This 5 day Sedona itinerary gives you enough time to see the city’s most recognizable red rock landmarks, complete a longer hike, enjoy several excellent restaurants, and explore part of the Verde Valley.
It is best for first-time visitors who want a balanced trip with hiking, sightseeing, shopping, good food, and time to relax. It also includes a full day outside Sedona, with stops in Cottonwood and your choice of Jerome or one of the area’s national monuments.
If you are flying into Arizona, you will most likely arrive at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, approximately two hours from Sedona. Use Skyscanner to compare flight options, then read my Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Guide: Everything You Need to Know (PHX) to make your arrival or departure day easier.
For a first trip, I recommend staying in either West Sedona or Uptown Sedona.
Both areas provide convenient access to restaurants, shops, hiking trails, and most of the attractions included in this Sedona vacation itinerary. Uptown places you closer to the main shopping district, while West Sedona can be more convenient for restaurants and several trailheads.
A hotel with red rock views is a bonus, especially since this itinerary includes time to relax at your property instead of treating it only as a place to sleep.
You can compare Sedona hotels through Booking.com or Hotels.com.
Yes. I would not rely on rideshares for this itinerary.
Having your own vehicle makes it much easier to reach trailheads, scenic overlooks, restaurants, and nearby destinations such as Cottonwood, Jerome, and Clarkdale. It also gives you more flexibility when parking lots fill or you decide to adjust your plans because of the weather.
I recommend comparing rates through Discover Cars before your trip.
Spring and fall generally provide the most comfortable temperatures for hiking and sightseeing.
Early summer is a beautiful time to visit—and my favorite—with far fewer people and hot weather that is not unbearably hot yet. Outdoor activities should still begin early. Starting your hikes and visiting viewpoints in the morning helps you avoid some of the afternoon heat and usually makes parking easier.
Book five nights when possible.
This itinerary is designed to give you five full days without making every morning feel like a race. Depending on your flight times, you may need a sixth night or may prefer to spend your final night near Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.
Your first day is intentionally light.
After driving from Phoenix, check into your hotel, enjoy the scenery, and spend a few hours exploring Sedona without committing to a strict schedule.
Once you arrive, give yourself time to settle in.
You may want to sit outside with a red rock view, walk around the property, or relax by the pool before heading into town. There is no reason to fill every hour of your arrival day when the rest of this Sedona itinerary already includes several full days.
Sedona is known for its vortexes, spiritual traditions, crystal shops, and alternative wellness experiences. Even if that is not normally your thing, browsing a few stores is an easy introduction to a side of the city that attracts visitors from around the world.
Mystical Bazaar carries crystals, jewelry, books, and locally made gifts. You can also schedule an aura or psychic reading if you have always been curious about trying one.
Whether you believe in Sedona’s famous energy or simply want to see what it is all about, this is a fun stop that does not require much planning.
Crystal Magic is another popular shop with an extensive collection of minerals, gemstones, fossils, and Arizona souvenirs.
It is especially useful when you want something more distinctive than a standard magnet or T-shirt.
Wendy’s Tip: Look here for a small crystal, piece of jewelry, or polished stone that will be easy to pack and more personal than a typical souvenir.
A lightweight Nano Bag is useful for carrying small purchases without taking up much room in your day bag or suitcase.
Finish your first evening with dinner at The Hudson.
The restaurant has a relaxed atmosphere and a patio overlooking Sedona’s red rocks, making it a strong introduction to the city. The menu includes enough variety for groups with different preferences.
Menu items I would consider include the corn chowder, whipped feta, chicken pot pie, and butternut squash ravioli.
Try to reserve an outdoor table when the weather is comfortable, especially when your dinner time overlaps with sunset.
Day two covers several of Sedona’s most recognizable attractions, including the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Tlaquepaque, Uptown Sedona, and two restaurants with excellent red rock views.
Start your morning at Mesa Grill, located beside Sedona Airport.
I liked beginning the day here because the food was consistently good, and watching small planes take off created an experience that felt specific to Sedona rather than another standard breakfast.
Mesa Grill serves breakfast and lunch without reservations, while dinner reservations are recommended. Some of the most popular tables overlook the runway and surrounding red rocks.
The scalloped potatoes had a slight truffle flavor that I especially enjoyed.
Next, drive to Tlaquepaque Arts & Shopping Village.
Tlaquepaque was modeled after a traditional Mexican village and includes shaded courtyards, fountains, mature sycamore trees, art galleries, boutiques, and colorful walkways. Allow time to browse the artwork, walk through the courtyards, and stop for ice cream or a drink.
It is also one of the prettiest shopping areas in Sedona for photos, even if you do not plan to buy much.
René is located inside Tlaquepaque, so you can have lunch without moving your car.
The patio beneath the trees works especially well on a pleasant day and allows you to continue enjoying the quieter atmosphere of the shopping village.
Plan for a more leisurely meal here rather than a quick lunch between attractions.
After lunch, spend part of the afternoon exploring Uptown Sedona.
This compact district contains souvenir stores, boutiques, art galleries, specialty shops, and several restaurants. If you skipped Mystical Bazaar or Crystal Magic on your arrival day, you can visit them now.
Uptown is also a practical place to buy gifts early in the trip before your schedule becomes busier.
End the day with dinner at Mariposa Latin Inspired Grill.
Mariposa was one of my favorite dining experiences in Sedona because it combined excellent food with wide red rock views and a more elevated atmosphere.
Make your reservation approximately one hour before sunset. That timing allows you to enjoy the changing light over the rocks while you eat instead of rushing through dinner to reach a separate sunset viewpoint.
Mariposa requires more time than a casual meal, but dinner and sunset can become the evening’s main event.
Wendy’s Tip: Reserve early and request a table with a view. A request is not a guarantee, but it is worth asking.
Day three centers around West Fork Trail, my favorite hike from our Sedona trip.
It is a longer hiking day, so the rest of the itinerary includes a quick breakfast, a casual lunch, time at your hotel, and a peaceful dinner beside Oak Creek.
Pick up breakfast from Sedonuts before driving into Oak Creek Canyon.
Sedonuts is a convenient choice when you want to start hiking early rather than sit through a full restaurant breakfast. The doughnuts are made fresh, and the selection rotates. Sedonuts was so good that I ended up going twice during the trip.
My favorite was the raspberry-filled doughnut. The Vortex Cinnamon Roll is another amazing choice.
If you complete only one longer hike during your five days in Sedona, I recommend West Fork Trail.
The shaded canyon, 13 creek crossings, and changing scenery make it feel completely different from Sedona’s exposed red rock trails. We hiked about eight miles and spent roughly five hours on the trail, including the narrow water section beyond the maintained endpoint, which was the highlight for me.
Wendy’s Tip: Keep your water shoes in your backpack until you actually need them. Regular tennis shoes or hiking shoes are better for most of the trail.
Read my West Fork Trail Guide: Everything You Need to Know Before Hiking Sedona's Most Beautiful Trail for parking, creek crossings, timing, and what to expect beyond the maintained endpoint.
Save this for later on Pinterest so you don’t forget it.
After hiking, stop at Sedona Organic Taco Company for a casual lunch. The cauliflower taco surprised me, and the carne asada taco was also delicious. I added the elote directly into my tacos, which was heaven.
The horchata was refreshing after the hike, and the coconut flan was incredible. Do not skip dessert because this was one of my favorite desserts from the entire trip.
The restaurant is casual and quick, which is exactly what I wanted after spending the morning outside.
Keep the afternoon open.
Spend a few hours by the pool, take a nap, use the spa, or sit outside and enjoy the view. This break prevents a longer hiking day from turning into a packed sightseeing marathon.
Building rest into a five-day itinerary also gives you room to adjust if the hike takes longer than expected.
Cress on Oak Creek was one of the most memorable dinners of our Sedona trip. The creekside setting felt quiet and intimate, and the food made the experience feel just as special.
I would choose it for a date night, celebration, or evening when you want dinner to be part of the experience. Read my Cress on Oak Creek Review: Is It Worth It? for everything we ordered and what to expect.
After yesterday’s longer hike, day four combines a Pink Jeep Tour with a relaxed lunch and your choice of a shorter trail.
Begin with breakfast at Coffee Pot Restaurant, a longtime Sedona restaurant known for its extensive menu and generous portions. The menu includes 101 omelets, along with waffles, huevos rancheros, and other traditional breakfast choices.
Some of the omelet combinations include green chile; chili con carne; and avocado, bacon, tomato, and cheese. Coffee Pot Restaurant does not accept reservations, so arrive early if you are visiting during a busy weekend or holiday period.
A Pink Jeep Tour gives you access to rougher backcountry areas that you cannot experience from Sedona’s main roads.
The tours vary in intensity and focus. Some emphasize geology and history, while others include a rougher off-road ride through the red rocks. For a first visit, the Broken Arrow Tour is one of the most recognizable options.
Reserve several weeks in advance for spring, fall, holidays, and weekends. Morning tours can also be more comfortable during warmer months. These tours are exposed, so apply face sunscreen and body sunscreen before leaving your hotel.
You can compare Sedona tours through Viator or GetYourGuide. Read my Pink Jeep Broken Arrow Tour Review: Is It Worth the Money or Overrated? before booking.
Have lunch at Hideaway House after your tour.
The restaurant has multiple levels and patios overlooking the red rocks. I loved the Peach and Pancetta Pizza, especially ordered well done, along with the house salad and homemade dressings.
The views are a major reason to eat here, so request patio seating when the weather cooperates.
You can use the rest of the afternoon for one additional hike. Bell Rock works better when you want an easy, flexible walk, while Raven’s Cave provides a shorter but more unusual experience.
Bell Rock Trail is useful because you can decide how much hiking you want to do.
We walked approximately 0.3 miles before finding a photo spot we loved and did not feel the need to continue. You can see Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte almost immediately, so the scenery does not require a long or difficult hike.
Travelers looking for more exercise can continue farther and climb higher onto Bell Rock.
Raven’s Cave is a short adventure with cave openings that frame the surrounding red rocks. The parking area is very small, and the final turn can be easy to miss, but the cave and shaded overlook above it make this a fun stop when you want something quick and different.
Wendy’s Tip: Save the trail location before leaving your hotel. Cell service is not something I would depend on when trying to locate an unmarked turn.
An iPhone tripod is useful at both Bell Rock and Raven’s Cave when you want photos together without asking another hiker to take them.
Finish your final full day in Sedona at Cowboy Club in Uptown.
The restaurant has a casual Southwestern atmosphere and an Arizona-focused menu. Popular options include cactus fries, bison chili, bison pot roast, bison burgers, elk chops, prime rib, cornbread, and fried ice cream.
Cowboy Club is especially convenient when you want to walk around Uptown before or after dinner.
The final day of this Sedona itinerary for 5 days moves beyond the red rocks and into the Verde Valley.
You will begin in Old Town Cottonwood, ride the Verde Canyon Railroad, and then choose between Jerome, Tuzigoot National Monument, or Montezuma Castle National Monument.
Cottonwood is approximately 20 minutes south of Sedona and has a slower pace, historic downtown, and a growing food scene.
Old Town Cottonwood is a walkable district with restaurants, boutiques, art galleries, coffee shops, tasting rooms, breweries, and live music venues.
The town is part of Arizona Wine Country, but you do not need to care about wine to enjoy it. Wine is not my thing, and I still found plenty of reasons to visit.
Start at Queen B Vinyl Café, which combines a café, coffee roastery, record store, ramen shop, and wine bar.
The coffee is roasted in-house, the pastries are made fresh, and many ingredients are locally sourced. I ordered a freshly prepared chai latte, and it was absolutely worth the stop.
The combination of food, music, records, and coffee gives Queen B a creative atmosphere that feels different from anywhere we visited in Sedona.
After breakfast, spend time walking around Old Town Cottonwood.
Browse the locally owned boutiques, antique stores, galleries, specialty shops, coffee houses, tasting rooms, and breweries. The downtown area is compact enough to explore on foot.
Cottonwood felt calmer than Sedona during our visit, which made it easy to wander without feeling tied to a strict list of attractions.
Keep track of the time, however, because the Verde Canyon Railroad has a specific check-in schedule and is not something you can arrive late for.
The Verde Canyon Railroad was a unique way to see parts of Northern Arizona that cannot be reached by car. The four-hour ride includes assigned indoor seating and access to an open-air viewing car, which was my favorite part of the experience.
Spend more time outside on the outbound journey, then relax with the included snack box on the ride back. Read my Verde Canyon Railroad Review: Tips, Cost & What to Expect for the full experience and practical planning details.
The railroad occupies most of the afternoon, so you may have time for only one additional stop. Check operating hours and sunset times before deciding.
Jerome sits high on Cleopatra Hill overlooking the Verde Valley.
The former mining town is now known for historic buildings, galleries, museums, unusual shops, and broad views. It is the best choice when you want to continue shopping and exploring another small downtown.
The roads into Jerome are steep and winding, so factor that into your timing.
Tuzigoot National Monument preserves the remains of a Sinagua pueblo overlooking the Verde Valley.
This stop makes the most sense for travelers interested in Indigenous history and archaeology. The elevated setting also provides views across the surrounding landscape.
Montezuma Castle National Monument contains one of the best-preserved cliff dwellings in North America.
It is an easy walking stop and works particularly well when you are driving south toward Phoenix. Montezuma Well can also be added when you have enough time and want to see a second historical site nearby.
I would include Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well when they fit naturally into your route, especially for a road trip or for travelers interested in history. I would not make a long detour solely to add them to an already crowded day.
When you choose Jerome as your final stop, have dinner at The Clinkscale. The restaurant is located inside a restored historic hotel and is regularly recommended for its food, service, and atmosphere.
It is a convenient final meal after walking around Jerome and provides a more distinctive ending than driving directly back to Sedona for another dinner near your hotel.
I created a custom Google Map with the restaurants, trailheads, attractions, and Verde Valley stops included in this guide.
Save the map to your Google Maps account before the trip so you can quickly check directions, group nearby stops, and adjust the schedule when parking or weather changes your plans.
Five days in Sedona gives you time to experience far more than a few red rock viewpoints. You can hike through a shaded canyon, browse art galleries, watch planes during breakfast, eat beside Oak Creek, explore caves, take a Pink Jeep Tour, and ride a train through scenery you cannot reach by car.
That variety is what surprised me most. Sedona can feel adventurous one day and completely relaxed the next.
You will not see every trail or overlook in five days, but you will leave with a much better sense of what makes Sedona so special. I would gladly return for more hiking, another red rock sunset, and several meals I am still thinking about.
If you end up booking anything for your trip, using my affiliate links helps support my blog at no extra cost to you. I spend a lot of time researching and writing these guides, so I really appreciate the support.
I ate chilaquiles while a Cessna taxied past the window, and that’s just a normal Tuesday breakfast in Sedona.
@mesa_grill_sedona sits right beside the Sedona Airport Scenic Lookout, so along with your food you get red rock views stretching in every direction and a front-row seat to tiny planes lifting off. Chef Mercer Mohr runs the kitchen, serving up Southwestern comfort food from breakfast through dinner, chilaquiles, elevated diner classics, burgers, steaks, seafood, all of it.
The view is what pulls people in the door, but the food actually holds its own. Good enough that this place stays packed with locals, not just tourists passing through on their way to the lookout. It also picked up the 2025 Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice and OpenTable Diners’ Choice awards, so it’s not just me saying it.
Indoor seating if you want the AC, a pet-friendly patio if your dog’s along for the trip. Either way, get there before plane-spotting turns into a wait for a table.
Link in bio for the full Sedona breakfast roundup ✈️🌵
Confession: my newsletter is where the good stuff lives. Not the polished, edited-for-the-grid stuff, the “here’s the hole-in-the-wall I almost skipped” stuff, the packing lists I actually use, the “don’t book this hotel” warnings before you waste your money on them.
The newsletter is basically me texting you before a trip instead of after one. Sign up and you’ll be the first to know where I’m headed next, plus a few things I’ll never post here.
Link in bio if you want in. ✈️
Yes, it’s only July. Start planning anyway. Fall books faster than people expect, and a few of these destinations are worth getting ahead of. Here are five places worth putting on your radar right now.
Ireland: Cooler temps, moody skies, dramatic coastline fall was made for it. Tourist crowds drop, the green stays, and the whole country feels a little more like itself.
Great Smoky Mountains, TN/NC: Fall foliage in the Smokies is the real thing. The color peaks mid-October and the views from the ridgelines are hard to argue with. It’s also one of the most visited national parks in the country, so going on a weekday makes a real difference.
New York City: Fall is NYC at its best comfortable temps, the energy of the city shifting into a new season, and every neighborhood doing something worth showing up for. It’s also just a great walking city when it’s not brutally hot.
Japan: Fall foliage season is as good as spring cherry blossoms and somehow less talked about. The colors are dramatic, the temples and gardens are stunning, and it’s worth planning around peak dates by region.
Mystic, Connecticut: Small, walkable, genuinely charming Mystic in fall feels like exactly what a New England autumn is supposed to look like. Easy to pair with a broader New England road trip if you want to extend it.
Full guides linked in bio 🍂
There are two kinds of travelers: people who plan a trip and then figure out where to eat, and people who book a restaurant and then build the rest of the itinerary around it.I am the second kind. I will not apologize for this.
The reservation gets locked in first. The hotel search happens within the same 24 hours. The flights get compared around the restaurant’s hours of operation. The rest of the trip exists to fill the days before and after the table I actually came for.
If this sounds unhinged, I completely understand. It has also resulted in some of the best meals of my life, so I’m going to keep doing it.
Drop a 🍽️ if you plan your trips around food too.
Let’s talk about when to actually book that Dubai trip you’ve been pinning for two years. I get asked this constantly, so here’s the honest breakdown: October through April is your window. Anything outside that and you’re basically touring in a sauna!
October and November give you warm days and cooler nights, which is basically the sweet spot for wandering around without melting. December through February is peak season: gorgeous weather. March and April are the quiet insider pick, right before summer heat shows up and ruins everyone’s plans.
Saving this for later? That’s what it’s here for. Full breakdown linked in bio.
Follow @travelwithwendyplummer for Beautiful Beach Destinations, City Guides, Foodie Spots, and Luxury Hotel Recommendations.
