Sedona Tours (Mesa, Flagstaff: real estate market, rental, condo)

[TravillionRex]

Has anyone done a day tour around Sedona? I've heard good things about Pink Jeep but are there any others just as good or better? I like to do a little hiking, nothing extreme, so I was wondering which tour would compliment me.

[spyderman]

We did the Jeep tours 10 years ago and still talk about it, very cool. You can drive or do the guided tour, also hike the next day to parts you want to check out more

[Mouser]

This is a Great Adventure
Coconino National Forest - Palatki Ruins

Then check out the Jeeps

[macroy]

We honeymoon'd there in '98... and have gone back just about every year until about 3 years ago. The jeep tours are nice.. I would recommend as early as possible as the chance to see live creatures are better (since most are nocturnal). I don't think they liked us when we were there in Feb and asked for a 6am tour. Coming from DC, where below freezing weather was norm, 40 degrees was actually warm. But the tour guide was dressed like an Eskimo.

Personally, the biggest benefit of the tour is the guide giving you the stories, and such. If you've already done that, you can pretty much do the rest your self (hike, drive up schnebly hill rd etc.).

My recommendation is to to the hike around bell rock. Do the Schnebly hill drive - there are multiple points where you can catch scenery. Just make sure you have rental or 4x4.. the road is not maintained. And do the Cathedral rock hike from Back O beyond road. You can also get a nice view of Cathedral rock from the other side from the upper loop.

Now, I mentioned that we stopped going there about 3 years ago... it was about that time (probably before) where we thought it just got too commercial....

I remember golfing at the Ridges of Sedona in 2000.. it was beautiful, serene, and quite. Starting in 2003 or 04.. it looked like a city course...with condo's all over the place. Now, up on the trails... its still very nice, but that whole uptown and the Y is just way too crowded now.

[MaikeerinWA]

I highly recommend Pink Jeep - they're a Sedona tradition and the folks there really entertain and educate you - but there are others. We visited a couple of months ago, and the Sedona Offroad Adventures tour, with Hummers, looked kinda interesting. We haven't tried them yet, though. Also look at Sedona Hiking Adventures, although as an earlier poster noted, you can do your own hikes as well.

Originally Posted by TravillionRex

Has anyone done a day tour around Sedona? I've heard good things about Pink Jeep but are there any others just as good or better? I like to do a little hiking, nothing extreme, so I was wondering which tour would compliment me.

[Odyssey Star]

From experience our most recent tour with the HUMMER TOURS out of the Uptown Mall Area was by far the most informative and fun tour I've been on. It takes you out into the Secret Mountain Wilderness. The midday tour is a discounted special they run around 11am or so. Ask for Pat, he was great! The other one is the Broken Arrow trail through Pink Jeeps. Very scenic and a "hang on to your seats" type of adventure! There's a Trolley Tour that takes you around town & gives you its history if you want a more "in City" type deal. Arizona Helicopter Adventures is a great way to see and learn about Sedona & its formations from the air. For personal hiking trips, Airport Mesa is an easy panoramic one of Sedona and Bell Rock is an easy one out near the Village of Oak Creek (5 miles from Uptown Sedona). If you're doing this in a day trip, do be sure to stop in Exposures Gallery on hwy 179 and Visions Gallery (Uptown Hwy 89A) for amazing art.

[NezzaBlue]

Being fairly new to AZ, I wasn't sure how it would go when my family expected some entertainment when they visited from the East Coast. Let me tell you Sedona was amazing, and we didn't do the Pink Jeep tours but another one. Forgive me as I have forgotten the name but it was a smaller jeep company that we happened to stumble across. And for a great price we got about a 5 hour tour ending with a sunset. Try your luck with a lesser known company and it will be well worth the money...Enjoy and have fun.

[LordBalfor]

We did did the Pioneer Trail jeep tour with "A Day in the West" and enjoyed it very, very much. SInce my wife has a bad back we didn't want anything too extreme and this tour was just perfect for us - still rather bumpy, but not too extreme - and great fun with some spectacular views.

Ken

[Ria Rhodes]

macroy said:

"..I mentioned that we stopped going there about 3 years ago... it was about that time (probably before) where we thought it just got too commercial...."

Ria Rhodes says:

Yes, that's true, but Sedona was much better still if you go back in time 10 years. Old-timers will tell you how nice Sedona was in the 1950's and 1960's. I can't speak to that time, but I suspect they are probably right. I know for a fact (as I lived in the Village of Oak Creek) that Sedona was infinitely more livable, affordable, and peaceful (even as late as the mid-1990's) than it is now. Sedona actually felt like a community back then, and the present aura of pseudo-exclusivity had not encroached upon the residents thinking yet as all the wealth hadn't been dumped upon the local real estate market. Go into any of the stores now and you can feel the divisions - that was not the way it used to be. Tourists to the southwest are still enthralled by the red rocks of Sedona, but the vibe and peacefulness of just 10-15 years ago is gone, gone, gone forever. If you're a tourist from elsewhere land, and you're nursing that second Margareta in an area restaurant and losing yourself in the giddiness of drink and the red rocks, you're still nowhere near replicating how it was to experince Sedona in the good days - you're getting a diminished version of what Sedona used to be. You can catch a piece of the old days though by taking a drive through the winding roads from Flagstaff to Sedona via Oak Creek Canyon. This is as good as it gets - after that it's your cash and credit cards that people want.

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by Ria Rhodes

macroy said:

"..I mentioned that we stopped going there about 3 years ago... it was about that time (probably before) where we thought it just got too commercial...."

Ria Rhodes says:

Yes, that's true, but Sedona was much better still if you go back in time 10 years. Old-timers will tell you how nice Sedona was in the 1950's and 1960's. I can't speak to that time, but I suspect they are probably right. I know for a fact (as I lived in the Village of Oak Creek) that Sedona was infinitely more livable, affordable, and peaceful (even as late as the mid-1990's) than it is now. Sedona actually felt like a community back then, and the present aura of pseudo-exclusivity had not encroached upon the residents thinking yet as all the wealth hadn't been dumped upon the local real estate market. Go into any of the stores now and you can feel the divisions - that was not the way it used to be. Tourists to the southwest are still enthralled by the red rocks of Sedona, but the vibe and peacefulness of just 10-15 years ago is gone, gone, gone forever. If you're a tourist from elsewhere land, and you're nursing that second Margareta in an area restaurant and losing yourself in the giddiness of drink and the red rocks, you're still nowhere near replicating how it was to experince Sedona in the good days - you're getting a diminished version of what Sedona used to be. You can catch a piece of the old days though by taking a drive through the winding roads from Flagstaff to Sedona via Oak Creek Canyon. This is as good as it gets - after that it's your cash and credit cards that people want.

LOL

You sound JUST Like one of the semi-regular posters on tripadvisor.com's Bora Bora board. For many years he went to Bora Bora on vacation every single year - often for as long as 6 weeks at time (back in the days before it was "discovered" and it was still dirt cheap). Now the place has hundreds of deluxe overwater bungalows - most ranging from $800/night up to $3,400/night and he complains endlessly and bitterly. He's been priced and crowded out and now goes elsewhere - but he still longs for the good old days when Bora Bora was still so affordable, unknown and unspoilt.

Having seen both Bora Bora and Sedona I can understand why both ended up the way they were - both are INCREDIBLY beautiful and almost magical in their feel.

Ken