Arizona
Inside Arizona’s first Grand Hyatt resort in Scottsdale – The Points Guy
Previously known as the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort & Spa at Gainey Ranch, the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale Resort is one of the most iconic properties in Scottsdale, Arizona. Fresh off a $124 million renovation at the end of 2024, the resort is ready for a new era.
TPG recently got to take a peek inside this reimagined, rebranded Hyatt. Here’s what it’s like.
The 10 best hotels in Scottsdale, Arizona, for a dreamy desert getaway
What is the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale Resort?
The Grand Hyatt Scottsdale is located 20 minutes north of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) and is easily accessible from state Route 101 and Scottsdale Road.
With 496 rooms offering modern amenities and scenic views of the McDowell Mountains, the resort has emerged from a complete renovation. It was refreshed from top to bottom to now feature six new restaurant concepts from acclaimed chef Richard Blais (winner of “Top Chef: All-Stars” and judge on “Next Level Chef”), as well as award-winning Spa Aviana set within a beautiful space designed by architect Vernon Swaback, a Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice. The latter houses 19 treatment rooms and a private pool, among other amenities.
Here’s what it’s like staying at Arizona’s first Grand Hyatt.
Mountain views meet meticulous design in the guest rooms
On this visit, I stayed in a king mountain view room, where modern design meets a calming palette of gray-green tones accented with leather and marble.
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BECKY BLAINE/THE POINTS GUY
Thoughtful details were abundant, from the built-in storage bench — which doubled as a luggage rack — beneath the large flat-screen TV to a fully stocked coffee and tea bar and minifridge unit finished with a marble countertop and brass hardware.
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The spacious closet was well stocked with plush bathrobes, slippers and travel essentials (there wasn’t a clothes steamer, but I could easily request one from housekeeping), while the bathroom featured a walk-in shower with crisp white tiling and vanity lighting, plus Balmain Paris bath amenities.
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Practical touches like ample charging outlets throughout the room made settling in easy. Suitable for one to three guests, the space also included an oversized armless chair that converted into a comfy twin bed and doubled as stylish seating around the marble table — ideal for a relaxed predinner snack or glass of wine.
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A sliding glass door opened to an east-facing patio furnished with a table and chairs. Overlooking the McDowell Mountains and Gainey Ranch Golf Course, it was a prime spot for a morning yoga stretch or watching the sun rise with a cup of coffee in hand.
Restaurants offer delicious menus in design-forward settings
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Beyond room service and the Hyatt Club lounge — where guests with club access or World of Hyatt Globalist status can enjoy morning breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres — the resort’s dining scene is anchored by six new concepts from celebrity chef Richard Blais. While I wish we had time to try them all, the highlights from our stay included an upscale Italian dinner at La Zozzona, followed by a leisurely breakfast at Mesa Centrale (enjoyed outdoors on the patio beside a cozy fire pit on a brisk morning).
La Zozzona
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Richard Blais’ Italian restaurant, La Zozzona, is a standout, drawing both resort guests and locals for an effortlessly warm, polished dining experience. Design your own vibrant spritz ($18) with house-made aperitivi and Italian soda combinations, then enjoy shareable starters like a little gem salad ($17) and crispy mozzarella with Calabrian chili honey ($19), both of which impressed us.
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The main entree choices were the epitome of Italian comfort food — the braised lamb shank with creamy polenta ($64) and the linguine with clams in scampi butter ($29) were both deeply satisfying. Service was attentive and seamless throughout the meal. When it was time for dessert and we couldn’t decide, our server said the magic words: “Just get two!” The tableside tiramisu ($14) and the Sicilian cannoli with citrus ricotta and pistachio gelato ($14) were a delightful end to a fabulous dinner.
Mesa Centrale
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BECKY BLAINE/THE POINTS GUY
Breakfast at Mesa Centrale was a relaxed, satisfying start to the day. The all-day restaurant serves everything from brunch and breakfast to lunch and dinner, with options for kids as well.
Standout morning dishes like blue corn pancakes ($24) and huevos rancheros ($26) paired beautifully with strong coffee and lattes, while indoor and outdoor seating — complete with mountain views and fire pits, of course — made it an inviting spot to linger.
Spa Aviana is a tranquil retreat for relaxation
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From the moment you’re greeted and descend the staircase, the spa sets a calming tone. The serene space includes 19 treatment rooms, men’s and women’s locker rooms, relaxation lounges, a full salon and a 24-hour fitness center with Peloton bikes and plenty of strength equipment.
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Be sure to leave time to unwind in the Himalayan salt room or outdoors, where a tranquil spa pool is surrounded by softly flowing fountains, lounge seating and fireplaces, creating a cozy atmosphere designed for lingering. Cocktails and light bites are available poolside.
Booking tip: The 60-minute signature massage ($215) blends Swedish techniques with aromatherapy for deeply relaxing results.
Things to do at the resort and around Scottsdale
With 10 pools spread across the property, the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale balances family fun and adult relaxation with everything from a sandy kids beach, a 30-foot waterslide and a volleyball pool to a peaceful adults-only retreat for reading and unwinding.
Other activities to enjoy on the property and nearby include:
- Borrow bikes (included in the resort fee) from the front entrance and bike down Doubletree Ranch Road to Cosanti, the copper bell foundry and workshop created in 1956 by Italian architect Paolo Soleri (who had also briefly been a Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice). For a unique gift or reminder of your trip to Arizona, take home a handmade Soleri bell wind chime.
- Visit Old Town Scottsdale to peruse the local shops, enjoy the western heritage or take in the art exhibits at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art or the Western Spirit Museum. Between art installations and events like the annual “Parada del Sol Parade,” there’s always something happening in Old Town.
- Meet Navajo (Diné) artist Sheilah Nalwood in the hotel lobby shop, where she and her husband create unique and authentic sterling silver and turquoise jewelry and art.
- Hotel guests have access to the Gainey Ranch private club and golf course with 27 holes of championship golf.
- Just a few minutes north of the hotel is the world’s largest collection of musical instruments at the Musical Instrument Museum. Interactive galleries let you experience the music and instruments of cultures around the world. The hands-on “Experience” gallery is fun for all ages, allowing guests to play instruments.
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Accessibility
The resort is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as it offers pool chair lifts, wide entrances and wide pathways. The main building has a ramp to the front entrance, and most guest rooms are within the main building and accessible with elevators. Both accessible suites and casitas with visual, auditory and mobility accessibility options are available.
As always, TPG suggests contacting the resort directly with any specific questions or concerns.
Insider tips for staying at the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale Resort
- Valet parking costs about $20 per night, while close-by self-parking is $10 per night.
- Definitely snag a dinner reservation for La Zozzona before your stay, as it’s popular with locals.
- The Grand Vista Lounge offers a great daily happy hour from 3 to 5 p.m. and live music starting at 6 p.m. most nights.
How to book the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale Resort
Mountain view rooms are available from $529 per night during peak season (January through May) and from $349 per night in the summer. The Category 6 luxury resort is bookable starting at 21,000 World of Hyatt points per night.
When booking a Hyatt hotel, you’ll want to use a credit card that earns extra points for Hyatt stays, as well as one that possibly offers automatic World of Hyatt elite status for value-added benefits. These include:
The Grand Hyatt Scottsdale is also a member of the American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts program and The Edit by Chase Travel℠, with both programs offering perks and benefits such as early check-in, daily breakfast for two, late checkout and room upgrades (subject to availability).
Bottom line
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Hyatt hotels have become my go-to accommodation option for award stays because they are so affordable. With award redemptions at the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale, a gorgeous property with fantastic service and plentiful amenities, starting at 21,000 points per night, a stay here is a no-brainer. You really can’t beat the price for this experience.
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Key Points:
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Arizona utilities have begun a siting study to explore building a nuclear facility
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The project hit a setback when the utilities were denied a Department of Energy grant
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Dwindling Colorado River water supplies could also challenge new nuclear growth
Arizona leaders are forging ahead with plans for new nuclear energy generation despite ongoing funding woes and water hurdles.
At a June 25 Arizona Corporation Commission workshop, utility companies, universities, local governments and private industry stakeholders demonstrated their preparedness and commitment to turning the state’s dreams for a new nuclear power plant into reality. Arizona’s three largest electric utilities announced ahead of the workshop that they have commenced a siting study to find a potential location for the project.
Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project and Tucson Electric Power are surveying a range of potential sites for a new nuclear plant, including decommissioned coal-fired plants. Commissioners celebrated that announcement at the workshop.
“With the recent announcement that APS, SRP, and TEP have launched a preliminary siting study for potential new nuclear generation in Arizona, we’re seeing real momentum translate into meaningful action,” Commission Chair Nick Myers said in a statement. “The expertise and collaboration shared throughout this workshop will help ensure we’re prepared to seize the opportunities ahead and build a strong foundation for Arizona’s energy future.”
If all goes according to plan, the companies expect to hold community stakeholder meetings later this year near the potential nuclear sites. The companies will then “evaluate technical, financial and other factors” to determine whether to submit an early site permit application to the federal government.
However, the utility companies did hit a snag in their process. They did not receive a U.S. Department of Energy grant they applied for in order to help finance that early site permit application, which would need to be submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The utilities “will continue to work together to explore future funding opportunities to help mitigate the costs of evaluating potential new nuclear generation,” according to a joint statement. The companies stressed that a new nuclear plant is not a foregone conclusion, and they have not decided whether the potential project would use small modular reactors or large reactors like those at Arizona’s Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix.
The June 25 workshop also identified a few other potential obstacles that could slow Arizona’s nuclear energy progress, like supply chain constraints, community backlash and dwindling Colorado River water supplies.
Cuts to Arizona’s Colorado River water allocation could be the most difficult obstacle for the state to overcome in order to pursue a new nuclear plant. Representatives from the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association told commissioners that the Colorado River is no longer a reliable water supply and alternatives will likely require significant investments.
Palo Verde uses recycled wastewater to cool its three nuclear reactors and APS has explored using low-quality groundwater for cooling at the plant. But with water likely to become more scarce and more expensive in Arizona, a cooling source for any new nuclear plant could be a significant hurdle.
Proposals attempting to clear the way for new nuclear technologies, like small modular reactors, also did not fare well during this year’s legislative session. Lawmakers introduced six bills that would have preempted local authority or streamlined environmental review processes for small modular reactors, but only one made it to Gov. Katie Hobbs’ desk.
Senate Bill 1418 from Sen. Frank Carroll, R-Sun City West, would have allowed utility companies to bypass the commission’s traditional environmental review process for project siting if the company planned to replace a coal generation unit with a small modular reactor. That bill could have benefited the joint project from APS, SRP and TEP if the companies eventually select small modular reactor technology for the new plant.
However, Hobbs vetoed the bill, arguing it was not in line with the state’s goal to “responsibly reduce barriers to deploying new energy projects quickly.”
“We are not in the business of picking winners and losers in the energy landscape, and while advancements in small modular reactor technologies are promising, they are still emerging,” Hobbs wrote in a veto letter. “Deploying such a catch-all approach for an emerging technology, as laid out in this bill, is irresponsible.”
Nevertheless, a potential new nuclear power plant has broad, bipartisan support in Arizona. And some communities are chomping at the bit to bring the technology to their areas, as Navajo County Supervisor Jason Whiting told commissioners on June 25.
“Northeastern Arizona’s energy communities… want to be part of it,” Whiting said. “They want to be involved with it. They will embrace this discussion and decision with open arms.”
MARANA, AZ (AZFamily) — Proposals for data centers and ICE detention facilities in Marana are dividing neighbors and turning some against their local leaders.
These are two issues that some Republicans and Democrats are finding themselves agreeing on, as people try to take charge of who and what ends up in their communities.
“Well, first I think everyone on our city council needs to be replaced. What they are doing to Marana and surrounding areas is destroying our future and our kids’ futures,” a Marana resident said.
A recent proposal by the Department of Homeland Security would create an ICE detention center about 3 miles from the community center.
The property proposed for the ICE facility was a minimum-security prison with a capacity of about 500 people. The release said that renovations will increase capacity to 775, but could expand to over 1,300.
DHS officials say the facility would include more exam rooms, a dental area, and other features.
Arizona’s Family asked DHS for some clarification on those numbers and details. DHS released a statement saying, “ICE does not discuss individual pre-decisional conversations, but when a new facility contract is finalized, information will be available on ICE.gov.”
Data center concerns
Meanwhile, a rezoning application for a data center surfaced on the Town of Marana’s website last week.
It’s the second potential data center in the area and has people itching to get to public comment to voice their concerns.
“The detention center- we don’t need that here; no one wants that here. The data center- I mean, we already don’t have water and it’s awful; we don’t need another data center. Look at the ones across the country and what they’re doing,” the Marana resident we spoke with said.
Marana Town Manager Terry Rozema said nothing is set in stone.
“There’s so many factors that could come into considering whether or not something is beneficial to a community,” Rozema said.
Supporters of these projects said they will create jobs.
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The Pocket Fire burning north of Sedona and sending smoke and ash into Flagstaff has been tricky for firefighters to access because of the steep and narrow terrain through canyons and along cliffsides. These same landscape features mean that many others watching the fire’s rapid progress from afar have worried with little information about which of their favorite hiking trails and scenic viewpoints near Oak Creek Canyon may not look the same again in their lifetimes.
On June 30, the fire perimeter had exceeded 15,000 acres after growing about 4,000 acres overnight. This expansion took the shape of a finger jutting to the west from near the southern edge of the fire while the northern edge broadened along Forest Service Road 9042, where firefighter crews worked to hold it.
For residents of Kachina Village, the community most in the path of the fire’s recent growth and one known to be particularly vulnerable to fire, that northern progress being redirected east and west along the firebreak road was something to celebrate.
For others, fears and questions about singed trails, camping spots, homes and businesses remain.
What is clear is that parts of the distant edge of the popular West Fork trail, which starts at West Fork Trailhead off of U.S. 89A through Oak Creek Canyon and follows West Fork Oak Creek as it twists and turns between stunning red rock canyon walls, are within the Pocket Fire’s active perimeter. The popular panoramic vista from the “Edge of the World” viewpoint in East Pocket off Forest Road 231 was also enveloped by the fire in its early days.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean these areas are unrecoverable as scenic and beloved recreation spots. Wildfires frequently burn discontinuously through forested landscapes, as embers send out new sparks to distant forest patches. So the damage severity from the Pocket Fire in many places is not yet known.
After the Dragon Bravo fire burned 150,000 acres near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in 2025, a Burn Area Emergency Response team concluded months later that only 1% of the 71,000 park-managed acres within the perimeter showed evidence of a “high severity” burn. The rest had better odds of ecological recovery.
To prevent a need for too much of that in one of the Sedona area’s most treasured spots, though, crews on the Pocket Fire have worked out a “really solid plan to protect all of our identified values and to keep fire out of the bottom of Oak Creek Canyon,” said operations section chief trainee Clyde England of the Southwest Incident Management Team in his morning briefing about the fire on June 30.
England emphasized that crews were focused on keeping the fire out of the West Fork drainage, by conducting backburning efforts and building a buffer on the east side, while limiting progress north toward Kachina Village. They are also working with the Arizona Department of Transportation to remove hazard trees along the roadway, so there is “one less risk we have to worry about” if the fire does jump down into Oak Creek Canyon.
“I want to reiterate that the threat component is still there, as fire is coming down into West Fork,” England said. “There is still a potential for the fire to find some fuels and get some alignment with the winds out of the canyon. We don’t anticipate it. That’s why we still got a big presence up there, just in case some unforeseen event pushes some fire out up on the ridge into that (eastern) corner.”
Another area the team is watching is along the southern edge of the fire in Dry Creek near Bear Sign Canyon, the site of a popular 7-mile hiking trail that passes through “a carpet of ferns with views of white Coconino sandstone cliffs,” according to a nearby business offering lodging for hikers. England said the team has been able to “insert people” into that area over the past few days to build hand lines and work with helicopters on bucket drops to help prevent the fire from spreading to the Seven Canyons area and Enchantment Golf Resort.
The historic Fernow Cabin, a former U.S. Forest Service guard station, is also safe so far, England said, thanks to defensive firing by crews over the weekend that will continue for a few more days to keep the structure intact.
On the northwest edge of the fire, a containment line along Forest Service road 231 is “looking really good,” England said, with a recent expansion of the fire map there reflecting defensive fire efforts rather than wildfire growth. That effort will help protect the power lines to communities in Oak Creek from damage. Fire retardant drops and reinforced dozer and hand lines have helped prevent the fire from progressing over the 536 or 535 roads.
“If we can get it down in this canyon, use the weather patterns, the fuels, the rocky terrain to our advantage, we can find a way to choke that out,” England said. “So our ops are all looking good, our confidence is there.”
Addressing the southwestern corner of the Pocket Fire perimeter, England struck a more somber tone, acknowledging expansion of flames across Round Top Mountain toward Secret Canyon.
That’s the reality of wildfire in the American Southwest, scientists say, in an age of the drying and warming influences of climate change combined with ever-expanding human development and juxtaposed against federal funding cuts.
“The anticipation is that some of this fire will be on the landscape for a while,” he said. “There’s just no access and no way to get folks into that country. You might see that fire and that smoke for a while.”
Joan Meiners is the climate news and storytelling reporter at The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Send tips or questions to joan.meiners@arizonarepublic.com or follow her work on Instagram at @joan_bikes_arizona.
Have a news tip? Contact The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com at newstips@arizonarepublic.com.
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