Arizona Biltmore Review – A Grand Stay in Phoenix

Rooms at the Arizona Biltmore

The rooms at the Arizona Biltmore follow various options ranging from conventional rooms to cabins and villas.

Our standard guest room was in the Paradise building wing, completed in 1979, and featured an ample space with conventional amenities, a view of one of the property's seven pools (the Paradise Pool, our favorite, with the water slides), and more.

Although the room's amenities were pretty standard, the bed itself was quite plush, and we heard virtually no exterior noise from the pool, hallway, or other rooms- a real treat considering the hotel was at capacity with a wedding, convention, and basketball teams aplenty.

Throw in just a bit extra space regarding square footage, and we had a comfortable time here all around.

Restaurants and Bars at the Arizona Biltmore

The on-site amenities at the Biltmore were plentiful. Most pools offered a full restaurant and bar menu, the main lobby bar served up their famous Tequila Sunrise (said to have been invented there in the 1930s, albeit an earlier iteration from what we know today), and several dining options also existed on site.

The real downside here, and perhaps one that prevented us from enjoying these amenities more, was the cost. Meals generally started at $25 per entree and quickly ballooned to $40 or more, even for breakfasts, and cocktails routinely broke the $20 price point even for the most basic options. That classic Tequila Sunrise, for example, clocked in at about $27 at The Wright Bar and most assuredly fell short of the value.

Did we buy some things because our status and credit cards allowed ample resort credit? Absolutely. Would we do it again if we had actually to pay for it? No, not at all.

If there is any resort that knows that their customers will pay any price for average dining, it would be this one, and that is a shame.

That said, the $39 avocado toast with smoked salmon was one of the best things we ordered, and yes, plenty of jokes were made about how it is ruining our chances of buying (another) house.

But, overall, the dining choices here felt like a missed opportunity.

But About Those Pools at the Biltmore

Truly, apart from simply being a posh resort, the highlight of our stay here was the pools.

The property boasts seven on-site pools, one being 21+, bar and restaurant services at many, and one kid-friendly pool with not one, not two, but three pretty incredible water slides all around. 

Two of these were conventional sides that spun in a double helix around each other before finishing in a splash pool. One whips you around at slightly faster speeds than the other, but both were great fun.

The third slide, however, was a doozy. This one is a drop slide where you stand in a near vertical shoot, a lifeguard hits a button, and a three-second countdown begins before a trap door opens and you go flying down the slide at an insane speed. The slide ends in a large bowl that you cycle around two or three times before exiting down a short set of stairs.

But as fun as these were, they also only operated during a short window during our November stay. The drop slide only opened at 2 pm one day and was seemingly closed before 5 pm, and the regular slides had late openings and early closures, so we missed them on a couple of our pool trips.

That said, these slides are fun, and riding them should be a must when staying here no matter your age or what you think of the $40 avocado toast.

Overall, the Arizona Biltmore is a stunning resort in Phoenix that had quite a relaxing stay for us, but even with getting most of our stay on points and with credit card discounts, this one still costs a pretty penny.

The Arizona Biltmore is located at 2400 E Missouri Avenue in Phoenix. Click here to book your stay!