Guide to Sedona & the Grand Canyon

If you caught my post on Road Trip Tips for the Fam, you know we recently took one to the Grand Canyon and Sedona, Arizona. We had to get pretty creative with our trips this summer with the whole pandemic thing and though this was a trip with some workarounds, it was awesome! If you’re looking for a more isolated place to go during the COVID-era or are just wanting to visit the GC or Sedona, here’s what you need to know…

First up, both places are about 7 hours from San Diego, so if you’re in SoCal, it’s not too bad of a drive. Again, read my tips for surviving a road trip here. We chose these locations because they seemed family-friendly, somewhat isolated, and they’re obviously both unique and beautiful. We went with another 2 families and we all quarantined before and after so everything felt pretty safe. I’ll include a few other precautions I took at both locations below.

GRAND CANYON

Where to Stay

Hotels in the area are few and far between and honestly, there aren’t too many nice options. We thought it’d be a good as time as any to try Glamping aka staying in fancy tents at Under Canvas! The kids were VERY excited about this part but I will say it was an adjustment from normal hotels for the adults, ha! Honestly it was fun and an experience - 2 nights is more than enough though. Great for kids!

Rooms: They have private showers and bathrooms in each tent but everything is veryyyy up close and personal if ya know what I mean. Not a ton of privacy (a sheet/tarp thing). This was fine for our family but just a heads-up! We brought in cots for the kids. If you’re staying as a family, I’d suggest getting the Suite or the Stargazer (which has a skylight to watch the stars at night and was amazing!). Also, there was a LOT of questions about the bathroom so I included a pic below! Bet ya never thought you’d see a pic of a toilet on Lucy’s s Whims! 😆

Food: Under Canvas is a 20-minute drive from the canyon which wasn’t bad. They provided breakfast and dinner so we’d grab our breakfast and head back to the tent for safety measures. I’d say to skip the coffee and grab Starbucks closer to the canyon. We brought our own wine and some snacks, but note that there aren’t fridges here because of critters. Our daily schedule was to grab breakfast, head out for the day, come back for dinner, smores, and stargazing. It was nice having the fire pit at Under Canvas for evenings.

What to Pack

Depending on when you go this will obviously change but remember that you’re in the desert. For us, it was warm during the day and COLD at night. Definitely bring warm PJs, sweatshirts, etc, and lots of hairbands because your hair will be in a bun the entire time. It’s super windy!

What to Do

The Canyon is huge and there’s tons of exploring to be done. We loved walking around and taking it all in. Here are a couple other ideas:

What I Wore

SEDONA

Where to Stay

If you’re looking for a place to recharge and are into spiritual stuff (I am :)), then you’ll love Enchantment! It’s located in Sedona on one of the biggest energy vortexes in the world. The rooms are a little outdated if I’m honest but the spa, hiking, location, pools, etc makes up for it for sure. You’re in the middle of nowhere and it’s just a cool experience. And let’s talk about the SPA because we absolutely loved it!!! Everyone was so nice, they had amazing and unique treatments, and yeah, can’t say enough good things about the spa experience.

Food: The restaurants aren’t that great but the Spa food was good! Kids sadly aren’t allowed to eat in the Spa so we just took it to go and ate on a common green space that the kids loved. Overall there’s a lot of open space on the property so you can definitely spread out from other guests. At night, we made early bird reservations so that we could skip the crowds. One night we ordered takeout and set ourselves up on one of the unused plazas on the property.

Entertainment: There are multiple pools on the property which normally would be great but since we went during COVID, we requested to use a private empty pool for more space. Lots of areas to swim, layout and enjoy the scenery at the same time. We also went on multiple hikes a day and everything was gorgeous! We saw deer, halvainas, and someone spotted a brown bear on a hike! Speaking of hiking, there are 2 hikes on the property and the one to the energy vortex is super easy and quick. We did that one twice.

During the day, we’d hike, swim, and then take another evening walk before stargazing and dinner. At night we’d set up the projector for the kids and played games.

The hotel is pet friendly and Clover loved being out in nature!

What to Pack

We were super low-key while there. Think lots of swim, lounge, and hiking stuff. Obviously sun protection, hats, and all that for the kiddos too.