How is it that Tucson has managed to maintain that ideal degree of just-below-the-radar for all these years? True, wellness seekers have found refuge at standard-bearer spas like Canyon Ranch and Ventana for decades. And design lovers from around the country, tired of Palm Springs, have claimed midcentury houses in the foothills and cactus-roofed adobe gems in the Barrio Viejo. But Arizona’s second-largest city still retains a cultured, almost-small-town feel. When you combine that with UNESCO-recognized Sonoran cuisine, life-changing hikes and winter temperatures that can touch the 90s, Tucson feels like the perfect-for-right-now retreat.
We asked Salima Boufelfel and Roberto Cowan, the duo behind the clothing boutique Desert Vintage — an Instagram darling whose brilliantly curated pieces disappear faster than you can say ‘80s Beene — to share their hometown’s superpowers. Here they are, in their own words.
Elemental Wellness
The landscape is so unique and so specific that it has its own energy and aura that people are drawn to for different reasons. Here, you can live or stay in the middle of the city but be quickly immersed in one of our local parks, which have the highest concentration of saguaro cactus in the U.S. It’s been really good for our creativity, and it’s part of why so many New Yorkers have been buying places here. The quality of life is fantastic!
When we think of wellness, we immediately think of air quality. You just don't get the air quality in big cities that you can have in a place like Tucson, where you also don't see tall buildings. All you see is sky. That in itself is a big perk for sure. There have been hippies here since the ‘70s, drawn by the desert’s powerful aura. And, of course, Navajo culture is essential to the region.
There are really fantastic spas here, like Canyon Ranch. Ventana has multiple mineral pools and fantastic teachers ranging from sports to yoga. There’s a lot of that here, and it feels like Tucson is also becoming a center for that stuff. (Our favorite is Yoga Oasis, a locally owned studio where classes are $5. They’ve adapted beautifully to our times, offering open-air classes at different places, such as on the rooftop of Playground, which used to be a bar.)
We’re looking forward to trying Kaelen Harwell Organic Day Spa, which opened recently and has strict safety protocols. And we also stock up on handmade skincare and oils at the Tucson Herb Store. The owner makes an oil from creosote, a local bush that has the most incredible fragrance when it rains. It’s evocative of our hikes, so we always take it with us when we travel. (It has lots of healing properties, too!)
Incredible Hikes
We are in the desert but, believe it or not, we do have water! So there are tons of hikes where you can see waterfalls or bodies of water. We love one called Seven Falls in the Sabino Canyon mountain range. It’s really beautiful and therapeutic just to be immersed in that water that's flowing through all the rocks.
We recently did a breathwork workshop on the David Yetman trail, which takes you to this Victorian rock structure that was most likely his home. It doesn't have a roof, so you basically sit in this rock structure looking up at the sky, which can take you many places.
