Pete and I spent a little time at Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona recently and we really loved it. There is so much to do! Nothing (relaxing), hiking, pilates, biking, yoga, tennis, pickleball, ropes, spa, lectures, healthy eating, meditation, star gazing, did I mention relaxing? But, you might be wondering if this wellness spa is for you. Come with us to find our what we discovered. Pack your bags; but all you really need are workout clothes and athleisure wear appropriate for you desired activities. And, I have a special offer for you. Get 10% off your stay with code TANYA!
5 Reasons to Visit Canyon Ranch Tucson
1. It's the original wellness spa
As you probably know, Tanya and I love to travel and work hard at living a healthy life, so when we can do both at the same time, we're all in. We have known about Canyon Ranch for decades as a top tier wellness spa as well as just a great relaxing getaway for a reset. Pete has friends that have visited for decades and just love the destination so when the opportunity to visit presented itself, we jumped on it. In planning our visit, we decided that a 4 night stay was perfect for our couple's trip. Once you have booked your trip, you'll get an onboarding session with an expert Canyon Ranch staff member to customize your visit and make your activity and/or program selections very simple. The hard part is deciding what to do in the limited time you spend here. This destination is an easy trip from almost anywhere as you fly to Tucson, Arizona and Canyon Ranch arranges to pick you up in a private car. The drive is about 45 minutes from the airport. Once you check-in, you'll get an overview of the Michelin Star property so you can find your way around this beautiful expansive property. The resort is a gratuity free, all-inclusive experience so leave all of your worries at home for a rewarding easy-peazy visit. You'll only need workout clothes, athleisure wear and casual ensembles plus maybe your tennis, pickleball, hiking or biking gear. The resort is in the beautiful mountain desert at 2000 ft with great desert wildlife. It's sometimes a bit chilly at night especially when staring at the billions of visible stars in the clear mountain air, so be sure to bring a light jacket and get ready for a great time!
Canyon Ranch was started by Mel Zuckerman in 1979 and has welcomed thousands of guests ready to improved their lives. Along the way, healthy life approaches popularized at Canyon Ranch—like yoga, meditation, plant-based diets, and integrative medicine—have become mainstream. Today, led by owner John Goff and a team of wellness experts, Canyon Ranch continues to lead with innovative, forward-looking wellness guidance.
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2. The Food!
All of the food at each of the dining facilities is organic, unprocessed and prepared with nutritional and health standards in mind. Healthy, but flavorful, too. Vaquero is the main restaurant and Double U Cafe is the restaurant by the main pool. Mornings there are a wide variety of breakfast styles, from the chef-prepared omelet station (fresh waffles, too), to the self serve fruit bar, to a traditional menu with American breakfast favorites and juices. (The green juice was my favorite.) Evening dinners again have a traditional menu with daily specials, plus the morning "omelet bar" turns into an evening personalized kitchen where the chef prepares "to order" dishes based on a daily theme. One night pastas, one night roasts - your get the picture. There is also a bountiful salad bar. For lunch, we either ate poolside with traditional grill fare and ice cream/sorbet and cookies for our sweet tooth or in the main restaurant. At each meal, you will be given a menu with a food allergy chart as well a nutritional chart that gives you calories and much more. They are fully prepared to handle any food allergy that comes their way. We found the food to be plentiful and delicious. For early risers, you can enjoy Cowboy Coffee brewed over an open outdoor flame. As you have probably guessed, there is no alcohol at Canyon Ranch. Oh, for extra fun, there is also a campfire for S'mores and some evening warmth and conversations with other guests. No one need worry about starving at the Ranch!
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3. The wellness programming
There is so much to do at Canyon Ranch Resort! Pete focused on nutrition, workouts and seminars while I hit the spa daily for treatments. We both enjoyed playing pickleball every morning. You can take lessons, join a drill class or just play racket sports on your own. Again, everything is up to you and the pace you want to set. Here's an example of their daily schedule. Do as much or as little as you want to do. Pete also had group classes on balance and stability, acupressure, and a continuing education-type class in which he was the only non MD student that dealt with Medically Unexplained Syndromes which he found fascinating - Did you know that "long covid" may actually be a brain injury? He also had individual sessions that customized his exercise programs at home for his personal health situation. "More weight and less reps" plus more cardio were the recommendation for his daily workouts to meet his personal goals. The whole experiences is customized to you! You'll see a lot of people engaging in outdoor activities such as hiking, biking or even going on the mostly paved 2 mile loop around the property. You don't have to be sporty or even active to enjoy Canyon Ranch.
Not to be missed is CR Vitality in the Center for Life Enhancement building. This is red light therapy, neuro stimulation, infrared sauna, muscle stimulation, percussion and compression, rolling recover and innovation space. I did these modalities at Canyon Ranch Fort Worth and they are game changers in the recovery process! Pete did the body fat measurement in one of the Bod Pods at the center... as for the result... he's not talking.
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4. The spa. Obviously!
At my core, I'm a spa girlie. I might even be a spa snob. Whatever you want to call it, I enjoy good spa treatments with excellent technicians and service providers. Canyon Ranch certainly excels at spa treatments. While there, I enjoyed the Environ Age Defying Facial after I consulted with the esthetician about what my skin needed. I always find that they give great advice. Pete and I enjoyed a couples massage and I did a Hungarian Scrub on a seperate day. My entire body felt so soft! Tanya's Tip: Get your spa treatments booked as soon as you can because those book up quickly! You can even reserve these during your onboarding phone call prior to arrival. If you change your mind (I did), you can adjust spa treatments once you arrive and get the feel for how you want to spend your time at Canyon Ranch.
Once on property, be sure to utilize the Canyon Ranch app. Download it before you go. It has all of your activities in one place plus its an easy way to access the daily schedule, restaurant information and other handy data. And it's FREE!
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5. Reconnect. Rediscover.
Who is Canyon Ranch for? Couples, singles, girls trip... anyone wanting to have a reset, relax and revitalize. We really enjoyed walking everywhere together and having time just to talk, sharing our various classes and experiences. We played pickleball daily with each other and some other guests. Sitting outside on our front porch in the evenings and stargazing or just listening to wildlife was so relaxing. One evening near sunset we heard quite a commotion that Tanya thought was a bachelorette party. I suggested it was some distant coyotes. Guess who was right? We also saw some big mule deer and lots of turtles and carp in the coy ponds. We were told to look for javelinas, but did not see any. We loved it and will certainly be back. If you want to enjoy a day spa experience, Canyon Ranch Fort Worth is also a good option. They offer all the same spa treatments as Canyon Ranch Tucson. I've been twice and really loved it. Click HERE to watch my recent visit.
Also, you might remember that in September 2023, Pete and I traveled to Austria to check in to Mayrlife for their gut cleanse and medical health resort. That was a much more intense program. Canyon Ranch does offer something like that called Longevity8. Knowing what you want out of a spa destination program is key. We went into this experience to relax and discover a new destination, which can be seen HERE. We hope this overview of Canyon Ranch Resort Tucson is helpful. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments section.
SPECIAL OFFER: Get 10% off your stay at Canyon Ranch Tucson with code TANYA. Click HERE to book your start your own wellness journey or call 866.494.9279 and mention my code to book!
xoxo - Tanya and Pete
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