Our Trip to Tucson Arizona and the Hilton El Conquistador Tennis and Golf Resort!
Today we’re going to share about a trip we took a wee bit back. It was a trip to Tucson Arizona and it was so much fun. Interesting thing about our trip to Tucson Arizona is we’d not heard of many people visiting Tucson. We learnt two things that correspond with a trip to Tucson Arizona:
- Most people want to visit the Grand Canyons which is more on the Phoenix side and have these on their bucket list.
- Not many people have heard about the Sabino Canyons in Tucson AZ.
We are gonna cover some of the things that we enjoyed and give you some little tips and tricks if you ever do plan on visiting Tucson Arizona. Also, we want to give a shout-out to my cousin Charles Makayi and his wife Melissa for the extra fun we had on our trip to Tucson Arizona!
First of all, we flew to Dallas Fort Worth, TX with KLM which was a nice uneventful flight. From there we took a local flight to Tucson Airport arriving at 6pm. The ride from the airport to our Hotel, the Hilton Tucson El Conquistador Golf & Tennis Resort in Tucson was uneventful as well; although we were exhausted from the 16 hr journey…
Guess what, our exhaustion literally lifted when we arrived at this hotel…Jaw dropping oasis in the AZ desert! We will go deeper into this hotel yet…
It is not your young party type resort. It is definitely a more mature crowd and family type real estate. If you’re looking for a young party hotel/resort, clubbing and all that stuff, you’re really not going to find it at the Hilton El Conquistador. You’re going to find a more sophisticated upscale crowd because this isn’t your $39 motel or booze trip. Its also tucked out of town thus out of the way. In fact we did find a group of execs having a blast on their closing company reward program. We too had a business conference there with some of Paul’s consultants and we had decided to have a whole week added to the 3 day event, and had an absolute blast with Dr Tiku and Co.
The Highlights of our trip to Tucson Arizona:
Let’s get to the fun parts – The Accommodation:
This was where most of the fun was by the way. Located at 10000 North Oracle Road, Tucson Az. the Hilton el Conquistador Tennis and Golf resort was a pleasure to behold and stay at, period! Its apparently set on 500 acres of Sonoran Desert at the foot of the Catalina Mountains foothills. A welcome green oasis in a really hot dry desert (Resort info)!
We stayed in a suite in the main building with a balcony overlooking the Mountain side as we’d requested! There was the above mentioned party going on pool side on our arrival and we were here to relax, re-group and have a bit of business as well. So sleeping was important away from the noise going on…mind you they were not rowdy, just dancing, music playing till 1 am. We had been advised that its best to ask for a suite facing the mountains if you needed sleep. We recommend it too. Guests who faced the pool view gorgeous as it was had a bit of a time sleeping of an evening when there was an executive pool event; which was 3 nights of our stay. We needed to grab some shut eye. We ordered a room service light evening meal and had it at our balcony contemplating this life of Riley! 🙂
The business event was awesome totally and on to the fun…
We had a couple of themed nights and had the most amazing meals and fun activities. It was awesome. We totally recommend that you arrange a lunch or dinner at Epazone Kitchen & Cocktails.
Or have a totally unique experience at “The Last territory” where we were treated like old world Texans with real ingredients from the finest local growers, ranchers, vintners and brewers. We had a themed night here and enjoyed a variety of dished from across Texas….with some really cool music, it was a really, really cool atmosphere.
We had idyllic afternoons by the pool, playing water volleyball, I read a couple of books, or simply took in the Texan sun and topped up our tans lololol. We literally didn’t have much room to enjoy the cuisine at the poolside restaurant aptly called “Dessert Springs Grill.” Because guess what, the breakfast at El Conquistador served at the Sundance Café is the biggest most filling breakfast we have ever had the pleasure to partake in the USA, despite the large portions, in US anyway. This resort takes breakfast portions to whole new level. In addition to the all you can eat breakfast buffet, they have a set “continental section” with portions that you don’t need to even look at the cooked breakfast, whether you like extra size portions or not. Filling doesn’t begin to describe this. We literally didn’t need to eat lunch because we felt that full all day.
And yet the Dessert Springs Grill also had an endless drinks policy if you purchased a drink or portion of food…! You could have sodas, ales, yogurt, all day bottomless. To say we fell in love with this hotel on our trip to Tucson is an understatement!
Let’s talk about the Dessert Springs Grill surrounds aka the resort pool and water park! It is a children’s dream come true with splashing slides and rock pool, Jacuzzi and a normal adults 25 m pool. In the surrounding dessert environment of dry hilly sides and cacti, the El Conquistador is a green oasis.
Its surrounded by beautifully manicured lawns, with various themes, Koi ponds, palm trees, flowers in bloom, all kept sparkling fresh by sprinklers that work overtime all day. The green was so green as in outside of Africa I hadn’t seen such perfect greenery and it’s so beautiful. It really was/is breath taking!
If you are a fitness buff:
Well for our trip to Tucson Arizona, we had planned to simply chill out by the pool. But Paul likes to work out of a morning, so he utilized the gym facilities. I chose to have a spa moment and while we were aware of the others we didnt really use them. But for your information they do provide the following for your health and fitness:
A Golf course, walking/ jogging trail &tracks, hiking trail, tennis courts, A putting green, your pools of course, driving range and a basketball court. I think they had more but these are the ones we actually noticed or simply took a bit of a tour of.
Okay we mentioned the Sabino Canyons…Why? Because my cousin kept insisting it would be a great trip to go. We even planned it and put aside a day to go canyon walking as we imagined they were like the Grand canyons? Then we were told by the hotel concierge that they were nothing like the Grand canyon and that we would be sorely disappointed if we went with that idea in mind. They instead suggested a shopping trip where we could pass by the canyons and take some photos at least. We jumped at that instead and thus didn’t really see the canyons in details though we did take a photo of the entrance to the trails. 🙂 Also that it would take two days out and back. So instead we spent the day/evening visiting and had a barbeque with my cousin. It was hilarious seeing a real life tarantula for the first time in our lives and he goes, touch them they are harmless…what! Hmmm No thanks!
The guests who actually visited ad walked the canyons came back with stories that made us feel like we had missed out on a life opportunity. So we recommend you go visit the Sabino canyons if you take a trip to Tucson Arizona.
Shopping in Tucson Arizona:
Our final stop was of course shopping in Tucson! We spent the day at the Shopping centre which is huge. We picked up some goodies in VS, comparing it to the one in the Trafford Centre Manchester UK, it was really, really nice. We tried out some bites in the various eateries in the shopping town aht are not common to UK snacks or light meals. So if you do go to Tucson AZ, make sure you stop in at…The Tucson Mall! Apparently the city’s leading retail destination and largest shopping center in Southern Arizona. We noted amongst others JC Pennys, Sears, Macy’s, Dillard’s, Banana Republic, BevMO, Foot Locker, American eagles outfitters, Gamers Warehouse, etc.
The eateries included: The Cheesecake factory, oh yeah; Mimi’s Café , California Pizza Kitchen, Olive garden, Red Robin, Shane’s Rib Shack and lots of smaller ones for Ice creams, snacks etc. We couldn’t end our trip to Tucson without picking up some signature Saguaros or giant cacti souvenirs local to this area. enjoy our images below as you deffo add a trip to Tucson Arizona to your bucket list!
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If you want assistance in locating the best vacation package for Tucson or even the grand canyon, feel free to reach out to us. You can email me wife, julie@juleskalpauli.com and we’d be more than happy to pull up some options for you. Hope you got benefit from our wee trip to Tucson Arizona and the Hilton Resort and here’s to you seeing the world! Enjoy our lil photies 😀
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I have one request Julie, bring me back some food!! Girl that looks amaaaaazing!
Thanks for sharing your awesome pics, I sure needed them after hearing I’m about to get a ton of snow the next few days…
Aaarrrg snow just before spring. That sucks…BUT how about you make some snowmen and have a ton of snowy fun with the liluns they grow so fast!
One box of goodies coming your way…in whats state is the question lolol 🙂
Julie Syl~
It seems you had a lot of fun there. Very well expressed your trip. Looking forward for more from you.
We shall sure keep serving as long as we have breath, thanks for your time 🙂
PKJW~
We sure did thanks hun and we look forward to taking you o our journeys too 🙂
PKJW~
This place sounds like fun. Last Christmas, I went to Las Vegas. From there, we went to Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona but was not aware about Tucson. Maybe next time, will keep this on my bucket list. Thanks for sharing this post with us!
Hey Ana,
You indeed would love Tucson. We would love to visit Phoenix too and Las Vegas is on our Travel Bucket List…we want to take a Roadtrip in USA with Vegas right in then middle! Thanks for your time 🙂
PKJW~
I really would like to visit Arizona before this life ends and so grateful for your reminder why! 🙂
Hi Claudette,
Glad to have inspired you to visit Tucson Az 🙂 Thanks sis!
PKJW~
This has me dreaming of warm, beautiful Arizona on a cold, Midwest day!
Awww if its any consolation so do we Rochelle 🙂 thanx for swinging by!
PKJW~
I’ve never been to Arizona! The hotel looks incredible and the food looks delicious. What a fun little visit you had. I would have spent most of my time in the hot tub.:)
Teheheeee Brianna,
You sussed me out already…hot tub, glass of Margarita..The life of Riley 🙂
Julesy 🙂
Looks like you had a lot of fun. It looks really beautiful there.
Tucson Az is truly beautiful, surprise us too, we had the desert mindset lol!
PKJW~
Looks like a fabulous trip. Lots of stuff to do or just relax. My kind of trip.
Glad it is Debbie 🙂 Thanks for your time!
PKJW~
What a fun trip you guys had! I’m so jealous. Your pictures show a great time exploring and enjoying your time. Thank you for sharing this fun time!
XO, N || http://www.nickieanddime.com
Hi Nickie,
You are welcome to come along on our next fun trip 🙂 Seriously anyone can do! Thanks for coming along with us on our trip to Tucson Arizona xo
PKJW~
I’ve been to Phoenix and Scottsdale, but never to Tucson. Thanks for the great suggestions for when I do finally make it there!
And we believe yo will Scott since you got the ravel bug too 🙂 Cheers for stopping by 🙂
PKJW~
This place looks stunning! A cheesecake factory! Oh my I know where most of my trip would be spent lol would need to take a bigger size of clothes for the on the way back haha
The restaurant choice seems amazing. I’ve always loved those ranch experiences – look like so much fun. Glad you had a great time in a great city. x
Hi Zoe,
The Restaurant expereinces were so unique as we hadnt had them before so well worth a visit just for that 🙂 Thanks for your time hun. :)7
PKJW~
I have relatives residing in Tucson, but have never been there. Nice to see that you enjoyed your trip!
Hey Czjai,
You should go visit your relatives, check out the Hilton El Conquistador and enjoy Tucson!
Thanks for stopping 🙂
PKJW~
What a great trip you had, Arizona is such a beautiful place to visit. I would love to visit there soon 🙂
Yes we did Carmela, and it is beautiful. Thanks for your time 🙂
PKJW~
This was great! I have not gone there yet, but a friend will be relocating there soon. Now I feel like I know it all. Very nice!!
Awww now you can give them a tip Valerie! 🙂 Thanks for your time!
PKJW~
This looks like it was soooo relaxing. That Hilton Hotel……OMG!!!!! BEAUTIFUL.
Hey,
We had a great time and that Hilton is Gorgeous. Try it
PKJW~
I’ve never been to Tucson. Looks like you really enjoyed the trip and had a great time with friends. The hotel looks so relaxing!
This is an amazing experience, Arizona is so beautiful and seems you had so much fun =)
Yes Adriana,
The Tucson Arizona we saw was beautiful and we are grateful for that!
PKJW~
It looks like you had an amazing time and that resort looks beautiful!!
We had an amazing time Courtney Thanks for stopping by!
PKJW~
I want to visit Tucson Arizona now, I have only been to that side of the pond once but hoping to be visiting the states later this year too and hope I will have enough time to check out Tucson. Great post.
Well Miranda, hope you will have more than a month to visit that beautiful side of the pond 🙂
Tucson AZ is cool! Let us know how we can help 🙂
PKJW~
Wow great post Julie. Love the pics. I haven’t been to Tucson as yet, only New York & LA. Will definitely need to schedule Tucson in when I next organise a USA trip
Looks like fun! I am obsessed with AZ been there twice because family. You have to go to Goldfield Ghosttown if you go back it is awesome. Haven’t been to Tucson specifically but will eventually thanks for the post 🙂
Wow. Looks like a great place to visit. Will put it on my to do list. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Lori, thanks for swinging by we are glad to have inspired! 🙂
PKJW~
[ Smiles ] I can clearly see that you had a fabulous time in Arizona!
Great Post… Diane and I Love Arizona…and will go again …. Love all the pictures… Thanks for sharing… reminds me of one of the reason we’re in the home business we’re in…
Jerry
Hi Jerry,
Thanks for stopping by! We are glad you do love AZ, we do too, we love to travel and is super awesome being part of the home Business industry 🙂
PKJW~
I totally want to go to the Grand Canyon, but have also never heard of the Sabino Canyons. Thanks for the info, I will have to include that in my trip now.
Hi Miranda,
Glad to have helped add to your Bucket List, thanks for swinging by 🙂
PKJW~
I’ve been to Arizona years ago. It’s a beautiful state.
I feel a new AZ trip coming Shana 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
PKJW~
I have been a Hilton Honors member, I just love their properties! Your trip looks like it was fantastic. I need to add this property to our list of must visits..
hey Andrea,
We are HH Too in addition to being members of the world’s coolest travel club 🙂
You need to add this Resort on ya list!
PKJW~
WOW! Looks like it was a fun trip Julie! Love the pictures!! Grand Canyon is so on my list to travel! Amazing place!
Wow Jelena, We are glad to spark a new Bucket list for ya. Thanks for your support 🙂
PKJW~
Sounds like you guys had a great time. That hotel looks super nice and luxurious. Thanks for the tips on how to enjoy Tucson, AZ!
Hi Roxy,
We did have a great time we always purpose to. The Hotel is super Luxurious it is a Hilton Resort after all! And thats why we chose it!
And we are super glad you dropped by hun xx
PKJW~
Arizona is on my bucket list. Loved seeing these pictures.
Yes Yes Yes You are most welcome Jessica, we are glad you got Tucson AZ on 🙂
PKJW~
I am a travel freak. I love exploring new places. This blog is so good for me. I have bookmarked it.
Hey Hun.
We are travel freaks we got the wander-bug so bad we love to share. Welcome to our world 🙂
PKJW~
Wow!! I can’t wait to visit AZ. beautiful Land there indeed!! For sure I will visit the Canyons 🙂
The canyons await your pleasure Tara. Dont forget your shawl. They do get a lil chilly of an evening!
PKJW~
Wow, check out that amazing view, all of them. I’d never want to leave. It looks like you guys had a lot of fun. Now I want to go!
Hey Leslie,
We usually never wanna leave any place we visit. They are all amazing Its an amazing Planet and life!
Thanks for coming along 🙂
PKJW~
i’m jealous. I wish I could sunbathe and not freeze up here in the East Coast. Beautiful pictures.
Bingo… 🙂
Dont freeze, Gte your Bucket List working overtime Ron 🙂
PKJW~
Never been to Arizona before, but from the pictures it looks like Tucson is a pretty cool place! 🙂
Tucson is a pretty laid back Hot Place Maikel 🙂
PKJW~
I feel like I just had a trip to Tuscon Arizona. Not hard to imagine as I’ve been to Phoenix, Grand Canyon, & neighbouring states. Plus your photos invited me along. Great trip & as always, you had a blast & so did I reliving your trip.
hey Roslyn,
Glad you had a wee trip to Tucson AZ with us, we feel like we have been again too 🙂
Thanks for coming along!
PKJW~
Woow !!~ Looks like a very Good time and very Beautiful ♥♥☺☺ thank you for sharing >>>> Our Trip to Tucson Arizona and the Hilton El Conquistador Tennis and Golf Resort!
It sure was great fun Sandra and You are Most welcome! 🙂
PKJW~
How beautiful! I haven’t made it out west yet but I cannot wait to visit and see all the sights. The resort is lovely!
That resort was built for relaxation R & R in mind simple…You would love it Jovan 🙂
PKJW~
I would love to go here it looks so amazing. Thank you for taking me with you on this trip and sharing your time here.
You are most welcome Rebecca. We are Glad you got to experience a trip to Tucson Arizona with us 🙂
PKJW~
Great post. I’ll be heading to Arizona in a couple of months. This came at a good time 😉
Sure Glad you found us Steve,
You Will enjoy AZ. Which part are you going to?
PKJW~
Most of my images of Arizona come from the memoir The Glass Castle, your images gave me a new view of it. It looks like a wonderful resort for a relaxing vacation, such a nice place for a conference too!
Hey Karina,
We are sure glad to have given you a whole new perspective in Arizona. We better get that memoir and learn some!
The Hilton El Conquistador is a great piece of real estate, an oasis in a desert in the literal form!
PJKW~
I have been to New Mexico but never Arizona. I would like to travel around the southwest with my kiddos sometime in the future.
Awwww if you loved New Mexico Heather, you would love Arizona too, esp the less racy Tucson… 🙂
PKJW~