Best Resort Stays in Glendale
Resort stays in Glendale narrow down to a short list of two properties once the standard chain hotel is set aside: The Wigwam, a historic Southwestern-style property in Litchfield Park with four pools, 54 holes of golf and multiple dining rooms, and Bluegreen Vacations Cibola Vista Resort and Spa, an all-suite timeshare-style resort built around kitchens, a pool and a spa. Both sit on the west side of the metro, closer to the Surprise and Peoria spring training fields than to State Farm Stadium, and both trade the interstate-corridor convenience of Glendale's chain hotels for a genuine resort footprint and a longer drive from the airport.
Resort · Glendale in numbers
Litchfield Park's Two-Resort Alternative
The Wigwam separates itself from every other property on this list through scale: four pools, 54 holes of golf and several dining options across a historic Litchfield Park property that predates the modern stadium district by decades. It sits roughly 32 minutes by taxi from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, a longer run than the Happy Valley chain hotels but comparable to the Surprise-area cluster, and its own Wigwam Bar and restaurant options mean less need to leave the property for dinner (weigh the longer airport transfer against the extent of the grounds before booking).
The other resort option, Bluegreen Vacations Cibola Vista Resort and Spa, takes a different approach: all-suite units with kitchens, an outdoor pool and hot tub combination, and a spa, aimed more at a self-catering, longer-stay family trip than a golf getaway. It sits closer to Surprise and Peoria than The Wigwam does, which puts it nearer the Cactus League fields for anyone combining spring training with resort downtime, and the kitchen setup makes it easier to stretch a week-long stay across several ballgames without eating out every night (book the suite category with the kitchen if the plan includes any self-catered meals during the stay).
Both resorts trade some interstate convenience for their grounds: neither sits directly off the corridors that carry Glendale's budget and mid-range chain hotels, and both run a longer airport transfer than the Happy Valley cluster closer to the stadium district. That tradeoff is worth weighing against a typical two- or three-night Glendale stay, since a resort stay here works best as a standalone trip rather than a quick stopover between flights, and travelers coming just for a single Cardinals game may find a chain hotel nearer the stadium a better fit (plan the airport transfer time into arrival and departure days rather than treating it as incidental).
Spring, from February through April, suits a Glendale resort stay particularly well, since Cactus League spring training overlaps with comfortable outdoor temperatures for golf at The Wigwam or pool time at Cibola Vista before the summer heat sets in. Booking that window early matters, since spring training season pulls demand across the whole west valley, resort and chain hotels alike, and the same weeks that fill Surprise Stadium and Camelback Ranch also push both resorts toward their highest rates and least flexible tee-time and spa availability of the year, leaving late bookers with a much thinner choice of rooms and tee times than travelers who plan months ahead.
The resort side of Glendale is really the older, west-valley half of the metro around Litchfield Park, a planned community with a slower, more established feel than the newer stadium district near Westgate. The Wigwam in particular carries genuine history, having operated as a Southwestern resort since the early twentieth century, and that legacy shapes a stay here more than anything tied to the modern sports calendar that dominates the rest of Glendale.