grand canyon

Raft Down The Colorado River This Summer

Part of the reason to get awesome accommodations when traveling is so that you can get a little adventurous and be safe in the knowledge that a 24-hour chef and 3,000-count sheets are waiting to receive you at the end of it. After departing your suite at the Grand Hotel at the Grand Canyon – about as luxurious as it gets, but remember we are talking about a remote and giant hole in the ground – river rafting might make the perfect counterpoint.

If you really want to get adventurous, then skip the Grand Hotel and go straight for Arizona River Runners' 3- to 13-day trips down the Colorado River. A full-on vacation inside of the canyon provides a glimpse of nature and rams and stars not often seen. Sure, there are things like tents to deal with but the soul can luxuriate in the outdoors, and a few days on the rio Colorado will give the body every excuse it needs to shack up at the spa at the Mandarin Oriental when the trip is done.

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Tags: adventure, adventure travel, arizona, colorado, colorado river, glamping, grand canyon, rafting, river rafting

Visit the Grand Canyon without the Crowds

by Alison Wellner (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

It's that time of year when the National Parks beckon, and the mother lode of those parks is definitely the Grand Canyon. But if the idea of battling crowds in ill-fitting shorts, wielding dripping ice cream cones makes you a little queasy, the InterContinental Montelucia in Scottsdale has a better plan in mind.

The Grand Canyon Spectacular Package starts aboard a private jet, for the couple-of-hundred mile journey to the park. Then you board a helicopter below the rim, for champagne and h'ors d'oeuvres on the Colorado River.

Okay, that wasn't exactly a workout, but the package includes a full day of spa treatments with as many treatments as you can squeeze in. Joya Spa wasn't just an afterthought at Montelucia, it's a destination in its own right -- it would be a stretch to say it's the Grand Canyon of spas, but it's really big: 31,000 square feet, and all done in Moorish theme, as is the rest of the property.

As part of this package, your unlimited treatments are executed in the spa's biggest private suite, the Grand Palace, which has its own wrap-around deck and a view of Camelback Mountain. The package also includes four nights in the hotel's signature suite, car service to the airport, dinner at the resort's well-regarded restaurant Spanish restaurant Prado, with wine pairings. Cost: $9,995 (double occupancy) excluding tax and service charge.

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Tags: grand canyon, GrandCanyon, hotel, hotels, packages, scottsdale, spa