Sedona is honestly one of our favorite places to visit in the US. We’re hikers and photographers, and Sedona’s rugged red rock landscape is like an adventure playground for people like us. We spent 8 full days exploring from dawn to dusk, and we really do mean all day every day! The hikes are incredible, but the thing that surprised us the most was how many more fun things there were to do outside of pounding the trails. It’s just a great all-round travel destination for couples, families and groups who love to spend time outdoors.
In this comprehensive Sedona travel guide we help you plan your first trip to Arizona’s exceptionally popular red rock resort town, based on our own experiences.
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Top Experiences
Okay, let’s kick things off with the attractions, activities, places and things you can’t miss in Sedona. We were blown away by the sheer volume and diversity of fun things to do in the region. And we can back that up by telling you that Sedona is the only place in the US that we’ve ever extended our stay.
Here are the experiences we would prioritize:
- Hike as many trails as possible
- Photograph stunning sunrises and sunsets
- Shop at Tlaquepaque Village
- Find hidden caves
- Feel the energy at Sedona’s vortex sites
- Browse art galleries
- Visit the many ruins near Sedona
- Rent a Jeep for a day or two
- Visit the local wineries near Sedona
And here are additional things you could do with more time:
- Ride the Verde Canyon Railroad
- Relax at a desert retreat
- Play golf
- Take scenic drives
- Visit State Parks
- Go mountain biking
- Fly in a hot air balloon ride
Sedona really is filled with an abundance of things to do for all types of traveler. We couldn’t get enough of the endless hiking trails, jeep trails, photo spots and caves.
In fact, Sedona was supposed to be the place for us to unwind at the very end of a 2 month west coast road trip, but we ended up exhausted after our 8 days in town because there was just too much going on!
Itinerary
Let’s move onto planning a Sedona itinerary. This is a tough one for us to help you with because there’s so much to do in Sedona and everyone will visit in a different way. You might want to spend your whole trip hiking, or you might be going for everything but the hikes.
So, instead of showing you an itinerary that might be the total opposite to what you have planned, we’ll walk you through an example of how hikers and non-hikers can spend up to 5 days in Sedona.
Hikers:
- Day 1 – Doe Mountain for sunrise, Fay Canyon, Boynton Canyon and Cathedral Rock for sunset.
- Day 2 – Devils Bridge for sunrise, Birthing Cave, Soldier Pass Cave and Bell Rock.
- Day 3 – Chimney Rock for sunrise, Keyhole Cave and Pyramid Mountain for sunset.
- Day 4 – Robbers Roost, Bear Mountain and Munds Wagon.
- Day 5 – West Fork, Little Horse and Sedona View for sunset.
Non-hikers:
- Day 1 – Montezuma Castle, wineries and Airport Mesa sunset.
- Day 2 – Verde Canyon Railroad, Tuzigoot and wineries in Jerome and Cottonwood.
- Day 3 – Amitabha Peace Park, Slide Rock State Park, Tlaquepaque Village and sunset at Chapel of the Holy Cross.
- Day 4 – Hire a Jeep and drive Schnebly Hill Road, Broken Arrow and Soldier Pass Road.
- Day 5 – Drive the Jeep to Palatki Heritage Site and Honanki Heritage Site, then drive Outlaw, Ranch Loop and Diamondback Gulch, then finish with sunset behind Dry Creek Trailhead before returning the Jeep.
Use these itinerary ideas as a baseline to build your own itinerary based on your travel style and preferences. There are so many ways you plan your trip! Instead of hiring a Jeep (which is expensive) you could take a few days to visit vortex sites and relax in a retreat. Or you could book a tour, try mountain biking or even take a day trip to Grand Canyon South Rim.
Where To Stay
There’s no shortage of excellent places to stay in Sedona because it’s an upscale place to begin with and it’s an immensely popular tourist destination. You’ll find countless options spanning the price range from expensive to very expensive. Notice the lack of cheap or budget? Well, this is Sedona, and that category doesn’t really exist.
Go into your search expecting to pay higher than average prices and you won’t be surprised when you see the numbers!
We think it’s easiest to split the region up into 5 different areas:
- Uptown – Sedona’s downtown
- West Sedona – 3 miles west of town
- Oak Creek Canyon – 4 miles north of town
- The Village of Oak Creek – 7.5 miles south of town
- Cottonwood – 19 miles southwest of town
Uptown is the most expensive place to stay because it’s walkable, near plenty of restaurants and has the most swanky resorts. But we like West Sedona because it’s still close to town, it has more affordable lodging and it’s easier to get to a bunch of popular hikes.
Oak Creek Canyon has more of an outdoorsy, rustic and glamping scene. The Village of Oak Creek is a cheaper place to stay overall, plus it’s near more golf courses. Finally, Cottonwood is a great alternative to Sedona if you’d prefer to stay near the wineries, national monuments and railroad.
Here’s another way we’d break down Sedona’s main tourist areas to help you choose:
- Budget – Village of Oak Creek
- Mid Range – West Sedona
- Luxury – Uptown
- Camping – Oak Creek Canyon
- Hiking – West Sedona
- Photography – West Sedona
- Families – Oak Creek Canyon
- Foodies – Uptown
- Nightlife – Uptown
- Wine – Cottonwood
- Golf – Village of Oak Creek
- Peacefulness – Cottonwood
And finally, here are our top recommendations:
- Budget – Highlands Resort at Verde Ridge
- Mid Range – Matterhorn Inn
- Luxury – Adobe Grand Villas
- Unique – Inn at Thunder Mountain
- Tiny House – Verde Valley Tiny House
- Spa Resort – The Wilde Resort And Spa
- B&B – Origins B&B
Hiking Trails
Hiking in Sedona was a totally unique experience for us, and we’ve ticked off most of the popular national parks, state parks, forests, mountains, deserts and canyons in the US. We loved being able to take on three or four picturesque trails each day without having to drive far in-between. And most hikes lead to stunning views or caves, which is pretty cool.
There’s no doubt that hiking is the most popular thing to do in Sedona. And trust us when we tell you the trails more than live up to the hype. But our favorite thing about hiking here is that there’s a bunch of fun trails to suit everyone’s ability.
Here are some of the most popular hikes:
- Cathedral Rock Trail
- Bell Rock Loop Trail
- Devils Bridge Trail
- Airport Mesa Vortex Trail
- Fay Canyon Trail
- West Fork Trail
And here are some of our favorite hidden gem hikes:
The trails above don’t even include any of the fun cave hikes which we’ll cover later, so leave room in your itinerary until you’ve seen the caves too!
Cathedral Rock and Devils Bridge are the two most famous hikes in Sedona. We hiked both for sunrise on different days to beat the crowds, and Cathedral Rock was magnificent but Devils Bridge was a bit anti-climactic for us.
Photo Spots
One of our favorite things to do anytime we visit a new place is figure out the best landscape photo opportunities. And in our opinion, Sedona’s sunrise and sunset photo spots are up there with the most amazing in the US. Our camera shutters took a beating during our 8 days in town!
Here are some of the popular photo spots:
- Airport Mesa Vista
- Airport Mesa Vortex
- Cathedral Rock Summit
- Devils Bridge Summit
- Bell Rock
- Chapel of the Holy Cross
And here are some our favorite hidden gem photo spots:
- Dry Creek Vista
- Doe Mountain Summit
- Schnebly Hill Vista
- Little Sugarloaf Summit
- Lovers Knoll
Airport Mesa Vista is the classic sunset spot. There’s a large parking lot at the top and there’s another small parking area near the bottom close to Airport Mesa Vortex. We recommend parking at the top, hiking Sedona View Trail down to the vortex and then back up in time for sunset.
We hiked Doe Mountain, Chimney Rock, Little Sugarloaf, Cathedral Rock and Devils Bridge at dawn so we could shoot sunrise photography. And next time we’ll try a few new spots to see if we can beat them.
Caves
If you’re seeking a bit of adventure, you simply can’t miss Sedona’s secret caves. There are 7 caves that we know of, along with a hidden arch that looks a bit like a cave when you stand underneath it, so let’s call it 8! And you can hike to them all easily enough.
Here are the caves and what we think they’re best for:
- Subway Cave – Photography and Instagram.
- Kachina Tree Cave – Well hidden secret.
- Birthing Cave – Striking cave entrance.
- Soldier Pass Cave – Most diverse trail.
- Keyhole Cave – Getting off the beaten path.
- Shaman’s Cave – Escaping the crowds.
- Raven Caves – Multi-chamber cave.
- Fay Canyon Arch – Bonus cave-like formation.
Okay, the Subway Cave is by far the most popular cave because it’s Instagram-famous. And to be fair, it’s really cool. But our favorite caves were Birthing Cave and Keyhole Cave because they were quiet, photogenic and easy to get to from town.
Jeep Trails
This one is totally optional because it’s not cheap, but if you’ve got a few dollars spare for a splurge we can’t think of a better way to do it than renting a Jeep and driving Sedona’s off road trails.
We splashed the cash on a 3-day Jeep rental and it was the best decision we made on our whole trip. Why? Because we got to drive 9 awesome Jeep trails!
Here are our favorite off-road trails:
We’d never done anything like this before so it was a fantastic introduction for us. We especially enjoyed Broken Arrow and went around the loop three times. But here’s the kicker, having the high clearance vehicle allowed us to drive off-road to places we wouldn’t have been able to reach with our SUV.
Here’s what else it gave us access to:
- Devils Bridge Trailhead (way closer to the bridge)
- Soldier Pass Road (so we didn’t have to deal with parking)
- Palatki Heritage Site
- Honanki Heritage Site
- Shaman’s Cave
Yes, it was a big expense. But it was totally worth it for us. We got ours for three days but you could do a one or two day rental instead. There are plenty of companies in town you can use to hire, but we went with Barlow Jeep Rentals and they were excellent.
Tours
In a place like London or Paris you expect a bunch of tours to be available, but not in the Arizona desert, right? Wrong! Sedona has way more tour options than we expected including for things like off-roading, wineries, helicopters, stargazing, day trips and more.
If you’d prefer someone else to do the driving and explaining, it might be worth booking a guided tour. At the very least, it’s an easier and more affordable way to do some of the Jeep trails we just mentioned above.
Here are the top rated tours we recommend:
Best Time To Visit
It doesn’t matter where you go, there are always pros and cons to visiting at different times of year. Determining the best time for you to visit Sedona depends on what you prioritize when you travel. Do you prefer cheaper prices or fewer crowds? Do you mind cold weather?
In truth, we don’t think Sedona really has a true off season like many popular resort towns. But it definitely has busier and less busy periods.
Here’s what you can expect:
Spring – Peak season so it’s very busy, hotels are either expensive or fully booked up, there’s a lot of people vying for trailhead parking and you’ll have to deal with lines for restaurants. But great temperatures for hiking and exploring.
Summer – Busy but not peak like spring or fall mainly because it’s too hot in summer. We wouldn’t want to hike in the middle of the day. Expect inflated prices at hotels and busy trailheads.
Fall – Similar to spring, fall is peak season so it’s back to full and expensive hotels, lines at restaurants and cars circling like sharks at trailheads. But again, this is a perfect time for hiking.
Winter – About as low season as it gets in Sedona, which means quieter trailheads, cheaper hotels and less busy restaurants. But be ready for chilly mornings and evenings.
We visited Sedona in December and couldn’t have asked for better weather considering it was winter. It was freezing cold at dawn and dusk so we needed heavy coats, but daytime temperatures were perfect for hiking and we were able to book last minute accommodation at reasonable rates.
The one thing that surprised us most was how busy the trailheads were despite it being winter. In hindsight we think it was because we visited in the lead up to Christmas when a lot of people tend to travel.
If you do go in December, we highly recommend going to Tlaquepaque Village to see the Christmas lights, but go early in the afternoon because the traffic was outrageous once darkness fell across town!
Our Sedona Photos
We hope our Sedona travel guide helps with planning your vacation to Arizona!
Happy Travels,
Mark and Kristen
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