Boutique Hotel with Palatial, Italian-Tile Pool

Set among the arid peaks of the Sonoran Desert, The Clarendon Hotel’s blue-and-white-striped exterior seems welcomingly reminiscent of cool bed sheets and crisp pajama bottoms. After a long day skirting around the Phoenix metropolitan area, the hotel’s award-winning The Oasis pool—with its underwater speakers and two-story glass water wall—gives a compelling reason to delay settling into one’s jammies for another hour. Cushioned cabana beds and yellow sun chairs tempt with plush cushions and fully reclining backs as they sit next to multicolored streaks of 24-karat-gold-flecked Sicis Italian tiles. Come evening, swimmers float above the stars, as nearly 1,000 illuminated stars etched into the pool's bottom begin to shine, creating a surreally inverted night sky.

The actual celestial views hang overhead the hotel’s swanky
Skydeck rooftop lounge. At night, guests sip cocktails on black wicker couches stuffed with red cushions. Come morning, the bar converts to a coffee-and-pastry depot, a place to greet dawn with city-skyline and ragged-mountain views. For a meal at a slightly lower elevation, the in-house Gallo Blanco Café and Bar crafts artful southwestern-style plates using ingredients from local farmers.

Named Best Boutique Hotel 2010 by the Phoenix New Times, The Clarendon Hotel gets its invigorating feel from the hearty red and blue accents juxtaposed against white stucco walls, creating a blend of modern and southwestern style. At 400 square feet, the junior suites are open and spacious, with color-block carpeting, sleek black furniture, and round table lamps. Modern décor personalizes each room—some feature highly stylized black-and-white art of western scenes, and others feature an artist offering himself as a living, talking chair.

Phoenix: Modern City Steeped in Southwest Heritage

With more than 300 days of sunshine annually, this burgeoning metropolis keeps visitors coming back with several world-class museums, professional sports, innovative restaurants, and seemingly ceaseless nightlife. Downtown Phoenix is just a five-minute car or cab ride away, but short trip to Camelback Mountain, the crowning feature of the local landscape, lures those looking for the iconic desertscape. The dusty red incline challenges thighs and calves with strenuous hiking trails, then rewards with a stunning mountaintop vista and the chance to break in those new hiking stilettos.

When not searching rock-art petroglyphs from ancient civilizations, those interested in Phoenix’s educational offerings have several museums to choose from. The Heard Museum's white stucco plaza leads to artifacts and artwork gathered and arranged in partnership with native groups. American Indian artists and tribal communities have curated a personal narrative in the museum's collection, shedding light on the lifestyles of early native groups as well as modern-day American Indian culture.