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The Group Travel Leader Going on Faith Select Traveler

Casino resorts worth a gamble


Courtesy Scottsdale CVB

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Nation has gone several steps beyond the norm with its Talking Stick Resort near Scottsdale.

Three other enterprises operated by the tribe are part of an entertainment, dining and shopping destination created as an adjunct to the 496-room AAA Four Diamond casino resort.

Called Talking Stick: A Cultural and Entertainment Destination, the development includes the resort, 36 holes of championship golf, a shopping and dining center and Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, an 11,000-seat baseball stadium that is the spring training site for the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies.

New to Talking Stick this year is an attraction that doubles as an event venue. Butterfly Wonderland claims to be the largest butterfly pavilion in the United States. Also this spring the Courtyard by Marriott Scottsdale Salt River opened with more than 5,000 square feet of meeting space.

Talking Stick Resort offers more than 100,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor conference space, the 13,000-square-foot Spa at Talking Stick, five on-site restaurants and a 650-seat showroom.

866-877-9897
www.talkingstickresort.com

TEMECULA, Calif. — Pechanga Resort and Casino is renovating its pubic areas and 19 suites, adding an event venue, reworking three of its restaurants and adding a food outlet. It expects to have the project complete by the end of year and has taken measures to avoid disrupting its current guests during the project.

The 517-room hotel is also turning its Eagle’s Nest rooftop nightclub into an expanded venue by removing walls that currently separate adjoining meeting space.

Three restaurants are undergoing complete transformations, and a fourth is taking shape. The resort is owned and operated by the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians.

888-732-4264
www.Pechanga.com