- Everything you need to know
to go to Sedona, Arizona. Alright, let's go. The first thing to know is
just a little bit about Sedona. Located 120 miles north of Phoenix, Sedona is famous for it's red
rocks, it's outdoor beauty, it's serenity, it's
rejuvenation properties. This is a big wellness
retreat where people come to just get better in all
sorts of different ways. The town also has a really big artsy vibe. There's over a hundred different
galleries in this place. Sedona reminds me a little bit of a ski resort in the desert, but yet it's a high elevation desert. So we're at an elevation of 4,500 feet. And so it's not just sand and nowhere. There's actually lots of trees and lushness that actually
make parts of this a forest. Now, it's popular for more
things than just hiking. We're certainly gonna
talk a lot about hiking as we go through this, but you'll find people mountain biking, playing golf, at their spa retreats. There's tons of shopping,
there's tons of restaurants. And so let's go ahead and check out everything
Sedona has to offer. But the first thing still
here in the overview that you should know
that Sedona is famous for is the McDonald's with the blue arches. That's right. Why does McDonald's have blue arches here? 'Cause Sedona does not
allow yellow on signs, and so McDonald's had to
make their arches blue. But now if you wonder, how's the food at the
McDonald's with the blue arches? - Yummy, yummy, yummy,
yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy. - The princess says it's yummy. The second thing you need
to know is some information to help you get oriented to Sedona. And the first thing you
need to know about is the Y. What is the Y? It's not the YMCA. The Y is where state route
89A and 179 intersect and really most directions and mileage distances from like how far is it
from the center of Sedona, start from the Y. Uptown Sedona along state Route 89A is the home to the compact
and walkable town center with lots of restaurants and shops. Stop into the official tourist information to pick up your maps. South of uptown is Gallery Row, home to many of the galleries that are here and to really
the main shopping village that we're gonna talk about when we're in the shopping section. West Sedona is where
you'll find the less artsy and more commercial heart of Sedona. That's where the McDonald's
with the blue arches are. You'll find many of the big grocery stores and drug stores there. West Sedona is also home to the airport for small private planes, but it does have a great
viewing area, Airport Mesa, that we'll check out in the hiking area. And the Red Rocks of Sedona. These are actually located in an area protected by the
National Forest Service. And we'll go ahead and check these out and the most famous rocks as
we're in the hiking section. And then finally, not technically part of the city of Sedona, but definitely part of
the metropolitan region is the village of Oak Creek. This town is just to the south of it, it's where many of the hotels are, many of the restaurants are. When you're hiking the Bell Rock, you'll find the hiking trails from there. So consider that part of
your Sedona adventure. The third thing to know is
about getting into Sedona. And if you're flying into Sedona, then Phoenix Sky Harbor
International Airport is gonna be the closest
major airport to Sedona. It's ranked one of the best
airports in the USA, primarily because the sunny weather
often leads to on time flights. It's often known as one of the friendliest
airports in the USA too. It is a hub for American
Airlines and Southwest Airlines. The drive from Phoenix Airport to Sedona without traffic will
take you about two hours. If you come on a holiday weekend like us, then it might take you
three and a half hours. So it's a popular place. Do be prepared for some
extra time on the drive in. And the good news is if you're
driving in from Phoenix, although the drive can be kind of long, it's a pretty easy drive. It's all on well-paved interstates. Just the last little bit is
on the two lane state highway, but the drive, you know, not
on any mountain twisty roads. The next major town is Flagstaff, which is about 30 miles away
or 45 minutes to the north. If you're coming in from
the Grand Canyon South Rim, that drive's gonna take
you about two hours. If you're coming in from Las Vegas, that drive is gonna take
you about four hours. And if you're coming from Southern California,
Los Angeles, San Diego, plan for about eight hours to get here. Oh by the way, each one of these scenes I'm gonna do in a
different part of Sedona. Right now, these first
few scenes I've done in the middle of kind of
the main Red Rock District. This is on the Little Horse trail, which we'll talk more about
when we get to things to do. So now let's talk about
getting around Sedona. The best and worst way to get
around Sedona is by driving. Why is it the best and
why is it the worst? Well, it's the best because... Cool wind things. By the way, you'll see all
these wind things all around. Squirrel, the princess is down
here spinning these wind... they spin in the wind, but
they also spin by hand. Anyway, the best and worst way
to get around is by driving, because the traffic can be really rough. If you're here when there's not traffic, then driving is great. But when we were here in
President's Day weekend, it took us 45 minutes to drive four miles around the center of Sedona. So traffic can be heavy and parking can also be rough, too. Be prepared to pay for
parking wherever you go, because many of the hiking trails you have to pay for parking. Some are run by the forest service, some are run by the city. So you have like different rates. The Forest service ones,
you can buy daily rates and you can buy weekly rates
if you're gonna be here longer. And if you don't want
to deal with driving, consider some tours. There are tours that you
could take around Sedona, the number one recommended tour by y'all, when I was coming out here and said, "What should I do in Sedona?" was to take the Pink Jeep Tours. There are these pink
jeeps that roam around. I didn't take one, but I
guess if you take them, you don't have to worry about parking. Now I think one kind of cool way to get around is actually by bicycling. I've seen a lot of people
riding bikes around. There's a lot of big wide bike lanes, a lot of mountain bike paths, and frankly, when the traffic is heavy, it seems like the bikes
go faster than the cars. But if you are biking around, note that not all of the
trails are open to bicycles. This one right here is closed to bicycles and
hang gliders apparently. If you're gonna be hiking and you're here on the weekends,
Thursday through Sunday, some of the trail heads actually
close their parking lots. And then you have to take
a shuttle bus to get there. It's called the Sedona Shuttle. It's free. It goes from two different
park and ride lots to a few of these different trail heads. So pay attention to the times and the maps to make sure you can actually get there. The fifth thing to know
is about the weather and Sedona compared to
the most of Arizona, actually the weather here
is considered pretty mild. The summer's not as hot
as the rest of Arizona. The winter's not as cold
as places like Flagstaff. We are here in the winter. The daytime highs are around
60 degrees Fahrenheit. Nighttime lows can get to around freezing, but not really much
snow in the Sedona area. In the summertime, the high temperatures are about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which can be about 10 to 15 degrees cooler than those in Phoenix. The nighttime lows in the summertime are around the 60 Fahrenheit. Sedona gets a surprising amount of rain, but I guess it makes sense
when you're here looking around and seeing all the greenery. 19 inches of rain here a year, which is twice as much as Phoenix. If you want to come to beat the rains, the least rainy season,
April, May, and June. If you want to come to avoid the crowds, July,
August, and September. Why? Because it's oppressively hot. I mean a hundred degrees,
is that oppressive? I consider it oppressive. I don't know if I'd wanna
be hiking in that heat, but the least people come in the summer. So if you're avoiding the
crowds, summer, also weekdays, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, that's when you have
the least people here. If you wanna come when everybody's here, then that's wintertime. December, January, February. March and April through spring break, that's kind of like Sedona's high season. How long should you spend in Sedona? You can certainly do it as
a day trip from Phoenix. Two hour drive, two hours back. We were here for two days,
we didn't even see it all. We want to come back again. So, you know, I would recommend, I'd recommend a good solid
three days in Sedona. If you like hiking, if
you like restaurants, I think that'll be a good trip. Now Lucy Girl wanted me to point out one thing about the winter temperatures is that the 60 degrees Fahrenheit
can be really deceiving because like the desert sun, there's not, like it's super clear and so it is really warm
on top of these rocks and 60 degrees. I feel like I could be in
shorts and a T-shirt today. I almost regret wearing pants, but I did it 'cause when
I looked at the weather, I'm like, nighttime lows, 37 degrees. That's gonna be cold, right? I need pants. I don't know, I think you should
bring warm weather clothes if you come here in the winter too. The sixth thing to know is about food. And the first thing you
should know about food is there are not many fast food or chain restaurants in Sedona. Most of the places are
sit down table service. If you want to eat at some of
the most popular restaurants, particularly for dinner, you need to make a reservation
well ahead of time. Think like weeks or even
months ahead of time. If you're looking to pack
sandwiches for yourself, you will find some supermarkets. There is a Safeway and there's
also a Whole Foods in town, or maybe if you're
cooking for yourself too, you'll find fixins there as well. We were here for a couple days, I'll share with you some
of the things we ate in the couple days while we were here. So, the first stop,
we're at Tortas De Fuego. They have a couple locations in Sedona. We're in the one in the
village of Oak Creek. And what do they specialize in? Tortas. What do we have here? The torta nortena. This one has Carne asada,
avocado, lots of things on it. They've got like 10
different tortas on the menu. Let's give this one a try. Hmm, nice, soft, fun. The meats are tasty, tender
and juicy. I like this torta. Now what's here next to me? Chicken burrito with mole sauce. For some reason I only
have two knives right now. So we're gonna cut into this in the middle with our two knives and
take a look inside this. And if you're wondering crisp, are you really eating
a torta and a burrito? No, Lucy girl has the burrito. Let's take a look at that. Some good chicken in
there. Good mole sauce. Now they've got the
thing sufficiently cut. Let's give it a go. I personally like the torta better than this because this
mole sauce is quite spicy. But I think Lucy girl will like it. For a really unique drink
spot, check with the chai spot. This place sells chai tea, cold and iced and they've got like really
interesting place to chill out. Especially if you've
just woken up from a nap. We're just here sitting on the
floor like you might in India drinking our iced chai, which tastes really quite delicious. I'm very happy with this chai. I like chai teas and I discovered them at the
Indian restaurants in London 'cause I haven't been to India yet. When I get them from Starbucks,
they never taste right, they just don't have the right
flavors and things like that. But this has a, and you
taste all the spices and it comes with a cool straw too. You wanna try it? Curious princess approved. So now the type of cuisine
you definitely need to eat when you're in Sedona
is southwestern cuisine. What's southwestern cuisine? Well, it's like, you can almost call it fancy
fusion Mexican cuisine. What have I got right here?
Oh, by the way, where am I? Salt Rock restaurant. This
is at the Amara Resort. This is the shrimp tamal right there. It's an interesting looking tamale. This right here, oh, and what's this? It's a light. I'm gonna point
over so you can see it better. This is the elote Mac, like mac and cheese with a elote and corn. We've got a margarita right here. And then right over here we've
got the pork belly tostadas. And it's all with a great view
of the red rocks that you see that way in the night
and that way in the day. Really beautiful outdoor setting. The vibe and everything of
sitting here, super awesome. Oh and the parking vale,
parking we're complimentary, so that's nice too 'cause we've suffered with parking around here. Alright, so now this is really dark. I'm holding the light to light
up me instead of the food. What's the verdict now that
it's done? Super delicious. We really enjoyed the meal.
The shrimp tamal was great. The pork belly tostada was
great. The margarita is great. The elote mac, kind of weird but it's, you can't have
shining stars for everything. Lucy Girl definitely says she enjoyed this more than our lunch today. She was super happy with
just the pork belly tostada. If you have a small
appetite looking for a place with a good view and good
food, this is a good spot. Oh, but definitely make a reservation and don't forget about
their free valet parking. The second thing to know about
Sedona is about shopping. And with any good touristy town, there's tons of places to shop. There's those hundred galleries
that I talked about earlier. But the coolest place to
shop is the Tlaquepaque Arts and Craft Village. Why is this so cool? Well, this place was built 50 years ago to resemble an authentic Mexican village. That's right, the founder
of this place toured around Mexico, visited all these villages and said, I'm gonna
build a place just like that here at home in Sedona. And so while there are a
bunch of shops and restaurants and galleries in here, what's so unique is it doesn't feel
like every other shopping mall. It really feels like a neat village that you're walking around. It is right in the
center of uptown Sedona. If you are here to check this out, that's where you'll find the chai spot
that I talked about in food. Oh, one final note about
shopping though, most of the shops in Sedona
close up around five or 6:00 PM so you're gonna wanna make sure to plan your shopping
for the daytime hours. Though, probably the coolest store in here or the warmest store. I don't know. The store that we actually
bought something from is the Candle Shop, Sedona Candle Gallery Incorporated. They hand make all these
candles in here, $30. We get a medium sized candle. Hold this one up Princess
so they can see it. We got one that has an emoji on it, like it's pretty neat just to go inside. They don't let you film inside,
which is why we're outside. But they hand make the candles right there, right in front of you. Tons of different designs. You like candles or you're looking for a unique souvenir, this is the place and they even box it up for you to make sure it goes
home well on the plane. Now, if you're looking for some shops that stay open a little bit later, you'll find those on State
Route 89, just north of the Y. Some of these shops
stay open until 8:00 PM Oak Creek Marketplace has
some neat stores in it. Here you'll find the candle
company we saw earlier, and you'll find this store, which I like the Made in Arizona store where everything is made
in Arizona in particular. Lots of these cool decorative plates. Now the eighth thing
to know is about where to stay in Sedona. And the good news is that there's hotels for every budget as long as you're rich. Yes, hotels in Sedona,
really quite expensive. They range from expensive
to really expensive, particularly if you're looking
to stay in uptown Sedona, which is probably the most
convenient place to stay 'cause that's where you'll
find the most restaurants and shops and things like that. But if you wonder, Chris,
where are you right now? What does it have to do with hotels? I am in this swing chair along the creek at the Amara Resort. Hotel nights here, $600 a night. So definitely not cheap. You'll find hotels a thousand
dollars a night in Sedona. Easy. And so where do you stay if you're looking to save
a little bit of money? We stayed at the Element
Sedona in Oak Creek Village, $250 a night. So less than half the price of
many of the hotels in uptown. Was it as amazing as a hotel like this? No, but it was less than half the price. And so if you're looking to
save a little bit of money, stay a little bit outside of town, though do plan for some travel time 'cause you heard me say
earlier, it does take a while to get into the city. Would I recommend the Element? Look, it wasn't fantastic, it wasn't this, but it was everything we needed. Free breakfast, big room. Okay, you can check out my
full review on that one later. But I would recommend that
you do reserve your hotel like well ahead of time if you're coming in the springtime, which is the busiest time
of year to come here. I'm gonna say three months ahead. If you're coming to springtime,
probably not early enough. Try six months ahead.
Sedona's really popular. You should also know
about some of the things to do in Sedona. And I think one of the classic things to do in Sedona is definitely hiking. And there are hikes for
all ages, all ranges. So I'll share a few with you,
but the first one I'm gonna start with is the Scenic Trail. The Sedona Scenic Trail,
sometimes called the airport Mesa Trail. This one, there are
like eight parking spots that if you're lucky you can get right by kind of the trail head. If not, then you can park by the airport. There's a big parking lot there for $3. There's a great view that you can see and take a look outta the view right there so you'll know you're on the right path because just like a couple
minutes past the parking lot, there's a gate. And you might think you're
not supposed to go this way, but the sign actually
says Sedona View Trail and says "Please close gate to keep deer off airport
runway" since this parking lot is right by the airport. Alright. And after that gate, it brings you onto the
half mile trail that's, it's actually pretty scenic just looking here in the background. It's pretty flat, although it is rocky. So do be paying attention and make sure you've brought some good sturdy footwear with you. So after about a half mile on that trail, it's pretty scenic. There's lots of great views. You get to this viewpoint right here and at this viewpoint you can see all of the major rocks in the background. Cathedral rock, bell rock,
even a rock over there, that's called Snoopy Rock. And this brings us to the
site that Google Maps pins as the vortex. And so this sign says here
the vortex, what is it? Where is it? And somebody was funny,
they left a magnet here that says volcano eruption route. Ha ha ha. But what are vortexes? So let's talk about that for a moment. Vortexes are places of energy. There's different types of energy, masculine energy, feminine energy. But they're believed to bring healing. And so there's what a lot of brings a lot of people here to Sedona. Other famous sites with
vortexes include the pyramids in Egypt and Machu Picchu. So when you are on these
hiking trails, they are sacred to people, including people
who believe in the vortexes and the Native Americans. So just tread carefully as you're hiking. And from here there are two
trails you can take, one to the right that goes up to the summit and then a longer one
that's an airport loop trail that also cycles around the airport. The summit is definitely
worthwhile getting up to because from here you get
like 360 degree views. You can see all of the famous
rocks even better in all the directions. We also find out this is
like the spot to take photos, including wedding photos. It's a popular spot to dance
if you're a 4-year-old as well. And if you're trying
to figure out what time to come up here, you know what? Sunset, pretty good time 'cause the rocks light
up all sorts of golden. Oh the people who are
doing the wedding photos, they have like a drone going
to take photos of them, so. Oh, and if you are gonna try
to make it to that summit for sunset time, just make sure to allow yourself enough
time to like get back to wherever you parked your car. If you're in those
eight spots right at the bottom, easy peasy. If you're at the big
parking lot up at the top, you could do what we did. I left Lucy Girl and the
princess by the summit and I'm going to get the car and I'll pick them up back there 'cause it's getting dark pretty quick. So if you're looking for
the easiest flattest trail, those are gonna be the trails
right around Bell Rock. And there's a few parking
lots that you can park at to get to Bell Rock. There's the Bell Rock Trail. If you can't get to that one,
there's a courthouse vista. If you can't get to that
one, there's Yavapai Vista. If you're looking for them
like another flat trail, it's relatively flat but a
little steeper than that one. It connects kind of all the
trails along the main route here is the Bell Rock pathway. And so right now we're actually
on the Bell Rock pathway over at the little horse parking. We did see one person pushing a stroller, although I wouldn't recommend it unless you have the ones with
the big inflatable wheels and also popular for
mountain biking over here. One note about hiking and finding your way around here is actually really easy to lose your way on the
trails here in Sedona. I mean they're kind of marked
and they're kind of signed, but 'cause the vegetation
isn't thick, it's easy to just get off the trail. So pro tip, take Google Maps
with you, download offline maps so you have tiles and take a look at it and see where you are and
make sure you're on the trail. Right now, the good news
is we're on the trail, but if we're off the trail then I'd know we need to get back on. But now if you haven't
experienced anything like us and it's busy, then you might
find the parking lots are all full around Bell Rock. And as you continue
onwards, we ended up at the little horse trail head and
hiked the little horse trail. And this is a small trail, it connects to a network of trails. Actually come over here and take a look. The princess, she was
actually just building a castle down here. Lots of rocks. She likes
the red rocks right here. Oh and the red dirt, it
makes everything red. So if you're wearing like black, expect your black to be red. But if you take a look at this sign, you can see like the
trails, they're not big, you know the half a mile long and they connect to lots of other ones and they're come in three types. The green or beginner,
the blue or intermediate. And for the diehards, the black
diamonds are the advanced. We did it, Princess. Advanced. Now I will point out there's a
ton more hikes in Sedona than we're gonna cover in this video because we're here with a 4-year-old. And so all of these
hikes, family friendly, if you're looking for the really
killer hikes that you need to like repel or rock climb,
it's probably someone else's that isn't here with a 4-year-old. Now if you are gonna attempt
the Bell Rock Trail note, there's two, there's one
that goes around Bell Rock. That's the easy one. There's also another one
that's the Bell Rock climb that goes up to the top of Bell Rock and people really quite up there. This one a bit more technical. So I've seen some people already
give up but not this one. How's the Bell Rock hike so far, Princess? - Fun! - Pretty fun and great views too. It's interesting to see how
they put the trail signs around here 'cause it's rock and they can't stick 'em in the ground. They actually build a bunch of rocks up so that they can stick the
trail sign attached to it. But we found the trail
signs are a great place to dance, haven't we? ♪ Oh cheese, oh, cheese, cheese, cheese ♪ ♪ Oh cheese, oh cheese, oh cheese ♪ Of the trails we've done in Sedona. This one is definitely the busiest so far. So if you're expecting peace and tranquility, Bell
Rock is not where it's at. So we did see a lot of people
on the Bell Rock climb turning back and frankly we turned
back about halfway too. Another kinda like flat trail. If you just wanna go around. In addition to the Bell
Rock pathway that goes around is also the phone trail. It's a little narrow trail that runs out here from
the courthouse vista, but that one is a pretty
flat, easy trail too. And the phone trail will
actually take you up pretty close to Bell Rock too. Now if you do have to park at
the Ava Pi Vista lot, which is where we walk, you do have to walk down the highway a little bit. Cross it before you get
to the Bell Rock Trail. Well, takes about 10
minutes. Be careful though. So if your legs are tired
of hiking, good news. There's actually a lot more
things to do in Sedona. One of them is to visit the
chapel of the Holy Cross. It is this chapel that is
literally built like into the mountain, into the hillside. What can you do there?
Admire great views of Sedona. Certainly pay respects at the
chapel. And you know what? There's a hiking trail
that starts there too. Now if you're driving to and from Phoenix to get into Sedona, then another cool attraction is to check out Montezuma Castle. Yes, this right behind me, it is a 20 story cave dwelling
known as Montezuma Castle. This dwelling is nearly 1000 years old and it's actually National Monument. So to get in here, you
pay $10 per person over 16 to get in. Hi. And then there's a one
third mile loop trail. You come in and then you can
see a castle known as castle a. And then walk back to the
car. A nice 30 minute stop. What do you think, Princess? - Papa. - Cool castle? Cool. Now the last thing to know
is not just what I think. 'cause you've been listening
to me the whole time. But curious Princess, what
do you think? How was Sedona? - Fun! - It was fun. And what do
you want them to do now? - Click subscribe and press
the like button. Subscribe. - And you might also
enjoy our Phoenix video and our Grand Canyon videos. You'll find links to those on the screen.
