Destination | Flagstaff, Arizona (A Package Deal (Flagstaff))

2008-12-02T20:52:34Z

The area is known as the Seven Wonders for the seven national monuments near and around. The farthest, the Grand Canyon, is 80 miles away.

Winter visitors to Flagstaff head for the Arizona Snowbowl, a 770-acre ski resort with 2,300 vertical feet of runs for skiers and snowboarders. Founded in 1938, the resort has 32 lifts, and is surrounded by summer homes for valley residents when they can scoot up the chairlift to 11,500 feet to see the Grand Canyon on a clear day. (arizonasnowbowl.com)

Other Flagstaff highlights include the Lowell Observatory (lowell.edu) where Pluto was first sighted and the world's largest stand of ponderosa pine. Navajo and Hopi are reservations nearby. There are over 160 dining options. June through August is the high season, with average temperatures hovering around 80 degrees.

Conference hotels include the Little America Hotel of Flagstaff, (248/10,000; littleamerica.com/flagstaff), the Radisson Woodlands Hotel (183/6,400; radisson.com/flagstaffaz), and for a intimate setting, historic Colton House, (musnaz.org) a private home for 12 individuals overnight in their own accommodations or for 20 in meetings by day.

Flagstaff's unique venues include Riordan Mansion State Historic Park (azstateparks.com/Parks/parkhtml/riordan), a 1904 Arts & Crafts estate house with original furnishings for groups of up to 125 people. The Museum of Northern Arizona (musnaz.org) can take 100 in elevated theater seating which scoots up against the wall for table set up, and also the Cocino Center for the Arts.

Destination | Napa Valley, California

2008-10-02T11:23:55Z

Napa has been a small town since the mid 1800's, even then sporting hotels, saloons and gambling emporiums. Culture had also made its mark with a lyceum for public lectures, a reading room, an opera house (going strong again) and an agricultural society. Today Napa is a 19-mile stretch situated along the Napa River with a number of meeting venues.

The one-year-old Calistoga Ranch (calistogaranch.com), an Auberge resort, has 46 exceptional guest lodges on 157 acres. The Ranch offers full-service event packages where facility fees include everything from tables and chairs to china, silver and crystal, set up and breakdown and valet. Their 1,175 square-foot wine cave is available for events, as well as the Lakeside Restaurant & Patio with 1,450 square feet of meeting space. Their largest space is the poolside patio at 1,530 square feet.

The Christian Brother's Retreat & Conference Center (christianbrosretreat.com) is, as Napa Valley CVB's Carmichael says, "a unique experience in itself. The facility is the home of an order of retired priests. " The 500-acre property is well-equipped to handle meetings with an executive 1,490 square-foot meeting room. The A/V capabilities in the room include a computer projection system, large and small screen televisions and VCR, an overhead document camera, overhead projector and wireless Internet access.

The spectacular centerpiece along the river banks is COPIA, the American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts (copia.org), self-described as, "a non-profit center whose mission is to explore and celebrate the cultural significance of wine, food and the arts. "

This organization epitomizes the very identity of the Napa Valley and Sonoma County. COPIA hosts food and wine programs (the property's restaurant Julia's Kitchen is the only restaurant that the late Julia Child endorsed with her name), and when attendees are between meetings, they can stroll through the art gallery or outside into COPIA's Permanent Living Exhibition: The Edible Gardens. Of the center's many meeting spaces, the largest is the 2,500 square-foot Meyer Food Forum. There is also the Staglin Family Vintage Room at 1,248 square feet, and the 1,334 square-foot Garden Vista Terrace.

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Destination | Flagstaff, Arizona (A Package Deal (Flagstaff))

Destination | Napa Valley, California