Miraval Arizona Resort and Spa

The on site experience at Miraval is wonderful. Superior staff & food. Unique activities & spa treatments. The public grounds are magical & beautiful. The reservations customer service is awful! Before my stay, I attempted to email a few questions. I never received a reply. I called to inquire about waitlist for an activity. The hold time was long. I left a message. No one returned my call. I left another message 2 days later. My called was returned the next day. I no longer needed assistance. Two days after check-out, I received an email with a “Renew & Repeat” return stay offer. The only option to book us to click on the resort location, which sends an email. I sent a request on Wed morning. As of Friday night, I have not received a reply. Though I had a wonderful stay, the reservation staff is unacceptable for a luxury resort. Really for any type of travel/hospitality company.

Brent Baum (trauma counselor) was amazing and my Favorite part of my stay. The hospitality and professionalism of Experience Planners Lynn Eckert & Susan Lackney, Front Desk whiz extraordinaire Christina and servers like Mina and Kimmy were especially outstanding and applause-worthy. I also loved seeing the hummingbirds, javalinas, and deer. Loved the water features on the property and the vistas of the Catalina Mountains. Seeing the night sky was also very nice with the dark sky (low level ght pollution) to see the stars. I also appreciated the many fireplaces which I was able to relax next to during my winter stay. We came for a personal celebration and feel we celebrated. We loved the bed and bedding --so hard to get out of bed because it was so comfortable with the right mix of firmness and comfort.I look forward to returning. Tip: Request half portions of the entrees so you can taste them and find something that is acceptable to you. Hopefully, the food will improve. The prickly pear tea and the creme brulee were my favorite.

My cousin, husband & I did a Day Spa on Tue 11 Feb. My cousin & I had gone to Canyon Ranch Tucson for a day spa in 2019 so we wanted to experience Miraval 🏜. We all scheduled in advance 4 activities & a spa service 💆‍♀️ 💆‍♂️. I thoroughly enjoyed my Aqua Zen with Amy. I had done Watsu (water shiastu) for the 1st time at Golden Door Elysia in the Hunter Valley, Australia in 2009. Amy's 23 years experience showed. It was wonderful to be in an outdoor warm pool with my eyes closed, having the sun 🌞 shine on me. My 1st watsu was in an inside warm pool. Amy was awesome sharing her talents and water therapy with me 🙏 ❤️ 🕉. I appreciated artful photography with Nancy. Great information detailed in a humorous way. Comedic photographer 📸 🖼 🤳 We enjoyed the lunch buffet too. Lovely spa facilities although the sauna was out of order. The quiet space is a nice place to chill before or after a spa service. Thanks Lily (front desk) for taking photos for us at the end of our visit 👍. Only downside was booking the Day Spa. Beginning of January, I rang Miraval Arizona & was on hold for 30 min and left a voicemail. I used the online portal and was incorrectly charged double. I understand it's peak season with Tucson Gem, Mineral, Jewellery show & lots of snowbirds in town but answering the phone or having voicemail or call back service is marketing 101😉 ☎️ .

Given Miraval Arizona's price point and reputation, this stay was deeply disappointing. The food offered at the resort was overall poor, bland, and far below what you would expect from a luxury wellness destination. There is little variation in food at lunch. Many of the food items were stale (bread, cookies, tortilla chips). The "hors d'oeuvres" were stale tortilla chips, crudite, and various dips. My sister had a prenatal massage, and the provider smelled strongly of cigarette smoke, which is completely inappropriate and was very uncomfortable for her. My own 50-minute Sacred Sounds massage was disappointing. The session started 5-6 minutes late, but still ended on time. It was advertised as including breath work, but there was no breath work component. The advertisement does not make it clear that the sound bowl portion dominates the treatment, leaving me with maybe 15 minutes total time for a full body massage. This felt misleading and not what I paid top tier pricing for. It was difficult to find the location of a couple activities, which led to us missing them. One was the stretch class, which is supposed to be at the Body Mindfulness Center. Once we arrived to the BMC, there were no signs directing us where to go. There are several rooms off the main gym, but none had a sign indicating which one the stretch class was in. The 2-hour archery class included at least a full hour of talking and information before you even get to try the activity. Checkout was unnecessarily complicated for us and another group of women. This caused our airport shuttle to leave late. The shuttle took longer than we were told, which led to us getting to the airport only 45 min before our flight took off. Miraval had been a bucket list experience for my sister and I for years. To say that we were wildly disappointed is an understatement. While our room was beautiful, we found ourselves looking at other luxury wellness resorts to try in the future. Miraval charges top tier pricing and is routinely on many travel publications' lists for must-do wellness experiences. It certainly did not live up to that reputation.

Everything at Miraval was great from my experience! I enjoyed my stay there soooo much but what made it even better were people like Tyler from the Equine Experience and Jean who teaches tennis lessons. If you have the pleasure of going, sign up for these and see if they’re teaching because you’d be in for a treat. Tyler is truly a delight and cares deeply about making sure you get the full experience during the equine therapy and I left raving about it!! My only feedback would be that they aren’t great with answering the phones before or during your stay and that their portal sucks.