Prescott Cabins With Hot Tubs: What to Know Before You Book

A hot tub is the single most requested thing in a Prescott cabin, and it’s the feature most likely to disappoint if you don’t ask the right questions first. Here’s what actually matters.

Why a hot tub makes sense here specifically

Prescott sits at 5,354 feet, and the cabins south of town in Groom Creek are closer to 6,400 feet. That altitude is the whole point. Summer evenings cool off into the sixties even after a warm afternoon, and winter nights drop below freezing under a sky with no city glow in it.

It also means a hot tub is worth using year round here, which is not true of a hot tub in Phoenix.

Ask whether it’s actually private

“Hot tub” on a listing can mean a shared tub at a resort, a tub on a shared deck, or a tub the neighbors can see into. Private should mean it’s yours alone for the length of your stay, and screened.

Both of ours are private and on the cabin’s own deck. The one at the Groom Creek Getaway seats seven and sits on a paver patio ringed by granite and pines. The Forest Cabin has its own on the deck, wrapped close by the trees, on two acres that meet the national forest.

Ask whether it runs in summer

Some hosts shut the tub down from June to September. Ask directly.

Worth knowing: Yavapai County runs a fire ban through most of the summer, which closes fire pits and any open flame. A hot tub is unaffected, so in fire-ban season it becomes the only outdoor thing you’ve got after dark. Ours stay open all year, at any hour.

Ask what the cabin is like around it

The tub is where you’ll spend an hour a day. The other twenty-three matter too.

• Groom Creek Getaway: sleeps 6, three bedrooms (two kings and a queen), 2.5 baths, stone wood-burning fireplace, full kitchen with dishwasher, washer and dryer, on 1.5 acres backing onto Prescott National Forest. Rated 4.99 on Airbnb across 72 stays.
• The Forest Cabin: sleeps 4, three bedrooms and five beds, one full bath, A-frame, stone fireplace, full kitchen, washer and dryer, on two acres. A perfect 5.0 rating.

Both are pet-free and smoke-free, both have fast Wi-Fi, and both do self check-in from 4:00 PM, so a late arrival is fine.

Ask about the drive

This is the one people skip. Cabins in the pines are up a hill, and some driveways are steep enough to need four-wheel drive once there’s snow on them.

Ours is one of those. The last quarter mile is county-maintained dirt, fine in any car, but the driveway itself wants four-wheel drive in winter. Better to know that in November than to find out in January.

Worth keeping in proportion, though: it snows here on about five days a year, and Senator Highway, the road up from Prescott, is a Priority 2 road that Yavapai County plows around the clock during a storm. It’s the private driveways nobody clears, not the roads. We put the whole winter driving picture in one place, county plow priorities and all.

The short answer

If you want a hot tub in Prescott, look south of town in Groom Creek, confirm the tub is private and runs year round, and check the driveway before you book a winter trip.

Where to stay

Both of our cabins have a private hot tub. Check the calendar to see what’s open.