This is a perfect Ritz Carlton and sets the standard for all hotels. Rooms are impeccable with timely housekeeping and turndown service. Personalized notes from staff and friendly support everywhere throughout the resort. Great visit.

Where do I even begin? This is hands down the best Marriott my wife and I have ever stayed at. First off, the views are breathtaking. You sit on your balcony and view the beautiful mountains of the Arizona Desert. We had the view of the mountains and the pool. It was amazing to sit outside every morning and evening. Second, the amenities. They have three restaurants on site. We did not get to Cayton’s which is a short drive away on the golf course. The other two - Ignite and Core - are on site in the main building. Ignite is casual and has great sushi offerings. Core is a steakhouse and wine bar. We ate at both and enjoyed our meals a lot. They also have food at the pool (I forget the name of the restaurant) but that is delicious too. Each restaurant goes for a different theme so there is a lot of variety in the food offerings. They have two pools, one upper and one lower. We stayed at the upper pool each day as that appeared to be more of an adult pool. There was a water slide attached to the bottom pool. The upper pool is spacious and has a hot tub. It was heated to a perfect temperature each day. Arizona weather was beautiful every day we were there. Evenings around 70 degrees and days got up to 85. You really can’t beat the weather this area offers. They have a plethora of hiking trails that begin right on the property. We hiked every morning we were there and no words could describe the views! Last but not least, the SERVICE!!! They really go above and beyond here and you can clearly tell why they are talked about amongst the top resorts in the nation. Housekeeping every day kept our room spotless. 10/10 for them. The servers in the restaurants are who really hit home for us. My wife wasn’t feeling well at dinner the one night at Ignite. I told our server, Sarah, that she had to head back to the room for the night. Next thing you know my wife calls me and said they sent soup, crackers, drinks, and a get-well card to her room. She was essentially in tears as to how sweet of a gesture. I was completely lost for words and couldn’t believe how kind that was! Thank you to Sarah and team at Ignite for brightening up our night so much! 100/10 for the service at this place. To close, if you want a romantic getaway with unbelievable views and flawless hotel service, you have to come to the Ritz Dove Mountain. They have my vote for best in the nation!!

There are pros and cons to staying here, but at the end of the day, I would not come back. On the positive side most of the staff were attentive, Nick at the pool and Delaney at the front desk were great. The person checking me and couldn't even be bothered to tell me any of them entities or even give me a brochure. After looking at the brochure, I was excited to try the bikes, but it was after five so I had to wait till they open the next day at nine. So I show up at 9:30 the next day and there's nobody there. Once there's finally somebody there, he tells me that the biking is actually pretty difficult in the area and to rethink whether I want to do it. Between that and the larger pool area being completely full almost the whole time making it hard to find seats is a frustrating thing. While the food and restaurant area is very nice, as other people have stated it is very expensive for what it is. Also we were the only guests that were people of color at the entire resort. I feel like we got a few strange glances and obviously this is not what you want when you are on vacation.

Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain is a wonderful resort. It is a beautiful hotel in a beautiful setting. The trails around the hotel are easy to navigate and very interesting. The staff, including the GM Kevin Kelly, are very friendly and accommodating. This was the second time I stayed at this property, and would look forward to returning when I am in Arizona again. It is a very special place.

I’ll preface this with, this is the first (and likely only) review I’ve ever given. I am writing this from the property’s fitness center on the last morning of a three night stay. We came here with our family of 6 (myself, my wife, and then our 15, 10, 8, and 2 year old). For context, my wife and I are in our mid-30s. We chose this property based on a social media find that my wife stumbled across, and then a word of mouth referral from our financial advisor. I admittedly didn’t check reviews in advance, which I almost always do. For the positive, the location and resort setting are beautiful. The hiking options are great. The golf looks awesome, although we didn’t go. We tried to take our three boys (older three kids) to the driving range, but they wouldn’t allow them to hit balls without a collared shirt. I wasn’t that impressed with the lack of flexibility on a virtually dead day on the course, but rules are rules. We made the conscious decision a few years ago that dining is one area of our family budget that we were willing to splurge on. Meals are a center point for us. It’s where we come together to debate, share, laugh, cry, and all the above. This was my first mistake in not digging deeper on this place. The dining at the property is absolutely brutal for the prices. There are essentially 3.5 options. Core (fine dining), Ignite (main hotel lobby), Cayton’s (shuttle to the golf course), and then the .5 is a Latin spot that I don’t know the name of due to the fact that it closed every day at 4pm. We are at each of these places one or more times during our stay. I will preface this part by saying that I have no issue, and actually truly enjoy, paying up for great food and service. We were in Boston the weekend prior and had multiple “irresponsibly” expensive meals that we absolutely loved. The best comparison that I can make for the overall offerings is airport food. Over the 4 day and 3 night stay, we had short ribs (really dry), cheeseburgers (overcooked, huge dry bun, disproportionate condiments), wings (worst I can remember eating), salmon (very bland), harissa chicken (dry), buffalo tacos (the worst dish of the weekend), a few different salads, grilled shrimp (these were okay), flatbread pizza (inexplicably floppy and soggy), milkshakes (not horrible, and I’m laughing as I write this, but somehow not good. I’ve never had a bad milkshake). Last night we had chicken fingers, a salad, harissa chicken, a burger, wings, edamame, salmon, a Diet Coke, a sprite, and 2 ice creams for the kids. It was $343. I will say, the brunch at Core is fine. Not amazing, but fine. Again, for this type of property, and $40 a head for anyone over 12 years old, there should be a prime rib, or ham, with some legitimate brunch options. It is all the main breakfast items, pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, yogurt and granola, oatmeal, fruit, cereals, pastries, but for the price, you’d expect a couple of higher end protein options and potentially some lunch variety. The best non-brunch food we had were sweet potato fries, chips and guacamole/salsa, chicken fingers, and edamame. The staff was friendly for the most part. We had a couple of servers who were better than others, the front desk people were great, the shuttle drivers were great. Looking back, I’ve seen in other reviews, after traveling to a number of legitimate five star properties, this one probably isn’t quite at that level of service. The only amenity complaint is that the pillows in the room are not good. Paper thin. The bed itself is comfortable though. All in all, I would not recommend this property to anyone who cares about food as a focal point of your trip. You will be sorely disappointed.