When my husband and I first were married, we stayed a few nights at the Boulders (June 2003). We had a fantastic time! We were pampered by the staff and the room, spa, and restaurants were quite impressive. Well, it seems much has changed since then. My husband wanted to surprise me and reserved our exact casita that we previously stayed in for a night in December. We had been visiting our families and he thought we would need one night for ourselves. The front desk was very courteous when we arrived. It was unusually cold and rainy this past visit, so we were excited to build a fire in the room. The room appeared clean and comfortable, but as we settled, we discovered disappointment in our stay. The bathroom was not very clean; there was blood on the toilet and a few dark stains on the tile floor (not sure if it was coffee or more blood because the stains were close to the toilet). We called housekeeping for additional shower gel and towels and it took over an hour for our request to be filled. In addition, as we were falling asleep, my husband got stung by a scorpion (in the bed). After that point, it was no longer relaxing. Instead, we stayed up for hours due to trying to find the scorpion and feeling anxious because we did not know where it went (it was dark when he got stung and when he jumped out of bed, he kicked it off). The next morning we called poison control to make sure he would be okay (his leg felt numb). We told a staff member about our encounter and the individual was very apathetic. After we returned home, my husband contacted someone from customer service and they replied that they were sorry that we did not have a pleasant stay and that they encouraged us to try them again. The reply that we received did not seem like they really cared and it did not convince us to "try" another night at the Boulders for $500. If you want internet service, it is an additional fee per day (I think $9.99) as well as the resort fee of $35 for valet parking and other services. If you would rather use the front desk internet service, you can pay $4.95 for 15 minutes. As expensive as it is to stay there, if you are willing to "try" this resort, I suggest going when it is warmer (pool, hiking, golf). In the winter, there are not many things to do, unless you would like to spend a day at the spa (any treatments have their own fees). This is a nice resort for getting away from the city because it is situated in the beautiful desert. However, since this past experience, we would rather spend our money at another resort, especially one that has excellent customer service and one that values customer experience.

What a downhill slide this property has taken. Have stayed here several times over the past 5 years and had always enjoyed a 1st class experience.
The restaurant boasted a gourmet wine list but when trying to order was advised they were out of stock on many offerings.
Both the general manager and head bartender were discourteous and rude to a number of guests.
Awoke one morning to find I had no towels upon exiting the shower.
At check out was presented with someone else's bill -- to which the reception agent muttered --- " damn maids can't even read English".
Our experience was totally unacceptable and at $500/day certainly represented no value.

Expensive but great resort...
Ive stayed in 3 of the big resorts (Princess, 4Seasons, and Boulders) and I liked this as much as the other 2, maybe even better.
Fireplace in room was great b/c of the cold rain we had, but hotel was a little slow bringing extra wood.
Service throughout was great though, no reasl complaints.

golf course was not as great as price would lead you to believe.

Beautiful grounds, great walks, good foos, and wife loved the spa.

This was my wife's first trip without the kids! The only way I could get her to do something like that was to take her to a SPA desination resort. It has everything you need from great food, tennis facility, two highly rated golf courses (North and South) and of course Golden Door Spa. She was very happy with her spa treatments while I ended up spending most of my time playing at the tennis facility. Played just the front nine of the North course since I did not want to take up the whole day playing golf since my wife was with me. Hiked around the boulders right by the resort which was alot of fun. Our rental car was a four wheel drive which was fun in the desert areas - doing donuts out in wide open space is fun. The casita was fine but my wife was not impressed. Large room done in earth tones with a balcony area. Service was above average with some special touches like filing ice container twice a day. It is not right in the Phoenix area so be aware that you will have a little drive. This is my only experence in AZ desert so I can't say if this place is better than the Phoenician and other nice resorts here, but this place was not missing anything that we needed for our vacation. Not the perfect place to bring kids though.