the destination that makes your vacation. Accommodations are also key.
Located at the base of Boynton Canyon nine miles outside of Sedona, Enchantment Resort (enchantmentresort.com) and its celebrated sister property, Mii Amo spa (miiamo.com) comprise an expansive haven surrounded by towering red rock and pine-lined trails. The Southwest-style resort melds into its secluded setting with 218 rustic adobe casitas and luxury suites, most featuring patios and decks opening to breathtaking canyon views. Locally inspired dining options, elevated amenities and highly curated activities indulge guests, as does the Trail House, a recent addition where visitors go to learn about the local landscape and wildlife, as well as to join seasoned guides for a slew of memory-making adventures.
“Tree-lodge” is how the in-town Amara Resort and Spa (amararesort.com) describes the aesthetic fashioned by its recent multimillion-dollar renovation delivering hip, nature-inspired style and comfort to its 100 spacious rooms and welcoming gathering spaces. A heated, infinity-edge pool anchors its large, creek-side courtyard featuring fire pits and spectacular views of Snoopy Rock. Inside, the lounge-like lobby and SaltRock Southwest Kitchen invite guests and visitors to relax between hikes, signature spa treatments and strolls through the eclectic shops and art galleries of nearby Uptown Sedona.
Close to Uptown Sedona, Ambiente (ambientesedona.com) is the area’s uber-chic newcomer. The unique “landscape hotel” boasts 40 individual, cube-shaped, glass suites (called atriums) that are built on stilts above the desert landscape and strategically scattered across the site to harmonize with its natural topography. Moody, minimalist décors soothe guests while panoramic, floor-to-ceiling windows create the illusion of being in, rather than merely observing, the surrounding red rocks, running creeks and Coconino National Forest. A poolside restaurant, a three-room spa and posh amenities elevate the luxe experience and exclusivity of the adults-only resort.
