At Least The Cacti Are Pretty, by Jeffrey Veen

At Least The Cacti Are Pretty

Your guide to Phoenix, Arizona:

Do eat at La Tolteca, 1205 E. Van Buren. Open for 42 years and serving some of the best El Pastor I've ever had.

Do visit the Desert Botanical Gardens in Papago Park. They have the best display of succulents (a personal favorite) I've ever seen. And a great garden shop.

Do rent a car. Nothing is within walking distance, and there are no facilities for cycling at all. We did manage to find one mixed-use trail cutting diagonally across the city next to a disgusting cement channel.

Do bring a book. The concierge kindly informed me that the closest bookstore to the city center was 7 miles away. "So, you'll have to drive," he said.

Do Not stay at the Hyatt Regency downtown. The largest business hotel in the 6th largest city in America asked me to explain what "WiFi" was, and then informed me that they were "looking into" getting high-speed access at the hotel. "You can use dialup on the phone in your room, though."

This entry was written by Jeffrey Veen and posted 12 January 2004 at 9:54 PM. It was filed under Travel. | View blog reactions

Comments

1. On 13 January 2004 at 6:50 AM daniel stoddart wrote:

Still unbelievable to me how ignorant major hotel chains are about wireless.

My fave story is asking about wifi at the desk of a different (similarly large) chain. "We don't have stereos in the rooms", the girl at the desk replied glumly.

2. On 23 January 2004 at 2:46 PM Preston Jones wrote:

NO HIGH SPEED?!?!?!??! That is so not cool. Isn't that discriminating against those of us who are addicted to it and wouldn't go back to dialup if they paid us?