7 Best Arizona Towns For A Winter Getaway
In Arizona, as in the rest of the United States, American Thanksgiving marks the beginning of a month-long holiday season. This makes the Grand Canyon State an ideal destination for a winter getaway in small towns that offer festive lights, snowy landscapes, and outdoor activity. In Prescott, the historic courthouse glows with holiday spirit. Sedona’s red rocks shimmer under snow, while Tusayan provides a quiet base for exploring the Grand Canyon. Over in Payson, snow blankets pine forests and natural wonders, and in nearby Show Low, visitors can snowshoe at Fool Hollow Lake. These are just some of the best Arizona towns to capture the magic of a winter getaway.
Prescott
Prescott officially holds the title “Arizona’s Christmas City,” which makes it a fitting setting for a winter escape. Timing is everything in Prescott, so plan your visit around the annual lighting of the historic Yavapai County Courthouse. Built in 1916, the courthouse is one of the most recognizable buildings in northern Arizona and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It sits in Courthouse Plaza, the cultural hub of the small town, which glows with thousands of lights throughout the holiday season. In Prescott, the party starts at the end of November with the Holiday Light Parade and Bonfire, followed by the Courthouse Lighting in early December.
Courthouse Plaza is a grassy, tree-shaded square across the street from one of the most historic streets in the American West, Whiskey Row. Once home to more than 40 saloons, the iconic stretch became part of the town’s identity after a fire destroyed the block in 1900. Locals rebuilt the street during the Arizona Gold Rush, filling it with saloons and gambling parlors, and the legendary block was born. Today, it’s a landmark in Prescott, attracting visitors with its concentration of restaurants, shops, and entertainment venues, including the famed Palace Restaurant and Saloon, a frontier saloon that has served locals and tourists since the 1870s.
Sedona
There’s something magical about the sight of Sedona’s red cliffs covered in a dusting of winter snow, offering outdoor enthusiasts the opportunity to pursue physical activities like hiking on popular trails that tend to be less crowded during the winter season, such as the 6-mile round-trip Boynton Canyon Trail, home to one of Sedona’s four energy vortexes, the Boynton Canyon Vortex. Attracting people from all over the globe, energy vortexes are rumored to create swirling tornadoes of energy. For excellent views of Cathedral Rock without the crowds, the Baldwin Trail is an easy-to-moderate 2.7-mile round-trip winter hike.
After spending time outdoors, enjoy a Southwest shopping experience in Sedona’s Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village (pronounced T-la-keh-pah-keh), a local landmark since 1970. It’s a good stop for holiday shopping, with over 50 one-of-a-kind art galleries, boutiques, and eateries like El Rincon, serving Arizona-style Mexican cuisine. Try to visit during Tlaquepaque’s Festival of Lights. This annual December event fills the courtyards with over 6,000 luminarias and festive holiday music.
Jerome
Winter is an excellent time of year for a getaway to Jerome, a storied small town once called the “Wickedest Town in the West,” sitting on Cleopatra Hill overlooking the Verde Valley. Jerome was a booming copper mining town in the late 1800s, and at the peak of the boom, it was one of Arizona’s largest cities. By the 1950s, Jerome was almost a ghost town, until artists discovered the abandoned village on the hill and transformed it into a quirky, creative enclave. On a winter day, you can warm up with a burger and a copper miner milkshake at the Haunted Hamburger. After lunch, explore Jerome’s Main Street with a holiday-inspired visit to Copper Canyon Christmas for souvenirs, ornaments, and snow globes.
Jerome’s residents embrace its unusual past, and there’s no shortage of odd landmarks to check out any time of year, such as the open-air Gold King Mine Museum and Ghost Town. Part junkyard and part tourist attraction with a hint of Route 66, the museum pays tribute to the industrial era, featuring a large collection of cars, buses, tractors, and other mechanical relics.
Tusayan
Tusayan is the gateway to the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, located about a mile south of the entrance, so it’s an ideal spot to stay if you’re spending a winter getaway exploring one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. The one-stop shop for maps, canyon tours, and other information is the Grand Canyon Visitor Center in Tusayan. The center is home to a state-of-the-art IMAX screen standing six stories tall, which makes you feel like you are riding the rapids and soaring above the Grand Canyon as the audio system delivers 12,000 watts of sound in the award-winning film “Grand Canyon: Rivers of Time.”
With fewer crowds, stunning sunrises and sunsets thanks to the winter sun being lower in the sky, scenic drives on roads typically reserved for tour buses, and dark skies for stargazing, winter is an excellent time to plan a getaway in this Arizona town. Book a four-hour guided tour with Grand Canyon Jeep Tours & Safaris in Tusayan, where you’ll take a 30-minute ride to the canyon via forest backroads, see wildlife, and visit Native American paintings and petroglyphs.
Williams
Williams transforms into a Christmas village every winter, situated along the last stretch of historic Route 66 in the state. While the historic downtown area is only six square blocks, it still features the iconic Grand Canyon Railway & Hotel. The hotel, built in 1995, pays tribute to the Fray Marcos Hotel, one of the original Harvey Houses built along the Santa Fe Railway in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It sits next door to the railway station, where visitors can book a 90-minute evening train ride on the Grand Canyon Railway’s Polar Express for a trip to “the North Pole,” where Santa and his reindeer are waiting.
For outdoor thrills, visit the nearby Canyon Coaster Adventure Park on Route 66, which becomes a winter area for snow tubing from mid-November until Easter, supported by snowmaking machines. New this year, the park has added tubing lanes illuminated by red, blue, and green LED lights for Glow Tubing sessions every Friday, Saturday, and holiday nights.
Payson
Thanks to its location at an elevation of 5,000 feet, the chances of snowfall in Payson are high, especially from December to March, making this small town in the midst of the largest contiguous Ponderosa pine forest in the world a picture-perfect cold-weather getaway. Historic Main Street in Payson kicks off the season with a “Winter Wonderland & Electric Light Parade” in mid-December at Deming Pioneer Park, featuring inflatables, games, food trucks, and an ice skating rink that remains open through January.
Enjoy the respite from the blazing Arizona sun in the summer, along with the crowds, with a visit to Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, where you can explore a series of steep and strenuous trails like the Waterfall Trail, the Pine Creek Trail, or the trail leading to the longest travertine bridge. The bridge stands 183 feet high over a 400-foot-long tunnel that measures 150 feet at its widest point and is accessible by the 500-foot Anna Mae Trail. Enjoy a ranger-led tour of Goodfellow Lodge, a rustic hideaway built in the 1920s whose decor has stayed true to its early 20th-century roots.
Show Low
One of your best bets for finding real snow in Arizona for a winter getaway is in the mountain town of Show Low, tucked in the White Mountains. Show Low offers four seasons of outdoor adventure and numerous winter activities without the crowds. Only three miles from downtown, enjoy snowshoeing or winter hiking in the Fool Hollow Lake Recreation Area, which sits in the middle of high-country elk habitat. Other Arizona wildlife in the area includes Abert’s squirrels, known for “barking” at passing hikers, mule deer, coyotes, and beavers.
A little farther afield, the Sunrise Park Resort is Arizona’s winter hub for skiing, snowboarding, snow tubing, cross-country skiing, and ski biking (also known as skibobbing). The resort has reasonable equipment rentals for whatever winter sport you choose, with group lessons available for all levels if you want to try something new. Fuel up at any of the restaurants, pubs, and cafés across the resort’s three mountain peaks, such as Eagle’s Nest at the top of the peak, the Sunrise Pub, or the Midway Café.
Winter Escapes Across Arizona’s Small Towns
Arizona makes a perfect winter getaway thanks to its mild weather, wide-open landscapes, and relaxed pace. When summer’s extreme heat fades, cooler temperatures transform the state’s canyons, red rocks, and pine forests into peaceful escapes without the crowds. From high-altitude mountain towns to sun-warmed desert trails, winter brings crisp air for outdoor adventures and cozy nights under star-filled skies. Whether you’re chasing festive lights, scenic hikes, holiday trains, or a dusting of snow in the mountains, it can be hard to choose from the seven best Arizona towns for a winter getaway.
