Fairmont Scottsdale Princess

Desert Scale at the Base of the McDowell Mountains

North Scottsdale's luxury resort corridor runs from the dense commercial stretch of Old Town north toward the Sonoran scrubland, and the further you go, the more the properties tend to spread out and lean into the terrain. The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess sits near that northern end, positioned at the foot of the McDowell Mountains with 65 acres of landscaped grounds that buffer it from the surrounding desert. The AAA Five Diamond rating, held continuously since 1991, places it in a narrow tier of Arizona properties that have maintained that designation across multiple decades — a distinction that carries more weight than a single-year award because it reflects consistency through ownership changes, renovations, and the inevitable drift of brand standards over time. The resort completed a significant renovation recently, and the updated rooms and public spaces reflect a design direction that reads as contemporary Southwestern: warm materials, restrained palette, high ceilings that acknowledge the desert light without trying too hard to reference the landscape.

At this scale — 750 rooms, six pools, two golf courses, four restaurants , the Princess operates closer to a self-contained destination than a hotel in the conventional sense. That model has a particular appeal in Scottsdale, where visitors often arrive for golf, spa, and warm weather rather than urban proximity, and where the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Golf Course immediately adjacent to the property adds a specific draw for golf travelers. Comparing the Princess to smaller design-led properties like the Andaz Scottsdale Resort & Bungalows or the intimacy-focused Bespoke Inn Scottsdale is a category error: they serve different travel intentions entirely. The Princess is for guests who want amenity density and operational reliability; those others are for guests who want a more curated, lower-volume stay.

The Room as the Core Experience

Large resort hotels in the American Southwest often let the grounds do the heavy lifting, with rooms that feel functional rather than considered. The renovated rooms at the Princess are a response to that pattern , the refresh brings the interior experience closer to what the property's Five Diamond positioning implies rather than leaving a gap between the public spectacle and the private space. The 750-room count means the property has to deliver consistency at scale, which is a different design challenge than the smaller luxury properties that can afford to treat each room as a showcase. What the renovation signals is a commitment to keeping the overnight experience aligned with the overall rating rather than coasting on pool and restaurant reputation.

Desert resort rooms in this tier typically prioritize thermal comfort, blackout capability, and bathroom quality , the logic being that guests arrive for outdoor activity and need a room that functions as genuine recovery space. The surrounding Sonoran landscape means temperature swings between day and evening are significant, and the design choices that acknowledge that (insulation, climate control responsiveness, the weight of the bed) matter more than they would in a temperate urban hotel. For guests staying multiple nights , which the resort's programming actively encourages through its Legacy Events calendar and multi-day golf packages , the room's ability to reset and restore becomes the operative measure of success. Properties like the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North and The Canyon Suites at The Phoenician operate in a comparable bracket, and the room experience is where differentiation between those peers becomes most legible over a multi-night stay.

Four Restaurants, Four Distinct Registers

The dining program at the Princess is more differentiated than what most large resorts attempt. Bourbon Steak, the Michael Mina format that operates across several American hotel addresses, runs as an upscale steakhouse with a signature preparation method , cuts slow-poached in butter before finishing over wood-fueled fire , that distinguishes it from standard hotel grill rooms. La Hacienda and Toro, both operating under Richard Sandoval's group, split between a formal dining environment at the main resort and a more casual position at the TPC Scottsdale clubhouse overlooking the 18th green. Ironwood American Kitchen handles the all-day casual register with an organic and locally sourced brief that has become standard at this tier but is executed with more intentionality here than the category average. For a more comprehensive view of Scottsdale's independent dining scene beyond the resort grounds, our full Scottsdale restaurants guide covers the broader city.

The Plaza Bar operates as the resort's social anchor, with an indoor/outdoor configuration that engages Scottsdale's usable outdoor evening climate across most of the year. The bar program fits within the broader Arizona trend toward destination cocktail experiences, though the Plaza operates at resort scale rather than the specialist format seen at smaller bar-focused venues.

Pools, Spa, and the Seasonal Event Calendar

Six pools is a number that requires some unpacking. The Princess distributes its pool amenities across different zones and experiences: the Sonoran Splash Pool operates with waterslides and is positioned toward family use; the Sunset Beach Pool includes a 9,000-square-foot beach and splash pad, a format that references the Gulf and Atlantic coastal resort model in a landlocked desert context. That approach , replicating coastal leisure experiences in the Sonoran environment , runs through the resort's wider programming logic. Two spas, Well & Being and Sisley Paris, add further segmentation within the wellness offer, allowing the resort to address both the therapeutic and prestige ends of that market. For guests specifically seeking a spa-anchored retreat in the Southwest, Canyon Ranch Tucson operates with a deeper wellness specialization, while the Princess positions wellness as one element within a broader resort portfolio.

The Legacy Events calendar , Christmas at the Princess, Summer at the Princess, a July 4th festival, Easter programming , runs as a deliberate strategy to capture both resort guests and the local Scottsdale community across the year. The Christmas program, running from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, represents the resort's longest and most developed seasonal event and has built enough local recognition to function as a standalone draw. This kind of community-integrated programming is more common in larger resort properties than in boutique hotels; it creates occupancy demand during periods that would otherwise soften and builds brand familiarity with the regional population who may convert to paying guests at other times of year.

Positioning Within the Scottsdale Tier and Beyond

Among Scottsdale's larger resort addresses, the Princess competes in a bracket that includes the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale Resort and the JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort & Spa, where the competitive measures are amenity breadth, dining quality, pool programming, and golf access rather than intimacy or design distinctiveness. The Boulders Resort & Spa Scottsdale and Hotel Valley Ho occupy different positions in the market , the former for landscape drama, the latter for mid-century design character , and serve as useful reference points for understanding what the Princess is not trying to do. The Five Diamond designation since 1991 remains the most concrete signal of where the Princess sits: it is a property that has chosen consistent operational excellence at scale over the editorial appeal of a low-key specialist.

For travelers drawing comparisons across American resort destinations, the scale and programming logic at the Princess has more in common with properties like the Four Seasons at The Surf Club in Surfside or the Kona Village, A Rosewood Resort than with the terrain-specific lodges like Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur or Amangiri in Canyon Point. Those latter properties are defined by landscape singularity and limited scale; the Princess is defined by operational depth and the ability to hold a large group or family across multiple days without the experience thinning out.

Getting There and Planning Notes

The resort sits approximately 30 minutes from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in North Scottsdale, a drive that is direct by rental car. A daily resort fee of $55 plus tax is added to the room folio and covers a published set of inclusions detailed on the resort's website. The TPC Scottsdale golf access and the Legacy Events calendar both carry booking lead times that vary by season , the Christmas period in particular fills significantly in advance, as the programming has developed a local following over its 15-plus years of operation. Guests comparing the Princess to smaller properties in the city , the Bespoke Inn being the clearest contrast point , should calibrate expectations around what each model is built to deliver: the Princess rewards guests who intend to stay on-site and use the full amenity range, while boutique alternatives suit those whose itinerary is weighted toward the wider city.