Each year, Brittany and I take a (kid-free) girl’s weekend sometime in March. We are both high school teachers, so taking a long weekend between February and April break is SO needed. Our girls weekend is the perfect thing that keeps us going! The past two years we’ve gone to Canada and Nashville. We did a quick google search before landing on doing a girl’s weekend in Tempe, Arizona. The main priority was going somewhere that would be warm and I’m so glad we did. The weekend we were in Tempe it was sunny and in the 80s, while back in Maine it was gross and rainy and snowy.
We make GREAT choices 😉
Our Stay
We had an incredible weekend! Per usual, we walked about 25 miles over the course of 60-ish hours because we are firm believers that the best way to explore a new city is to walk it! But don’t worry, we did take some public transit. We used the metro to help get us to and from the airport (SO affordable), and to shorten our walk to the Botanical Gardens by about a mile. To get to and from horseback riding, we had to get an Uber and that was one of our biggest singular expenses that weekend. Oh – and we paid for a ride in a driver-less car (a Waymo) just for funsies, and it was SO wild.
While we were in Tempe we stayed at the Vib Hotel, and it was so close to everything we needed, but also a little off the main path so it wasn’t super mobbed or crazy. It was really close to downtown, a Whole Foods, the airport, and a lot of amazing restaurants!
Some of our favorite things that we did while we were there:
- Explore downtown Tempe
- Hike “A” mountain at sunset (soooo pretty and cool to watch all the planes come in and land)
- Visit the Botanical Gardens and enjoy the desert views on the walk there
- Horseback riding – this was my first time riding a horse
- Walking around the ASU campus – it was so beautiful!
- They have these very small bunny statues all over Tempe and it was fun to try to find them all!
Where We Ate
The hotel didn’t have any meal options, so we had to eat out for pretty much all of our meals, and we ate GOOD.
- Snooze – The yummiest local breakfast spot. We loved it so much we ate breakfast there both mornings we were there. Their portions are pretty big so we just split a breakfast entree each morning and it was plenty of food for us to feel satisfied, especially after our doughnut appetizers 😉
- Perfect Pear Bistro – Our first meal in Tempe did not disappoint. We loved the outside patio seating and had an amazing dinner!
- Crispy Cones – The most amazing ice cream cones we’ve ever had!
- Parlor Doughnuts – We first had these the first time we went to Nashville together and were hooked! There was one just a few buildings down from our hotel and it was so awesome, we ate there each morning before going out for breakfast!
- Oregano’s – We got lucky because the night we went was actually the last night they were open at that location! They were moving to a different city after that. The food was SO good.
The Finances
If you’ve read any of my other travel posts, you know that I love sharing the financial break down so that people can get an idea of what’s possible in their own lives! Whenever Brittany and I travel together, we split everything 50/50 except for individual purchases like souvenirs and Brittany’s coffee, haha.
For this particular weekend, our flights and hotel were covered 100% by our points. But, for the sake of transparency, if we had to pay out of pocket for it, our flights would have been $744 total for both of us round trip from Boston, and our hotel would have been $549 for 3 nights. We love the points and miles game 😀
- Excursions (horses + gardens) // $252.75
- Parking at the airport in Boston // $121
- Food for the whole weekend // $229.45
- Transport (Uber + Waymo) // $74.43
Individually I spent $8 on the metro and $27 on souvenirs from the gardens.
Overall we spent $677.63 total on the weekend, which meant $338 per person.
The Photos
I’ll admit, most of these are from the Botanical Gardens because it was SO dang gorgeous. Also, I used my phone camera for most of the time. On our girl’s trips I usually only bring my big camera along for just a part of the weekend. So, here are some of my fave photos from our girl’s weekend in Tempe!
Traveling with your best friend? 1000/10 recommend 🙂
Linda is a Portland-based photographer specializing in weddings and creating family legacies from Portland to Boston and across New England. You can see more of her work online at lindabarryphotography.com, on Instagram, or on Facebook. If you want to reach out directly: linda@lindabarryphotography.com.
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