7353 E. Indian School Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85251, 480-308-1100,
Rates: Expect to pay around $140 for a deluxe room with two double beds and a balcony in the summer; more in the winter. But rates as low as $95 are popping up on the Morgans Hotel Group website these days. Overnight parking is $10.
Stay here if you: love giant hotel swimming pools (with underwater music). If you want to explore downtown Scottsdale in style. If you appreciate larger-than-life architecture. This place is wonderfully over-the-top.
It’s close to: all the good stuff in the city center. Peter Kasperski’s irresistible family of restaurants (Cowboy Ciao, Kazimierz, Digestif) are in the neighborhood. The Fashion Square shopping mecca is just down the street. Papago Park, a few miles away, has great, easy hiking.
The rooms are: sleek and cozy at the same time. Flat-screen TVs, mini-bars, trendy lamps and leather furniture, high-end bath products. And lots and lots of curtains.
They put all of the money into: the look, detailed from floor-to-ceiling. Hot interior designer Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz let his fantasies go wild with giant clouds in the lobby, waves of white in the inviting Asia de Cuba restaurant and a fireplace as big as Rhode Island on the aptly named Red Bar patio. Also: the fitness center, bigger and better-equipped than most urban supergyms.
The bottom line: This is a high-end hotel for the trendy set and so very, very Scottsdale. It’s a restful resort but maintains a certain see-and-be-scene vibe. The pool can turn into a local singles bar on weekend afternoons; a good time to go shopping anyway in the swelling Arizona heat. The service is right there — just tell them what you need.
