Tucson Travel Dairy

I’m back from Tucson, and what a dream that trip was! I’m still swooning over all of the giant Saguaro cactus we saw! I haven’t been on a long road trip in a while, and the drive was so pretty. It was about 7.5 hours from LA, so we hit the road at 6AM and stopped in Palm Springs to pick up smoothies at Fresh Juice, then went straight to Arizona. On the drive there we talked, CAR-eoked, and listened to some throwback 90s playlists–the best kinda drive!

We stayed at the JTH Tucson AKA the dreamiest desert getaway ever. It’s a small 5 room Airbnb nestled right along the border of the Saguaro National Park. I can’t stop gushing about this amazing place. It felt almost too perfect to be real. There’s a gorgeous living room, hot spring, rooftop loungers with a gorgeous view, rock pool, and it’s all surrounded by the most lush landscape. We stayed in the Yucca room, and it was so damn cute. We had a private patio where we started our morning with coffee and a view, and ate all of our meals. On our way in we picked up the yummiest Mexican food from Seis Kitchen, then cooked all of our other meals at the house.

With the pandemic and all we didn’t do much other than hang out at the dreamy JTH Tucson, explore the desert, soak up sunsets, and lounge in the rock pool. I wouldn’t change a thing about it either! They had a full kitchen so we we able to cook our own food, not leave the place, and feel totally disconnected from reality. It was so nice.

On our way out we stopped by the Saguaro National Park, picked up coffee at Presto Coffee Roasters, and grabbed lunch to-go from Postino Grant. Then we drove through Phoenix on our way home, and drove by a bunch of homes with mid-century architecture, like the Norman Lykes house (6836 N 36th St, Phoenix, AZ 85018) and the Case Study Apartments (4402 N 28th St, Phoenix, AZ). Then we wandered around a few neighborhoods with mid-century homes too.

If you don’t know I’ve got a major tiki bar obsession, and we had Undertow on our list for years. We weren’t exactly thrilled about our one time visiting being during a pandemic but when they had a reservation available we went for it, and I’m so glad we did. It’s definitely the coolest tiki bar I’ve EVER been to, and they really commit to to the theme. Their menu is a book with different chapters, and each season is a new chapter with a full on story, decor and menu that goes along with it. Ours was a fishing crew aboard the Undertow that got stuck in the frozen ocean, and the entire menu and interior were decked out to fit the story. Each table has a porthole with a video of what’s happening outside of the “ship”, and it was really cool. You can read the full story here! If you find yourself in Phoenix definitely make a reservation there.