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Top-of-the-line hotels, inventive restaurants, cutting-edge galleries and eclectic shops are creating a new mecca in the Arizona desert.
SCOTTSDALE – Dianne Swanson had to have the $400 turquoise cowgirl boots she found at Scarpé, a boutique at DC Ranch Marketplace. A visitor from Jackson, Miss., Swanson, 37, bought the flashy boots, then loaded them into a 37-foot stretch Ford Excursion limousine that she shared with six other women. They were on a customized shopping excursion while visiting Paradise Valley earlier this month for the Mississippi Roadbuilders Association meeting at Camelback Inn. "While our husbands are golfing, we're shopping," Swanson explained. "We're stimulating the economy." The limo tour of exclusive area boutiques led by Nancy Shina of Spree! The Art of Shopping is one of the many activities that Scottsdale's well-heeled vacationers splurge on during their trips. Spa treatments and golf are common for resort visitors, but local concierges also line up special entertainment and adventures for those with plenty of time and money. Half of Scottsdale's resort visitors have household incomes of more than $100,000 and 28 percent earn more than $150,000, according to a study for the Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. Fairmont Scottsdale Princess spokeswoman Jennifer Franklin said the Spree! shopping trips have become popular with the resort's guests.
Grand Canyon wish Others who want to sightsee opt for a Westwind Aviation air tour to the western end of the Grand Canyon, she said. The daylong trip of $495 per person includes a flight to the Canyon rim, a helicopter ride to the Colorado River and a boat ride on the river. The Boulders Resort offers its guests tee-box dinners, white tablecloth dinners at sunset on one of two golf holes with spectacular views of the signature boulder formations. The romantic dinners, popular for marriage proposals and anniversaries, cost $500 per couple. Spree!'s shopping tours are $159 per person. They typically include stops at six or more boutiques, with merchants serving mimosas and muffins or wine and cheese. "It's one-of-a-kind stores, places they wouldn't be able to find on their own," said Shina, the Spree! owner, adding that some visitors run up big charges on their credit cards. Swanson said she and her fellow Mississippians planned to shop for three days during their visit, with stops at Scottsdale Fashion Square and its Neiman Marcus store. "We're having a blast," she said, a champagne flute in hand.
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Scottsdale, When It Sizzles
Suite 103, PMB 209