Summer may not be the ideal season to visit the great American Southwest (unless you like the heat!), but any time of the year sounds good to me if the destination is the Healing Center of Arizona, in Sedona. As a special service to readers of this Newsletter, they are offering a seventh night free if you stay six. Did I mention their private room rates are just $65 for a single and $75 for a couple?
The Healing Center, in business since 1979, provides a peaceful setting for rest and relaxation, with splendid views of the area's red rock mountains. Just two hours north of Phoenix, Sedona is noted for its collective open mind toward New Age ideas such as meditation, past life regression, psychic channeling, personal ceremony and ritual instructing, and so on. But you don't have to participate in any of those activities if you just want bodywork therapy (acupressure, massage, shiatsu or yoga), general health and health assessment (health & nutritional counseling, tai chi, sound and color therapy) or psychotherapy (hypnotherapy, neuro-linguistic programming, rebirthing or career counseling). All are available at the center, with prices ranging from $60 to $75 a session.
The center's facilities include a big, domed mediation room (always open), and there are yoga and tai chi classes, guided vortex tours, jeep adventures, sweatlodge and medicine wheel ceremonies and geological trips. The food is "gourmet vegetarian," served family style, or you can dine out in one of Sedona's restaurants. Charges for breakfast $5, lunch $7, dinner $10. You can also use the kitchen to make your own meals, if you wish. There's a thatched palapa to shade yourself under and a swimming hole in nearby Oak Creek, or you can lounge in hammocks, take sauna or steam baths, or jump into an outdoor hot tub ($10 an hour) or flotation tank ($60 an hour). (Private room fee includes use of sauna/spa.)
If you're really on a budget, you could sleep in the Treehouse ($35 single, $50 double) or in the Communal Sleep-Over Dome, at $30 per person.
This Frommer's-only deal is valid for reservations through August 31, 2002. Contact them at 25 Wilson Canyon Road, Sedona AZ 86336, phone 877/723-2811 or 928/282-7710. Web site www.sedonahealingcenter.com.