The Princess is the Sonoran Desert done at full American resort scale: 65 acres of palm courts, plazas and fountains half an hour north of Phoenix Sky Harbor, sitting beside the TPC Scottsdale courses that host the PGA Tour’s rowdiest week. It has held AAA Five Diamond status for decades and runs with the calm of a place that sleeps thousands of guests a night and knows precisely how.
More than 750 rooms, suites and casitas spread low through the grounds, many with terraces or fire pits facing gardens that turn violet at dusk. Interiors lean on warm desert tones and Southwestern texture without tipping into theme-park kitsch, and the casitas are the pick for anyone who wants distance from the convention traffic. The Well & Being Spa is a genuine destination in itself, with desert-botanical treatments, a packed fitness timetable and a rooftop pool that stays adults-only.
The restaurants are the surprise. La Hacienda by Richard Sandoval does serious modern Mexican, Bourbon Steak by Michael Mina handles the big-night beef, Toro adds Latin plates and rum beside the fairways, and Ironwood American Kitchen covers the everyday. Six pools include one with its own sandy beach, and the seasonal festivals, from summer water parks to the famous Christmas light show, explain the multigenerational bookings. The trade-off is scale: conferences share the lawns, high season hums, and intimacy is not on the menu. As a desert machine for families and golfers, though, it is very hard to fault.
