A good little mix for all of us!
Choosing Arizona for Spring Break:
March is spring training baseball season. My husband and oldest son are both big baseball fans, so we made it work. This was also a way for me to sneak in a hiking trip with my family. I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon and have always wanted. My goal was to be able to see the Grand Canyon at sunrise. My plan was to sweeten the deal for the rest of my family leading up to this. Arizona was great and I would definitely go back.
Day by Day
March 16 (Monday)
Flew into Phoenix on American Airlines. Phoenix airport is smooth—rental car and on the road within 30 minutes.
Checked into our AirBnb in Scottsdale. We planned on 2 baseball games and allowed time for a potential 3rd if we were up for it. Night one we went downtown Scottsdale and explored the town. Dinner at Cien Agaves.
March 17 (Tuesday) – St. Patrick’s Day
Morning hike: Double Butte Loop at Papago Park. Short trail (under an hour round-trip), stunning red rock views. With the time change, my entire family was up before sunrise. And if you know me, this makes me so happy so I made everyone throw on some tennis shoes and we went out for our first hike! What I love about Phoenix is that you can find all these short hikes with a beautiful view, right in the middle of town! Not something we really have in DFW.
Afternoon/evening: Mariners vs. Rockies at Salt River Fields. Spring training game. We bought lawn tickets on StubHub day-of and got there early for batting practice (que in Chase Reserve StubHub credit). Kids got autographs. This is the beauty of spring training—it’s relaxed, accessible, and genuinely family-friendly. Nobody minds if your four-year-old is loud.
Pro tip: Lawn tickets are cheap, the vibe is casual, and sitting on the grass with an ice cream sundae is peak family baseball.
March 18 (Wednesday)
Used ResortPass to access the pool at Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. If you haven’t heard of ResortPass, it’s solid—pay a daily fee to use resort amenities without staying there. Perfect for a day break. I didn’t want to spend the money to stay at the resort for multiple days when I knew we would be out and about. An AirBnb made for sense for us for these first few days and we were still able to enjoy the perks of a resort on our big free day. This hotel is beautiful! They had multiple pools with all different vibes. Even one
Evening game: Rangers vs. Royals at Surprise Stadium. Kids were getting the hang of baseball by now. We couldn’t go all the way over here and not go see our Rangers! This stadium was smaller so every seat felt close. We were able to score seats only a few rows behind first base line. Maddox got his hat signed by the coach and one of the players!
March 19 (Thursday)
Drove to Flagstaff (about 2 hours north). Stopped at Montezuma National Monument along the way to explore. Our America the Beautiful Pass worked here. I ended up purchasing the pass. Between this stop, The Grand Canyon, and our future trip to Oregon, the pass more than paid for itself.
Pro Tip: 4th Graders get a free America The Beautiful Pass! If you have any kids close to this age, plan your National Park vacations during this year!
We stopped in Sedona for lunch at Hideaway House. Beautiful views of the red rocks from the patio. We were going to stay a night here on our way back down to Phoenix so this was a short stop.
Continuing on to Flagstaff —The elevation change is real. You go from desert to pine trees and cooler temps. I was not expecting that and had no idea how high up Flagstaff was.
Stayed at Little America in Flagstaff. Genuinely nice hotel. Huge rooms, even bigger bathrooms with 2 separate areas. We explored downtown for dinner.
March 20 (Friday)
Left early and stopped at Lava River Cave on the way to Grand Canyon South Rim. So surreal. You descend into a natural cave system. It stays around 45°F year-round, so bring layers even if it’s warm outside. Definitely worth the detour. I bought these headlamps for everyone. You for sure need a headlamp. And honestly gloves for everyone, including the kiddos, is a good idea. This place is just free to the public. Tiny little parking lot in the middle of the forest. This tunnel is about a mile long. It’s an out and back, we just decided on a halfway point to turn around.
Right afterwards we did a nearby hike at Red Mountain. This was hot! Not a lot of shade for the first part of the hike. We had long sleeves, hoodies, and gloves in the lava tunnel and switched to shorts and tank tops at Red Mountain. We changed again afterwards because our socks were full of sand and dirt.
By afternoon, checked into Holiday Inn Tusayan, the small town just outside the Grand Canyon’s south entrance. There was a good size pool and dinner on site.
March 21 (Saturday) – Grand Canyon Day
Woke up early to catch sunrise. Pro tip: it’s dark, so map out your parking and walking route. Honestly, just follow the crowds and you’ll find the viewpoint.
Took the shuttle along Hermit Road, which loops through the canyon with stops at multiple viewpoints. Walked sections of the Rim Trail between stops—the stretch from Powell Point to Mohave Point is about a mile and beautiful.
Hiked a bit of Bright Angel Trail. I was determined to go down into the canyon at least a little bit. Definitely made me nervous with the little ones. My husband and I each held hands with a little on and kept them on the inside at all times. We had our oldest walk between us, on the inside half of the pathway. The Rim Trail has some nerve wracking parts as well. But so cool.
The landscape is indescribable. Photos don’t do it justice.
Drove to Sedona in the evening and checked into Dreamcatcher Inn. Sedona is all red rocks, art galleries, and tourist vibes, but it’s charming. Different landscape than the Grand Canyon—more compact, more crowded for sure. We decided to avoid the crowds and found a winery outside of town. It was a beautiful landscape with live music and a little strem running through it.
March 22 (Sunday)
Honestly? We were hiked out and driven out by this point. I had already out-hiked my family. We made a call: some of our best family trips include a day where we just… stop.
Breakfast at Local Juicery or Layla’s (both solid). Drove around a bit. Relaxed.
Drove back to Phoenix, returned the rental car, had dinner.
Stayed at Radisson Phoenix Airport for an early flight.
March 23 (Monday)
Early flight home on American Airlines. Like 6am early. I think you’ve gathered that I like to do things early haha. It was so fast that we actually walked past the 5am flight to DFW boarding. We could’ve made that work! Flying back on Monday made flights significantly cheaper! One day out of school is worth it to me.
Practical Notes
You need a car for this trip. Public transit doesn’t work for the Grand Canyon loop. We used Hertz (paid cash), but if you have Amex Platinum, you get Hertz President’s Circle status for free—skip the desk, grab any car from the lot. Saves time and hassle with three kids.
Spring training is cheap and family-friendly. Games are throughout the entire days, all over the city. You can really choose what works best for your family. Lawn tickets with the kids are great.
Get the America the Beautiful Pass. At $80 for annual access, it pays for itself on a trip like this. We used it at Montezuma and the Grand Canyon. Covers everyone in the car.
Pacing matters. We did 8 days for Phoenix/Scottsdale → Flagstaff → Grand Canyon → Sedona → Phoenix is packed. My kids are pretty good at putting in some mileage, but breaking it up with a pool day or a baseball game was needed.
Weather in March is perfect. Warm in Scottsdale, cool in Flagstaff and at the Grand Canyon. Bring layers. You get desert and mountain climate in one trip.
Takeaways:
One day at the Grand Canyon was enough for us, but getting there for sunrise was definitely worth it!
My kids were ages 3, 5, 7 during this trip. 2 miles for a hike is our typical cap. Use AllTrails for planning out which hikes might the best for the kids before hand.
For action packed trips, consider a day with ResortPass!
Phoenix is a big enough hub there are tons of options for different airlines and hotel chains. Making it very easy for using points.
Points Plan:
We used 62,000 American Airlines miles for flights (5 people, round-trip DFW → PHX). I looked at booking with American directly and Southwest directly. Ended up booking through my portal with Points Boost, making it a better deal that what I could find booking through the airlines.
Have you done Arizona? Drop your favorite spots in the comments—I want to know what we missed on our next trip.
