Scottsdale, Arizona

Note: MS we missed you tremendously. Girls Weekend was not the same without you.

This past weekend marked the first annual girls trip between myself and three of my closest friends from elementary school (though unfortunately one was unable to attend due to Covid exposure). We grew up in the same town and have been friends since we were 5 years old after meeting in Kindergarten. As we got older and started going to different schools it wasn’t as easy to see each other as often as we wanted especially post college when we found ourselves all in different areas across the United States. With two of us in Seattle area, one in Chicago, and one in Miami, getting together for a quick dinner and drinks was no longer in the picture.

As the four of us are all big travelers we decided to do a yearly trip somewhere. The catch is that each year rotates on who the trip planner is. Trip planner is in charge of picking the location, finding the hotel/Airbnb we would be staying at, and one experience activity for the group to do. I was put in charge for this years trip and as someone who loves to plan future trips and is constantly looking at travel websites, planning a trip for four people who all have very different tastes plus trying to stay within a certain budget was incredibly challenging. New York City at Christmas, La Paz, Mexico, and Savannah, Georgia were all ideas thrown out before finalizing on Scottsdale, Arizona.

I’ve been to Scottsdale before and have always loved visiting. With great shops, restaurants, and bars all within walking distance from our hotel it sounded like the perfect option. We stayed at The Saguaro in Scottsdale and it was very cute and colorful. I don’t know if I would really recommend it for anyone who wasn’t on a budget or in their young 20’s but for us it worked. We knew anyways that we were not planning on spending a whole lot of time in our room, so for the two nights we were there it definitely worked. It was also located right in Downtown Scottsdale so was super easy to explore the area around us.

We spent the weekend checking out different shops, pretending that we knew a lot about art when we walked through one of the hundreds of different are galleries near by, eating delicious food, relaxing at the pool and being in bed by 10 pm like the inner grandmas that we (I) am. The experience we were looking into doing was a hot air balloon ride but didn’t get tickets in time and in the end we were actually ok that it did not work out. Allowed for us to not feel rushed Saturday or Sunday. It was an incredibly short trip but glad nonetheless that I got to see two friends who I don’t get to see a whole lot. Already looking forward to next year’s trip wherever that may be.