The second week of January, I had such a clear moment of despair. Willem and I had just made our vision boards and I thought, wow half of this won’t come true this year because of the state of the world. 

Then I saw that Chicago photographer, Anna Zajac, had made the plunge and drove out to AZ for a bit before buying a little bungalow. I don’t know her decision-making process, but I thought if she can just do it, so can we. January 13th I proposed the idea of leaving for a month and Willem said if I could make it work, he’d be down. We booked a house on January 16th. 

I reached out to someone I knew (via Instagram lol) who used to live in Phoenix asking for recommendations, and as it would happen, she was going to be putting her home back on Airbnb soon. Since she lives in Chicago, she connected me with the management team and we came to an agreement outside of Airbnb, especially since there were still a few things that needed work. Here is the home on Airbnb now!

Tl;dr
Drove 3 days there
Feb 1- Feb 28 in Phoenix, AZ as ‘Home base’
Visited Tucson, Grand Canyon, and Sedona
Drove 3 days home. 

How to Find a Place for a Month

• Reach out to folks on Airbnb and ask if they have any discounts for long-term rentals. Before we found this place in PHX, I reached out to a multitude of hosts and many were able to give us extra discounts because we were committed to staying the entire month of February. Plus, you can also ask if they would be willing to book privately. Some will say no outright, but some will work with you.

• Tell anyone you know, put it into the world, that you are looking for a place. We had a few friends reaching out to their pals in various cities we were considering, like San Francisco, LA, San Diego, etc for various sublets or opportunities.

• Join housing Facebook groups and see if folks will need sublets for the month. Lots of sifting but there are usually a few gems if you can commit the time. 

• Don’t decide to go somewhere 1.5 weeks before you leave

Transportation/Road Trip

We decided to drive for a variety of reasons. We didn’t want to fly during this time and because Phoenix is such a driving city. With a car, we were able to visit Tucson for a day, go on a variety of hikes in the Phoenix area, drive to the Grand Canyon, and Sedona. 

The drive is either 2 longggggg days or 3 decent days. We decided to go southwest early just because we were driving in late January and wanted to have a better chance at clear roads. We would also leave super early like 5:30am, just to be sure we gave ourselves enough time for stops and mostly driving in the daylight.

We stayed in self-check-in airbnb’s that were pretty cheap and perfect for a shower, food, and a good night’s sleep.  

Our drive there: 
Day 1: Chicago -> Tulsa
Day 2: Tulsa -> Albuquerque
Day 3: Albuquerque -> Phoenix

Our drive back:
Day 1: Phoenix -> Amarillo
Day 2: Amarillo -> Springfield, MO
Day 3: Springfield, MO -> Chicago

Gas: Our car would average about 3-4 hours on a full tank. I’m pretty adamant about filling up near a quarter tank and keeping stops efficient and minimal. The car we drove was a Hyundai Kona and gas was about $20-25 each time we filled up.

Car: I was lucky enough to borrow my dad’s car for the month since he was in Florida for the winter. But we didn’t know this until a few days beforehand and we looked into rentals. Rentals for the month ranged from $1,000-$1,500.

Weekend Itineraries

Weekend 1

Saturday: Exploring Phoenix

• We got tacos and picnic-d on ASU’s campus in Tempe. We wanted to walk around and find some grass to throw on since as we now know, our backyard was a dirt pile. 

• Later we went to ‘Hole in the Rock’. It was fine. It is not a hike and there were a few too many people there for our liking. Would be gorgeous at sunset not during COVID.

Sunday: Tucson for the day! 

• Left at 6am, drove immediately to Barista Del Barrio and got Horchata Lattes and Breakfast Burritos. 10/10. 

• Went and bought hiking boots at REI - we got these ones.

• Hiked Blacketts Ridge Trail (8/10), was about 3 hours. Day pass $8 

• Took photos with Anna Zajac at Saguaro National Park. 

Weekend 2

Saturday: Phoenix Hike

• Breakfast Sammies from Matt’s Big Breakfast - super good, we ate in our car!

• We hiked Camelback Mountain from the Echo Canyon Trailhead. 6/10. Definitely difficult and very cool view, but there were SO MANY PEOPLE and there are some times when you are kind of rock climbing, and with people in front and behind you, it’s hard not to stress a bit about how fast you’re going. 

Sunday: Phoenix Hike and Valentine’s Day

• Bought Pastries and coffee from Essence Bakery Cafe - as a Valentine’s treat. Got Macarons and a buttery pastry to split.

• Drove to Jimmy John’s and bought sandwiches before our hike

• Hiked Tom’s Thumb (plus extra viewpoint). This was 9/10! The first leg of it is basically all switchbacks which is great for a strenuous hike, but the best part was the extra view point we did - there was NO one on the extra bit and I definitely had a Hills Are Alive moment. 

Weekend 3

Friday: Drove up to Grand Canyon - 3.5 hours from Phoenix 

• Got 2 Jimmy John’s Sandwiches each, one for dinner, one for lunch tomorrow!

• We stayed in Grand Canyon Village at the Yavapai Lodge in the West Buildings because the doors were accessible from the outside so we didn’t have to see people. 

• NOTE: There is NO WIFI in the West buildings and terrible service throughout the village

Saturday: Grand Canyon Hike! 

• Butt Crack of dawn, parked our car at the visitor’s center and got on the orange tram to the South Kaibab Trailhead

• Hiked down South Kaibab to the Colorado River, Saw Phantom Ranch, up Bright Angel ~8 hours. Truly just wow. 10/10, tears were shed

• Got ourselves a nice junk dinner at the General Store of Pizza, Sour Patch Watermelons, and Chocolate Milk and watched HGTV

Sunday: Walked along the South Rim

• We slept in and grabbed breakfast sandwiches from the General Store

• Packed up all our things

• Walked along the South Rim and looked in awe at what we had accomplished the day before ~ 2 Hours

• Left around 3pm and drove home

Weekend 4

Saturday: Sedona

• Left at 6am and grabbed breakfast at Two Brothers Kitchen - Black Canyon City (ate in our car!)

• Drove straight to Munds Wagon Trail and hiked up that ~3 hours

• Went into town to grab spices and fudge, town was insanely crowded which wasn’t our jam.

• Drove to see Chapel of the Holy Cross in the rock, it’s a 5/10 experience, cool view but not a trek. There are cool hiking trails around it through

We definitely want to come back to Sedona and do a whole weekend/week and experience all there is, but it was pretty crowded.

Sunday: Start the drive home!
We packed up the car when we got back from Sedona and left at 5:30am to head home!

Other notable info about Phoenix and our stay:

• We liked that we weren’t in Scottsdale but rather just in a neighborhood. There were families and real people living there. The area is definitely under major gentrification which is kind of weird to see. Lots of new homes and homes being built, new restaurant chains being put in. 

• Tacos Sahuaro - OMG best tacos we ate there SO OFTEN

• Deseo Coffee - woman-owned and amazing lattes

• Urban Cookies Bakeshop - I was gifted cupcakes and cookies from this spot and they were amazing. 

• A car is pretty necessary. We really wanted the ability to get in a car and go out to the hiking spots, but if you’re just going to AZ for the pool and golf course, you’d be fine in your area. 

• There are likely cheaper or more economical options for long-term stays than what we did. We paid more than our rent here in Chicago and especially if you aren’t going for a “vacation” but rather an extended stay, there are probably ways to find sublets and leases that might be smarter for you. 

• If we had gone during the “normal times” we would have likely eaten out more, gone and seen more in Phoenix, but our aim was to stay outside as much as possible and see zero people we were not risking ourselves or those in Phoenix.