With so much to see, and so little time, one of our many standard or custom tours may be the perfect solution. Add lunch, combine two hours or add an activity for a day of fun, information and exploration in the Arizona sun.
Southwest Conference Planners is able to combine or customize tours to fit every group's interests, time limitations, and budget. Check out some of our more popular packages below.
Enjoy this unique opportunity to explore the Sonoran Desert via four-wheel drive vehicles.
Desert Jeep Tour
Some of the most beautiful and breathtaking scenery in Arizona is accessible only by 4-wheel drive vehicles. The desert landscape comes alive as a cowboy guide, clad in authentic western wear, escorts your guests through mile of cacti, creosote, and mesquite trees in country inhabited only by Native Americans for hundreds of years. Clever narration completes this fun and informative adventure.
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Experience the natural side of Arizona as you explore the local terrain and learn about the desert vegetation and animals indigenous to the Sonoran Desert.
Hiking
Experience the natural side of Arizona as you explore the local terrain and learn about the desert vegetation and animals indigenous to the Sonoran Desert. Options range from a highly educational nature walk to an ultra-challenging mountain climb. The guides will choose the tour that fits the experience level of the group.
Beginner: Highly educational nature walk with very little elevation gain, focusing on the plants, animals, geology, and history of the Sonoran Desert. Areas of tour include: McDowell Mountain and Squaw Peak.
Intermediate: While still focusing on education, these hikes allow participants to rise above the desert floor affording them spectacular views of the Valley of the Sun. These views come only with a gain in elevation. Thus, the hikes are designed for moderately active individuals. Areas of tour include: South Mountain, Squaw Peak, Cave Creek Recreation Area, and Superstition Mountains.
Advanced: This hike gives you an exciting adrenalin rush that will leave you literally breathless. Individuals who complete this climb will be rewarded with spectacular summit views. Areas of tour include: Camelback Mountain and Squaw Peak Summit Trail.
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What could possibly be more exciting and relaxing than spending time astride a horse exploring the Sonoran Desert? Feel the West come alive as you ride through the panoramic vistas of Arizona's most famous desert.
Horseback Riding
What could possibly be more exciting and relaxing than spending time astride a horse exploring the Sonoran Desert? Feel the West come alive as knowledgeable wranglers guide you on a 90-minute ride through the panoramic vistas of Arizona's most famous desert.
Guests will feel the West come alive as knowledgeable wranglers guide them on a 90-minute ride through the panoramic vistas of Arizona. The wranglers will tell of the abundant plant and animal life. All levels of experience will enjoy this ride.
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Create your own adventure while cruising a quiet mountain trail on one of our stable and sturdy mountain bikes.
Mountain Biking
For an aggressive or leisurely ride, mountain biking through the Sonoran Desert puts your guests right in the middle of this extraordinary landscape. An experienced guide leads bikers through back roads on specially designed bicycles while explaining the surrounding plants and wildlife.
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Take a scenic ride down the cool water of the Salt or Verde Rivers and enjoy the beauty of the Arizona desert from a different perspective.
Rafting
Take a scenic ride down the cool water of the Salt River and enjoy the beauty of the Arizona desert from a different perspective. During the float trip, your guide will explain the unique habitat of this riparian environment in the Sonoran desert, the importance of the rivers in the ancient and contemporary settlements of the Valley and the history and culture of the communities living on the river. Desert plants and animals seen along the way will also be described.
This is an enjoyable flatwater float (class I-II) and life jackets will be provided and are required for added safety. Each inflatable raft holds eight to ten persons and is guided by a professional rafting guide.
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For the thousands of enthusiastic marksmen, this experience is for you! The sportsperson will enjoy a steady supply of ammunition in pursuit of the elusive "clay bird."
Trap & Skeet Shooting
For the thousands of enthusiastic marksmen, this experience is for you! The competitive sportsperson will enjoy a steady supply of ammunition in pursuit of the elusive "clay bird."
The trap field has five positions in an arc behind the trap houses; therefore, a trap is usually shot in squads of five shooters. One round of skeet consists of twenty-five clay targets, alternately released from two trap houses -- a high house located on the left, a low house on the right.
Group competitions, tournaments and prizes may be arranged.
Both interrupted international targets and American standard skeet targets are available.
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Visit the exquisite gardens and private homes of residents who have successfully integrated southwestern landscape and architectural style.
Arizona Home & Garden Tour
Visit the exquisite gardens and private homes of two Valley residents who have successfully integrated southwestern landscape and architectural style. First you will have the opportunity to tour each home with the owners, architects, or interior designers and learn about the architecture, furniture, and individual lifestyle of the owners. Following the home tour we will explore the beautiful yards and gardens with a desert landscape expert or the knowledgeable owner and discuss the advantages of the warm, year-round growing season in Phoenix and the challenges of low precipitation, high temperatures, and low humidity of the Sonoran Desert.
Learn about a variety of colorful and interesting desert plants and trees, and discuss xeriscaping, efficient irrigation, soil improvements, low water use plants, mulches and appropriate maintenance. View indigenous desert landscaping as well as lush and exotic gardens where flowering bulbs, annuals, and perennials abound. You will see how the owners have found ways to extend their daily lives into the out-of-doors where their well designed gardens provide year-round color, shade, and a sense of naturalness.
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Desert Botanical Gardens offers more than just an understanding of the extraordinary plants that inhabit the Sonoran Desert. Learn how man has used the desert flora to survive in this harsh environment.
Desert Botanical Garden
The Desert Botanical Garden is home to over 10,000 plants from deserts around the world, including more than one-half of the world's total number of cactus species. During your walking tour of the garden, group members will have the opportunity to discover the secrets of the desert.
The Garden is a natural environment located on 145 acres within the beauty of Papago Park and is home to jackrabbits, squirrels, desert tortoises and other small animals. For bird watchers, there are dozens of species of native and migratory birds, from darting jewels like hummingbirds to the desert hawks. Desert succulents found throughout the garden include agave, barrel cacti, prickly pear cactus, aloe vera, ocotillo, saguaro, and literally hundreds of others.
Plants and People of the Sonoran Desert is a three-acre permanent exhibit which takes visitors through a saguaro forest, a mesquite thicket, a desert stream and an upland chaparral habitat with historic and prehistoric structures along the trail.
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Heard Museum is internationally acclaimed and one of the largest interactive museums in the world. Experience and learn about the fascinating culture and customs of Native Americans.
Heard Museum
The award winning Heard Museum has successfully captured the past and present times of the heritage and culture of the Native American people.
The Museum, an adobe building, originally the home of Dwight and Marie Heard, is nestled on a tree-lined street in the heart of Phoenix. Opened in 1929 as a "Museum of Primitive Art," it has become one of the premier showcases of the Southwestern Indian culture. "Native Peoples of the Southwest" is the Museum's award winning exhibit filled with thousands of the finest pieces in their permanent collection, including baskets, jewelry, pottery, textiles, a Navajo Hogan, Apache Wickiup and a Hopi corn grinding room. A special attraction is the Kachina Doll Gallery, featuring over 1,000 of the late Senator Barry Goldwater's collection of unique hand-carved Kachina dolls.
Native American artisans may be found throughout the museum demonstrating beadwork, weaving, sculptures and carvings giving visitors the opportunity to talk with them while they work.
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Taliesin West is situated on 600 acres of rugged desert. This national historic landmark served as Frank Lloyd Wright's winter retreat and architectural school.
Taliesin West
In 1937, Frank Lloyd Wright created a remarkable set of buildings at the foothills of the McDowell Mountains. Taliesin West, set amidst 600 acres of Sonoran beauty in North Scottsdale, was Wright's personal winter residence and studio. It was also the home of the Taliesin Fellowship, a group of 23 young "disciples" who built the complex under Wright's direction. Long regarded by architectural critics as a masterpiece, the U.S. government declared Taliesin West a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
This 2.5 hour guided tour gives an intimate and in-depth look at Taliesin West. In addition to the seminar theater, music pavilion, cabaret cinema, and Frank Lloyd Wright's private office, this tour includes a visit to the dramatic living room where you will sit in Wright-designed furniture and experience first-hand the drama of being a guest in Wright's famous living room.
Knowledgeable guides then explain how the architecture relates to the natural desert and provide an overview of Wright's basic theories of design. You will also enjoy refreshments in the colorful Taliesin Fellowship dining room with added in-depth commentary.
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