The Grand Canyon at golden hour

ARIZONA WEEKENDS

The home series of the trvlguide letter

One Arizona trip worth taking this weekend, in your inbox every Sunday. Drive time, real cost, and the best weekend to go. Five minutes, free.

The trvlguide letter

Get Arizona Weekends.

Join free and start with 12 Weekends, the calendar of the year’s best drive-to trips, one per month, with the right weekend circled.

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Most travel advice tells you where. This letter tells you where, when, and what it actually costs to be standing there this weekend. It is written in Mesa by a family that takes these trips, and it runs on one belief: you do not have to have it all figured out, you just have to get started at chasing your dream life. We start in Arizona, our home base, and go everywhere from there.

What you get

Every Sunday

The letter itself

One Arizona trip, picked because this weekend is the right weekend for it. Not a roundup of everything happening, one decision, made for you, with the reasons shown.

In every issue

The Drive Sheet

The numbers that decide a trip, in the same box every week: drive time from Phoenix, the real cost for two with the math shown, and the book-by date, the point after which the trip gets harder or pricier.

Free when you join

The 12 Weekends calendar

The year at a glance: the best drive-to trip for every month, the right weekend circled, the drive timed from Phoenix, and an honest ballpark cost for two. It is issue zero of the letter, delivered as a PDF the moment you join. See the calendar.

Bonus

The Sedona Plan

Our hour-by-hour Sedona day, timed to the light: where to park, when the crowds turn, the table to book. Yours as a bonus PDF, because a lot of readers arrive here with Sedona already on their mind. Get the Sedona Plan.

On the site

The seasonal guides

The letter points at the deep versions on trvlguide: the Christmas lights guide, the spring training guide, and the month guides for Phoenix in January and Tucson. When a window opens, the guide is already written.

How it works

Part one

The Window

What is peaking or closing right now. A rim about to shut, color about to turn, tickets about to sell out. The deadline is the whole reason the pick is this weekend and not someday.

Part two

The Drive Sheet

Route, drive time, real cost for two, book-by date. The same four numbers every week, so an issue reads in five minutes and compares cleanly against the last one.

Part three

The Postcard

One photo and one short story from our own trips, to close the letter. Proof the pick comes from a family that drives these roads, not from a content calendar.

From our own trips

Every pick in the letter traces back to a trip we actually took, a photo we actually shot, or a price we actually paid. A few receipts:

Fireworks over Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek, shot by the trvlguide family

Queen Creek

Schnepf Farms, our Christmas tradition

We shoot the fireworks over the farm fields ourselves. Christmas at Schnepf Farms runs November 27 to December 27 this year, and our guide carries the prices we pay at the gate.

 Evening light at Hopi Point on the Grand Canyon South Rim

Grand Canyon

The rim, at golden hour

We shot this at Hopi Point on a July evening with the kids along, and the Grand Canyon guides on this site start from trips like that one, not from a stock library.

 The night sky over Sedona, an International Dark Sky Community

Sedona

Sedona, after dark

Sedona is an International Dark Sky Community, and the night sky is half the trip. Our dark skies guide is built from our own nights there, lying back and looking up.

And the quiet one: this fall we drove a dirt road north of Payson to a cabin on a stream. No TV. Dinner on a Traeger, bean bags that fold into beds for the kids, a sauna under more stars than the Valley ever shows, and Tonto Natural Bridge on the way home. That trip is the whole idea of this letter: close, cheap, and completely off the grid for two days. The full story is coming to the site.

The windows are real

No countdown timers here, and nothing is “almost gone” because a sales page needs it to be. Arizona runs on real deadlines, and they are the reason a Sunday letter exists at all:

Closes Nov 30

The North Rim season ends

The Grand Canyon’s North Rim is open through November 30, 2026, or the first major snowstorm of the season. After that, the quiet side of the canyon is gone until spring.

Opens this month

Lights season books early

Christmas at the Princess opens November 20, ZooLights on November 25, and Luminarias and Christmas at Schnepf Farms on November 27. The prime December nights sell first, and the selling starts now, not in December.

February

Havasupai permits go in a blink

The 2027 Havasupai permit sale opens in February and sells out fast. January’s letter is about getting your account, your dates, and your alternates ready before the rush.

Every fall

Aspen color does not wait

Flagstaff’s aspens turn gold from late September into October, a few weeks at most, then bare branches until next year. Miss that window and you miss the year.

FAQ

Is Arizona Weekends really free?

Yes. The letter is free, the 12 Weekends calendar is free, and the Sedona Plan bonus is free. No card, and no trial that quietly turns into a bill. The guides on trvlguide carry the occasional affiliate link, and that is what keeps the letter free.

How often does Arizona Weekends arrive?

Once a week, on Sunday, and it takes about five minutes to read. One trip, the numbers, and the deadline. There is no daily drip and no midweek noise.

Who writes Arizona Weekends?

Matt, the dad behind trvlguide, writing from Mesa, Arizona. We take these trips with our kids, shoot the photos ourselves, and print the prices we actually paid. When a pick leans on research instead of a trip we took, the letter says so.

What counts as a weekend trip?

Anything you can drive to and home again in a weekend: roughly a tank of gas each way, one or two nights out, back home Sunday night. Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Tucson, Flagstaff, Payson, Page, and the small towns in between. Drive times in the letter are timed from Phoenix.

I am visiting Arizona, not living there. Is this for me?

Yes. Half the letter’s job is timing, and timing matters more when your days here are limited. Snowbirds, weekend visitors, and locals all read the same windows, and the book-by dates and closing dates are exactly what a visitor cannot afford to miss.

How do I unsubscribe?

One click, at the bottom of any issue. No exit interview, no hard feelings, and the 12 Weekends calendar is yours to keep either way.

About & Disclosure

TRVL Guide is a travel resource site. Some links on this site may be affiliate links. If you book through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It helps keep the guides free.

The trvlguide letter

Arizona Weekends.

One Arizona trip worth taking this weekend, in your inbox every Sunday. Drive time, real cost, and the best weekend to go. Five minutes, free.

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