St. George Resorts

St. George has a genuine resort layer alongside its ordinary hotels, and the difference is not simply price. A resort here is usually buying you setting and self-containment rather than luxury alone.

What you are actually paying for

Setting. The resort properties are sited for the landscape — red rock, canyon views, golf frontage, dark skies. That is the product, and it is the thing a hotel beside the interstate cannot offer at any price.

Self-containment. Dining, pools, spa and activities on site, so the trip does not require driving for every meal. In an area this spread out, that is a substantive convenience.

Golf on the doorstep. Several of the resort properties are built around courses, and this region's golf is a genuine draw in its own right, particularly through the winter when much of the country cannot play.

Quiet. The resort areas sit on the edges of town and out toward Ivins and Washington, which is where the quiet is.

The trade-off, plainly

You will drive for anything that is not on site. Downtown, the restaurants, the shops and most services are a proper trip rather than a stroll, and the resort areas are further out than a map suggests.

If your ideal holiday involves wandering into town for dinner, a resort is the wrong shape and you would be happier downtown. If your ideal holiday involves not getting into a car after mid-afternoon, it is exactly right.

Where the resort areas are

Toward Ivins and Snow Canyon, west of the city, is the most scenically dramatic direction — red rock and desert immediately outside, with Snow Canyon State Park close by. This is also where Kayenta, the arts-focused community, sits, which gives the area a cultural dimension beyond the scenery.

Around the golf communities, spread across the south and east and toward Washington, where the courses are.

Sand Hollow, out toward Hurricane, pairs golf with the reservoir and the off-road country, and suits a trip built around the water and the trails.

Seasonality is the whole planning problem

Winter is prime resort season here, and it is the region's real distinction. Mild, sunny days when most of the country is frozen — golf in January is not a novelty, it is the reason a large winter population exists at all. Book well ahead.

Spring and autumn are the peak for everything, since the weather is near perfect and it coincides with the busiest Zion months.

Summer is the value window. It is hot — genuinely so, from June into September — and resorts price accordingly. If you are content to be in the pool at midday and outside early and late, it is by far the best value of the year and the properties are at their least crowded.

Making the most of a resort stay

• Book tee times when you book the room, particularly in winter. Courses fill.
• Ask what is actually included. Resort fees, pool access, shuttle arrangements and activity charges vary, and the answer is worth knowing before arrival.
• Plan the day around the heat in summer — early golf, midday indoors or in water, evening outside. Every local does this.
• Use the position. Snow Canyon is minutes from the western resorts, Zion is about an hour, and Sand Hollow and Quail Creek are close to the eastern ones. A resort here is a good base as well as a destination.
• Take the sun seriously. Utah has the highest melanoma rate in the country, and a day on an exposed course or by a pool at this elevation and latitude is more exposure than it feels.

Who a resort suits

Well: golfers, couples wanting quiet and scenery, winter visitors escaping a real winter, and anyone who wants the trip contained in one place.

Less well: travellers who want to walk to dinner and browse a town in the evening, families wanting to be near the recreation centres and splash pads, and anyone using St. George purely as a base for driving to the parks — where a convenient hotel does the same job for less.