Making spring break memorable with your kids around Arizona

we want fun we want affordable and we want not too far away so if you're a parent and let's say you've got a day off this week with the kids you can hop in the car and go on a fun little Arizona Adventure I have the perfect person here to help you plan we want to welcome Michelle denat back to the show she is a mom of three she also works with triaa Arizona and Via magazine good morning and thanks for being here morning thanks for having me so you've been on a lot of spring break trips and trips

in general all around Arizona uh first we're going to start in Tucson which 90 minutes to get to and there's some things in Tucson that maybe you haven't heard of um that you can do including dude ranches yes there's so much to see in doing Tucson and one thing we don't talk about enough when it comes to Tucson is the fact that it is home to over 10 dude and guest ranches this includes tank of verie ranch which is nestled between sorro National Park and the cornado national forest now staying a

t a dude ranch is very high on my to-do list but if you aren't bunking at the ranch you can still partake in some of the ranch activities this includes their epic Sunset horseback rides and if you're looking for something to do in particular next we week the ranch's full list of activities is open to the public between March 16th and 23rd okay so you don't have to stay there you can go down to Tucson for a day and Tucson definitely a budget friendly option right a lot of things there easy on the

wallet yes absolutely which we love as parents people in learning that uh yes parents you want to stay where you can now we're going to go to Central Arizona you've got a lot of fun things for us to do one of them being hanging out in the verie valley yes verie Valley home to six beautiful communities this includes monuma Castle national monument in Camp verie where you can Marvel at well preserved Native American Cliff Dwellings actually I think I'm going to skip over to ver never mind we're g

oing back I Saw The Kayaks we'll get to that um but what's great about monuma castle National Monument is it's really easy for kids to get in on the action too that's because the National Park Service has a junior Ranger program this allows kids to earn wooden badges for completing various tasks so it's sort of like an educational scavenger hunt that's so cute they can be a little Junior Ranger now we're going to talk a little bit about Sedonas we'll show that video again and you've been to Sedo

na many times and this looks like something fun to do with the kiddos yes so if you want to get up close and personal with the verie river verie river adventures has you covered they offer family-friendly kayak tours for ages 7 plus they provide all the equipment you need and they really do have options for everyone even if it's your first time kayaking we like that lots of options and then Sedona uh I mean you can't Marvel at this what's your favorite hike in Sedona with kids West Fork West For

k is hands down my favorite it is a relatively easy hike uh and it has several creek crossings which my kids absolutely love so the whole whole family can do it the whole family can do it you're seeing part of West Fork well that's not westfork but you were seeing part of westfork right there you don't allow your boys to do that we are not doing that if you're watching at home boys we are not doing that and now we're going to head up to flag stab we know that that is definitely a day trip right

you can drive two hours come back at night and this is just absolutely gorgeous yes we're both Arizona Natives and I would have to say that Springtime is so hard to beat when it comes to Flagstaff you have fresh Mountain Air of course which is wonderful any time of year but you have fresh powder that are sit still waiting for you at snowball through March 31st you can get lift tickets starting as low as $29 when you book online and ahead of time and then we also going to kind of keep it up in Fl

agstaff if you've got little astronomers in your family the L Observatory and I think this is a place that sometimes we forget but this would be perfect for kids perfect for kids especially if you have little astronomers in the family it's home to over eight telescopes that help you get up close and personal with the cosmos they even have special spring break hours opening as early as noon and then finally this is something I've heard a lot about I haven't done it but you have done it and it's a

n Adventure Park and Flagstaff which is great for kiddos just kind of work out all of their energy and the parents can watch or participate yes we're talking about the adventure course at Fort Tut Hill also known as Flagstaff Extreme it is Arizona 's only Adventure um uh and ziplining course and it is absolutely amazing they have a special kids course for ages 7 to 11 we did this last year with my boys and they had an absolute blast the really great thing about the kids course is if you go as an

adult you get to do the course one time but the kids can do the kids course up to three times oh my goodness so money well spent money well spent there's a nice parent viewing area from below so you can sit at a picnic table you can get tons of really great pictures and video and um the staff was so incredibly patient and friendly with the kids Michelle dady with AAA Arizona and Via magazine thanks so much for coming in I figured you're the perfect person you've got Boys Yourself you work for A

AA you know all about Arizona so have fun on your upcoming adventures and thanks for being here thank you and don't forget to download the AAA Mobile app before you head out of town for your spring break getaway there's more travel content on there along with a whole lot more okay sounds great thanks Michelle Simone we'll send it over to you