We had a spectacular vacation! We almost booked Scottsdale (again) but thought we’d try something different and so glad we did. TUS airport is small, renovated, friendly employees, easy to navigate. We were whisked away by car it only took 40 minutes to arrive at the Ritz Dove Mountain.
You arrive thru a security guard/gate who calls your name to the valet who is waiting to help. Our Casita was ready at 10am when we arrived, we check in at the desk very quick w/champagne & chilled waters, and they golf carted us to the Casita immediately.
By 10:30am we were unpacked and changing into our swimsuits for a pool day and lunch. The 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath Casita was rustic lovely, 2 covered patios, huge living room, a side hallway area to store golf clubs, nice bedroom with TONS of storage to as many clothes as you can bring. I loved the dressing area for makeup and styling your hair, plus a walk in closet w/shelves. My husband had a nice work desk area plus a dinner table and chairs. The marble shower is large with a bench, plenty of space for toiletries, deep soaking tub w/salts provided daily, twice a day housekeeping, post beam ceilings in the living & bedroom, plenty of good lighting & good water pressure.
We tried all the restaurants and all are highly recommended. We especially liked Cayton’s because it reminds us of a country club vs hotel. All the employees are highly trained, friendly, professional, seeking to help you, and addresses us by name as soon as they see us. We took the shuttle 10 times atleast for golf & dinner, easy and quick. We had someone pick us up at our Casita in a golf cart and take us to the main hotel often. Each and every employee was excellent. (Actually the only employee that could use retrained was the manager at Turquesa/lunch, as he didn’t engaged at all with vacationers). Employees here seem to actually LIKE their jobs and are happy!
Fitness center- nice sized for a hotel gym, we could get our workouts in fine, not a fan of Technogym equipment but it was in good condition. Bottled waters. Towels. No complaints. The prime times of 7-9am is very busy so if you can go at other times, you’ll enjoy your workout more, which is what we did.
All the restaurants are excellent- I did individual detailed reviews for them.
SPA is lovely and they have summer specials
Husband is a current Titanium, Lifetime Platinum, former Ambassador status Marriott member and the front desk recognized his status immediately and thanked him.
Pool- 2 main pools, 1 is definitely more kid friendly, 1 more adult friendly, but not noted as such. They have a slide which looks fun. Plenty of Cabanas for rent. Plenty of pool loungers and umbrellas for every 2 loungers plus plenty of trees for shade. Pool water temp was warm. During the week the pools are great meaning quiet, weekends get busy, but you don’t have to rush down early in the morning to grab chairs. If you go at 11am you can still get prime seating.
Rangers- they have a full time ranger or two at the kids camp area. Turtles, owls, Javelinas, tons for kids to learn. They do S’Mores twice a week, for a nominal fee you get a s'mores kit, they light a fire pit, you have benches, and make your own s'mores, at dusk.
The landscape is just beautiful and so different for those coming from the East Coast. The Saguaro cactus were flowering during our stay. The hotel is built into the mountain (kinda) but it feels that way. Your view is the top of mountains & boulders.
3 suggestions: 1) they sell a Day-Pass for $85 to locals. It’s too cheap. On weekends the pool and restaurants get too crowded. Either raise the price of these passes, limit the number especially on holiday weekends, or only allow during week days. 2) pool bar should be open for drinks at 9am. Daily we thought… I could go for a Blood Mary or Mudslide but had to wait until 11am. 3) pool loungers- the price of adding a pad to the chair of $25 is fine but raising that to $100 on holidays or weekends to too much. If you kept it at $25 daily more people would purchase this service. Frankly, it’s ridiculous that at a Ritz the loungers aren’t padded for free.
We highly recommend this Ritz and will return. Overall excellent vacation!