Best Tucson Hotels

Tucked into a small cleft in the Tucson Mountains, this high-style golf resort works closely with its neighbors, the indigenous Tohono O’odham people. Its chief draw is a 27-hole Arnold Palmer—design golf course, challenging but playable by mortals; and its chief emphasis is on preserving its desert locale. The golf course is Audubon-certified; most of the resort’s foods are sustainably grown nearby by Tohono O’odham farmers, and the spa includes such desert ingredients as creosote, a plant that is known for its natural healing power and is used for skin treatments. Yes, really, the same stuff that preserves wood for centuries. The massive resort complex is a pinkish, stucco multi-story facility that hints of Southwest pueblos; rooms are hotel-style with warm colors such as mustard and sunflower. The pool complex includes a river ride and a water slide.

The quiet, shaded, soothing grounds of this historic complex near the University of Arizona hark back to the days before air conditioning—though there is A/C throughout today. The pink-stucco territorial-style buildings hold cozy rooms whose décor is vaguely Victorian, with lots of dark wood and overstuffed chairs. Still owned by the family of its founder, former Congresswoman Isabella Greenway, the 1930 complex is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the family honors its furniture-making beginnings with a still-operating on-site cabinetry shop. The University of Arizona is just a few minutes walk away, and the inn’s elegant dining room is one of Tucson’s longtime standards for celebration dinners.

Housed in a 5-acre classic complex of adobes in midtown Tucson, the 103-room Lodge on the Desert has a wide range of units that span an equally wide price range, but all feature homey Southwest décor such as dark-wood vigas (ceiling beams), pastel stucco walls, wall stenciling and regional artwork. Small courtyards and pathways separate the dozen buildings, a delightful pool is at the quiet center of the complex, and parking is free. The lodge is about 10 minutes walk from University of Arizona, and it’s an excellent choice if you’re not coming to Tucson for a big-deal spa resort vacation.

With 3,000 acres in the foothills of the Tucson Mountains northwest of the city, White Stallion offers a classic family dude ranch experience at reasonable rates. Accommodations are in adobe casitas with ranch décor such as pine furniture and paneling; meals (included in the rate) are ranch style, with beans, roast beef, grilled chicken and such; activities include the de rigueur horseback riding, as well as swimming, volleyball, bridge, badminton and tennis. Modern times are represented by free Wi-Fi and the ranch spa and fitness center.

One of the most colorful and distinctive historic hotels in the United States anchors the east end of downtown Tucson. The 1919 landmark not only offers historic surroundings, with clawfoot tubs, vintage radios and cash registers, cheery murals in the lobby and café, and compact rooms featuring brass beds, it is historic: John Dillinger and his gang stayed here in 1934 and were captured by Tucson police after a fire forced the gang to depart the hotel hastily. The event is marked every year by the January “Dillinger Days” based at the hotel. The hotel’s Cup Café is one of Tucson’s best breakfast bistros, and the nightlife offerings are a mainstay of the city’s culture. Stay here and not only will you not get lost in your own room, you’ll get a taste of life in Arizona long before anyone ever heard the word “spa.”