7 Tucson Hotels Where Destination Wellness Started

Destination wellness as an industry started in Tucson. Canyon Ranch opened in 1979 on a former guest ranch in the foothills, built around the idea that people would travel somewhere and spend a week working on their health rather than resting for a weekend. Miraval followed in 1995 twenty minutes away. Between them they wrote the template that every wellness resort on earth now works from.

The reason it happened here was the desert climate. Dry air, roughly 350 days of sun, and a tradition going back to the 1920s of tuberculosis patients being sent to Arizona to breathe — the first Tucson guest ranches took health visitors before they took holidaymakers.

Saguaro, and what it takes to grow one

The saguaro cactus grows wild only in the Sonoran Desert and nowhere else on earth. It takes around ten years to reach an inch, roughly seventy years to grow its first arm, and can live two hundred years and weigh two tonnes when full of water. A national park in two separate districts flanks the city east and west specifically to protect them.

Standing in a saguaro forest at dusk is the thing to do here and it is free.

Sky islands

The other geological feature is vertical. Isolated mountain ranges rise out of the desert floor around Tucson, and because temperature drops with altitude, climbing one takes you through vegetation zones equivalent to driving from Mexico to Canada.

Mount Lemmon, forty minutes from the city, tops out at 2,791 metres. You start among saguaro at 750 metres and finish in ponderosa pine and Douglas fir, at a small ski area — the southernmost in the United States. The drive takes under an hour and the temperature drops roughly fifteen degrees.

The seven below are grouped by position.

The Catalina foothills

North of the city, where the resorts are.

Canyon Ranch Tucson occupies a former guest ranch in the foothills and is the property that invented the category, with an all-inclusive programme of fitness, medical consultations, hiking and meals rather than a spa menu.

Miraval Arizona sits north of the city on a large desert site with a similarly structured programme, an emphasis on mindfulness and equine work, and an adults-only policy.

Loews Ventana Canyon Resort occupies a canyon site in the foothills with two golf courses, a waterfall in the grounds and full family facilities.

Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort sits in the foothills in a 1929 adobe guest ranch with a small room count, a garden and a dining room that has been a Tucson institution for decades.

Central Tucson

In the city.

Arizona Inn occupies a 1930 pink adobe property in the middle of town with fifty-five rooms across fourteen acres of walled gardens, run by the same family since it opened. It is the most atmospheric building in Arizona.

The west and the Rincons

Toward the two Saguaro districts.

JW Marriott Tucson Starr Pass occupies a hillside west of the city in the Tucson Mountains with golf, several pools and views across the valley.

Tanque Verde Ranch sits east of the city against the Rincon Mountains as a working guest ranch with horses, an all-inclusive rate and the national park boundary behind it.

What we have left off

The smaller guest ranches across southern Arizona are excluded. Several are historic and the dude ranch tradition here is genuine. They are ranches rather than hotels at this standard.

What to do

Walk among saguaro at either end of the day, in the west district for density and the east for quiet.

Drive the Catalina Highway up Mount Lemmon, stopping at the pullouts to watch the vegetation change, and have a pie at Summerhaven at the top.

Go to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which is a zoo, botanical garden and natural history museum on one site west of town and is far better than any of those descriptions.

See Mission San Xavier del Bac, a 1797 Spanish mission on the Tohono O'odham reservation south of the city, still an active parish and among the finest Spanish colonial buildings in the country.

Eat Sonoran. Tucson was named the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the United States, on the strength of 4,000 years of continuous agriculture in the Santa Cruz valley.

Practical notes

Tucson has its own airport; Phoenix is ninety minutes north with far more flights.

October to April is the season. Summer regularly exceeds 40 degrees, though the monsoon from July to September brings dramatic afternoon storms and the desert greens. Winter nights are cold.

The wellness resorts operate on multi-night minimums and inclusive rates. Compare on that basis rather than nightly.

Why did wellness start here?

Dry air, constant sun and a health-travel tradition from the 1920s. Canyon Ranch opened in 1979 and wrote the template.

How old are the saguaro?

Roughly seventy years to grow a first arm and up to two hundred years in total. They grow wild only in the Sonoran Desert.

What is a sky island?

An isolated mountain range rising from desert. Driving up Mount Lemmon crosses vegetation zones equivalent to Mexico to Canada in under an hour.

How many nights?

Four, or seven if you are doing a wellness programme.

If you only book one