text: My husband and I stayed here over the holidays as we were visiting family and needed a private retreat to escape to at the end of the day...This place is such the decadence!  Of course there's a price for that but sometimes you just got to treat yourself.  It was also my birthday that week and my husband had made mention of it when booking our reservations..  We arrived about 1:00 in the afternoon..just driving up through the gates are a treat in itself..beautiful landscaping and there is the hotel set up against Camelback Mountain.   You have to stop at a guard who asks you if your checking in and you tell him your name and are let thru.  We decided to do self parking instead of valet because paying 39 dollars a day is not how I want to spend the enormous amount of money I knew I'd be spending on better things like the spa, restaurants, drinks.\nThe lobby is so spacious with marble floors, fountain and lots of windows to view the scenery.  Check in was very fast..the guard must let the front desk know your here as they as our room keys were all ready to go!  When we got to our room I was so happy on how big and modern the decor was..  It's a 600 sq, foot room with a double sided sliding glass which opens to this huge balcony with two chairs, a table and a long lounge chair..  We had got the highest floor (4th) with a pool view..ask for that if you ever go as it's the premium view..\nThere was a bottle of champagne chilling on ice with two glasses (compliments of the hotel) for my birthday and a card welcoming us.  The bathrooms are all done in marble with a sunken tub, full sized tolietries from their spa (Eucalyptus/grapefruit) and two big fluffy robes hanging up next to the tub.  A CD was playing some classical music, I guess to set the mood for the elegance and I'll tell you, I did not want to leave the room EVER!  \nWe ate a few times at \"The Terrace\" which you had a choice of indoor or outdoor dining.  great food and excellent service.. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the many families with a lot of kids who dined there..very noisy at times..but then my husband and I are child free by choice so I guess we get a little grumpy when we are around misbehaving kids.  They also have a lounge and at night you can sit out on a high overlook, with fire pits for a chilly Arizona night and have some very tasty cocktails..  We also used the spa one day, my husband had a massage and I just used their sauna, steam room, whirlpool and the meditation garden sipping some herbal teas..I loved it!  They have over 5 pools scattered around the place, at night we went swimming and then used their enormous hot tub!  I can't wait to go back to this place..it's worth the extra money to be treated well, and to have a relaxing time...