Enchantment Resort

I love this hotel. The location is incredible and the property is beautiful and luxurious, yet understated and relaxed. All of the buildings just blend effortlessly into the surrounding canyon. It was my second stay there in the same wonderful room--number 38, a roomy studio casita with a fireplace, big balcony and kitchenette. I haven't seen the adjacent rooms, 37 and 39, but all three rooms are tucked away and perched on a little hill together directly facing Boynton Canyon. Don't miss enjoying the colors of the canyon at sunset on your balcony! The views are incredible and the room is very private. I think one of the main reasons this hotel is so special is the staff who works there. Every single employee we met was sincerely down to earth, had a great personality and was incredibly kind. I thought I would remember more names, but I've unfortunately forgotten most of them. Our server, Robert, at Che Ah Chi (one of the restaurants) was great. I have a few food allergies, the worst one being gluten, and I get a little embarrassed when I have to order out sometimes, but he was gracious and made me feel like it was his pleasure to make sure I had a great dinner He was also very personable and we had a memorable evening. The Mii Amo Spa is top notch and perfect in every way. I had two outstanding treatments: Holly is a fantastic massage therapist (and a truly wonderful person) and Solana, also great, gave me a perfect facial and I really appreciated all of her advice on skincare. I will definitely request them when I return someday. I was also so excited to see deer. I literally almost ran into one at dusk, grazing on some grass a few feet away from where I was walking. I was told they are often there in the early morning and twilight and my encounters, while thrilling to me, were just another everyday, common occurrence at the Enchantment Resort. Hmmm...I travel a lot and rarely write reviews, but this hotel is just magical in every way.

We've stayed at the Enchantment for 2 days and we trully enjoyed every second of it!! It is a fantastic resort, the decor is magnificent and the service off the chain. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a little retreat.

My wife and I stayed here for four nights for a babymoon. They sent us a plate of about 6 chocolate covered strawberries five minutes after we got to our room with a card telling us congrats. We really appreciated that. The views are really amazing. We also felt that we could walk everywhere, even though our room was more toward the front of the resort. There is a guard house so we definitely felt secure, although it's pretty isolated. But it's not far from downtown Sedona, and we had a rental car so we traveled out of the resort two of the four full days. The resort is far enough away so that the "touristy" nature of Sedona is not present. We did a bit of hiking to see the red rocks around the resort and also a lot of relaxing on the various patios at the resort. We found the staff to be very helpful for any requests. Right before we visited, we learned that another couple we knew had stayed here and had great things to say about it. I can confirm that they were right.

Brought the family here on the final leg of a road trip through the Southwest in mid-July based on its listing on “1000 Places to See Before You Die�, the positive reviews on TripAdvisor, and that it belongs to the Preferred Hotels & Resorts group . The challenge to having such a strong reputation is to uphold it on a day-to-day basis. On this score the resort disappointed us on what may be seemingly trivial matters but again, when a place such as this reaches for and wants its lofty standing, it needs to pay better attention to the details. To start, when we arrived, I specifically asked the check-in person whether tipping was included in the pricing of the resort. She responded that tipping was solely at my discretion and that no one would be expecting a tip. This held true for the household staff as the person who took us to the room was quick and efficient and left quickly after showing us to our casita without lingering around hinting for a tip. This did not hold true for the tennis garden where the tennis pro added 20% to the invoice without asking. I paid it but was left with the feeling of having been forced. In my review of the resort to management, I mentioned this. The Managing Director responded quickly to me and stated that the gratuity “is just a suggestion and of course, can be modified at the guest’s discretion�. Yes, that is true but the last thing I want to do at a resort is to be confrontational about a bill for a service that I thought was fine. The issue is, if gratuity is at the guest’s discretion then truly make it so. I should add that most of the service response level is very high, from the very helpful ladies at the concierge to housekeeping. The service level, though, in the restaurant Tii Gavo was not very good though. Compared to the Mii amo Café where we also dined, Tii Gavo needs quite a bit of improvement. It may have something to do with the kitchen seemingly about 50 yards away from the dining area. The wait staff probably walks about the equivalent of a 5K by the end of their shift going from table to kitchen. That distance might also explain the seemingly inattentiveness; they were too busy trying to walk to the kitchen and back to see how we were doing. Our dinner took over 40 minutes to arrive. This versus Mii amo, where the waitress was friendly and irony of ironies, apologized for the food being delayed at a lunch when it didn’t take more than about 8 minutes to arrive! There were no apologies at Tii Gavo for the delay so I am concluding that the wait between food ordering and arrival we experienced to be the norm. As for housekeeping, our room had easily visible spider webs. Housekeeping came within minutes to clean it up. It would have been better if it was cleaned before we got there before it creeped out my daughter. Some of the fixtures in the room were a bit worn and in need of repair or replacement, a chipped toilet, a screen door with a latch handle that was broken. These are what I would normally consider to be minor issues at a Hilton or a Marriott. But again, for a resort that is supposed to be in the vein of a Four Seasons, Oberoi, or Mandarin, I experienced a level of unevenness of experience that worked against my overall enjoyment.

What a hotel this was! Everything was excellent, from check in process (there was someone escorting and parking our car while we checked in... to taking us to our casita (we followed a golf cart). I had use of the spa, pool and fitness center as part of resort fee. Spectacular views greeted us in our morning walk. There was also Club Coyote to care for young ones while parents were enjoying the spa services. Tiny drawback was nobody told us to just show keycard to gate guard when reentering hotel grounds and had to be condescendingly told by guard to just show it next time. The hotel grounds also have some private residences that are off limits to guests but there were signs posted outside of their driveways. At the end of main road, guests may use keycard to exit hotel grounds for hiking in the woods. Word of caution, read the sign about bears before embarking on a hiking expedition.