A Winter Weekend Getaway from Tucson: Fun in Flagstaff, Arizona!

Looking for a winter weekend getaway from Tucson or Phoenix?  If so, there’s fun in Flagstaff, Arizona!  First, though, confession time.  If I had to pick between the beach, and snow, I’d pick the beach, hands down.  I once tried to snow ski when I was a teenager, and it turned out to be a disaster.  I mean, the kids on the bunny slope did a better job than I did.  I could never quite master getting back on the skis after falling down.  Which is kinda important when you’re learning to ski.  But even though I don’t like to snow ski, I do like looking at snow, albeit from a distance.  Preferably sitting next to a fireplace and sipping hot chocolate.

With that being said, I really wanted my son to be able to experience playing in the snow.  I grew up in a small town in Arizona where it did snow on occasion and sometimes we’d take our sled down a hill as well as build a snowman.  I wanted my son to experience some of that childhood magic.  Which brings me to our weekend fun in Flagstaff, Arizona!  Yes, even the beach lover in me had a wonderful time 🙂

We weren’t disappointed.  For those of you in the Tucson or Phoenix area that are looking for a quick getaway, Flagstaff is a great option, especially for those of you with younger children who want to experience snow in the winter.

It takes approximately 3 1/2 hours to drive to Flagstaff from Tucson.  We bought tickets several months ago to the North Pole Experience in Flagstaff and decided to make a weekend of it.  I’ll be writing about the North Pole Experience soon, but leading up to our trip, I kept looking at the weather forecast.  While I didn’t want it to actually snow while we were there, I was hoping we’d at least be able to see some snow.  I also purchased a Groupon for a sleigh ride since both my son and I love horses.

As we drove closer to Flagstaff, we started to see blankets of snow on the ground.  And we were extremely excited to see that there was a little hill with snow at our hotel.  Once we checked in our hotel, we made our way to the hill, where my son and my husband proceeded to have snowball fights 🙂

After we played in the snow for a bit, it was time to make our way to the North Pole Experience.  We had reservations the following morning for the sleigh/wagon ride, thanks to a Groupon.  Because the snow was starting to melt, we weren’t able to take a traditional sleigh ride.  Instead, a wagon was pulled by two horses.  My son didn’t care – he was happy to see the horses, and experience the wagon/sleigh ride 🙂  The ride lasted about an hour, and included hot chocolate.

After we stopped off at a bonfire to warm up and drink hot chocolate, it was time to head back.  My son and I started singing Christmas carols.  As you can see in the picture below, he was enjoying it!

It was a fun weekend, but went by way too quickly.  Even though it was a quick trip, though, it left quite an impression on my son.