If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD302.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Like famed restaurateur owner Sam Fox’s own success, Phoenix-crashpad the Global Ambassador is set to rise speedily. Set at the base of the Camelback Mountains, and steps from the Echo Canyon trail, Fox has ensured the hotel's design matches up to its western-opening-shot of a view, and he’s done enough to pull your attention away (for a moment, at least). Locally made artwork and leather accents add character to refined rooms, sun-soaked cabanas flank the pool, a spoiling spa refreshes with bracing dips, the yoga deck is east-facing for sun salutations, and the wraparound rooftop restaurant steals the scene at sunset.
11am; check-in is at 4pm. Both are flexible, subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £272.23 ($340), including tax at 12.57 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional resort fee of $39.40 per room per night on check-out.
More details
Rates don’t usually include breakfast, but it’s available from $30 a person at Le Âme and Le Market.
Also
All the communal areas are wheelchair-accessible and there are seven ADA-approved bedrooms that have been fitted with roll-in showers and grab bars.
At the hotel
Gym; yoga, pilates and spinning studio; and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, Nespresso coffee machine, minibar filled with custom-made spirits, Dyson hair dryer, and Byredo Bal d’Afrique bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Views of the Camelback Mountains aren’t in short supply, and all rooms have a Juliet balcony and suites have furnished patios. But if you want to take the sights seriously, we’d suggest springing for the Presidential Suite, where expansive windows offer panoramic vistas of the hotel’s three surrounding peaks.
Poolside
You’ll find the pool, open between 8am and 10pm, flanked with cabanas next to the Boutique.
Spa
Wellness is important to hotel owner Sam, and if this sprawling spa is anything to go by, we’d say he’s nailed it. The 10 treatment rooms aren’t just set for restorative treatments and refreshing facials; light therapy, IV drips and cryotherapy are also available. Throw in a Jacuzzi, cold plunge pool, steam room and sauna and we’re pretty sure you’ll struggle to pull yourself from your reposeful trance. There’s also a 9,000-square-foot fitness center, decked out with Technogym equipment, a yoga and pilates studio and a spinning room (classes can also be taken alfresco on the terrace).
Packing tips
What you pack depends what you’re planning to do… Climbing clothes and gear will suffice for hikers, but city slickers will blend in best with vintage threads and light linens.
Secure a spot by the outdoor fire pit at Théa for picturesque apéritifs; or, if you’d rather a small crowd the Jewel Room can be booked out for private events.
Dress Code
Swap the hiking boots for something a little more glam once evening arrives.
Hotel restaurant
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that restaurateur extraordinaire Sam Fox’s hotel is all about the food, and its five restaurants certainly live up to the name. On the ground floor, Le Market serves warm-from-the-oven pastries and local coffee blends from 6.30am until 3pm before transforming into a wine and cheese spot when the clock strikes 4pm. Once you’ve quenched your thirst, the interconnected Le Âme boasts brass arches and dark tones with a Parisian-inspired menu where aged steaks take center stage. Up by the pool, Peruvian-Mexican flavors are dished up at the Pink Dolphin between 11am and 4pm, and on the top floor you’ll find Théa – a wraparound rooftop restaurant with a Mediterranean menu and vast mountain vistas. The Lobby Bar offers comforting classics – truffle frites, burgers and French bread pizzas – alongside your cocktails.
Hotel bar
The Lobby Bar has a lengthy list of classic cocktails and light bites, as well as live music on weekends; otherwise, all of the restaurants have bar areas for top-notch tipples.
Last orders
Breakfast at Le Âme is 7am–11am, lunch is 11am–2pm and dinner from 5pm–10pm. Théa’s weekend brunch is 10am–2pm and dinner is daily from 4pm–10pm. Pink Dolphin serves till 4pm and the Lobby Bar stops pouring at 11pm (1am on Friday and Saturday).
Room service
Dishes can be delivered in-room from 6.30am till 10pm (and a limited menu is available outside these hours).
The Global Ambassador has the Camelback Mountains as a backdrop in eastern Phoenix, Arizona.
Planes
Most international hubs will have direct flights into Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport, which is a 15-minute drive from the hotel. Private transfers can be arranged from $30 each way. There’s also a private airport in Scottsdale, a 20-minute drive away, if you’ve chartered a craft.
Automobiles
Phoenix is fairly walkable and has good public transport, so you’ll make do without a car; but if you’re planning on exploring beyond the city’s borders we’d suggest picking up a rental at the airport.
Worth getting out of bed for
Scenic snapshots are a must when you’re in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, and luckily one of the best spots in town is on your doorstep. Just behind the Global Ambassador, the looming Camelback Mountains has plenty of trails to hike (the Echo Canyon and Cholla Lane Loop trails are famed for their views, but both are steep so approach with caution). Once you’ve admired the Valley of the Sun from afar, head into its hub; the Heard Museum – which focuses on collections from indigenous artists from the American Southwest – and Phoenix Art Museum are both on North Central Avenue. Continue the creativity with a trip downtown to Roosevelt Row, a walkable arts district that’s well-loved for its monthly First Fridays Art Walk, music events and boutique spots – be sure to roam the Japanese Friendship Gardens while you’re in the area as well. If it’s shopping you’re after, you needn’t travel far from the hotel as it’s flanked by the Biltmore Fashion Park and Scottsdale Fashion Square on either side.
Local restaurants
Phoenix is on the rise for gourmands, so you’re sure to be spoilt for choice, but we’d suggest starting with Matt’s Big Breakfast – a Phoenix institution for its all-American day-starters, flipped and fried with locally sourced ingredients. The Henry steals the evening show with its braised-in-bourbon ribs, truffled lobster tagliatelle and seared tuna.
Local cafés
Designed to mimic an Orient Express-style train carriage, Platform 18 at Century Grand pours award-winning cocktails mixed with creative ingredients (smoked tea, samphire, chili oil…to name a few)
Local bars
If you find yourself downtown, stop for a sip at Songbird Coffee & Tea House on Roosevelt Row, where mornings are filled with home-brewed coffee blends, freshly baked pastries and breakfast bites – take a look at their events board, the cafè is often host to local performers come evening.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this gourmet hotel in Arizona and unpacked their stoneware mugs and cacti seeds, a full account of their dreamy desert break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Global Ambassador in Phoenix…
Once upon a time, while riding down an arid Tucson road, a busted tire convinced then college student Sam Fox to ditch his summer internship and leave college. Fast-forward through more than 20 money-spinning concepts and dozens of award-winning restaurants, and his first overnight outpost is set to be Phoenix’s hottest of spots. But Fox isn’t the only famed name you’ll spot at the Global Ambassador, for he’s rallied sports stars Devin Booker and Larry Fitzgerald, as well as country-music legend Dierks Bentley, to help amp up the hotel’s life-styling: Bentley’s love for Wim Hof’s motivational lessons inspired the cold plunge pool at the spa and Booker’s four-legged friends led to a tailored-to-Fido suite. And, Fox does what he does best here, with refined fare aplenty – there are five restaurants, including a Mediterranean-inspired rooftop spot that makes for scenic sundowners. If that’s not quite enough, just one quick glance at the Camelback Mountains’ mighty silhouettes will have you sold on the Sonoran Desert’s Valley of the Sun.
