Trip Report: Miraval Tucson Arizona, one year later

A little over a year ago, I went to Miraval Tucson Arizona for the first time (trip report here). It was before vaccinations, and my first time traveling since the pandemic started. A lot has happened in the last year, we have vaccinations now and even boosters. I was invited to go to Miraval again with a friend (second time for both of us) last week with the current BOGO deal that they run every year. We had an awesome time and it was a slightly different experience than before since I did different activities this time.

Some things that have changed at Miraval since a year ago, mostly in terms of food:

• The breakfast and lunch buffets are now open, which were closed last year. They provide hand sanitizer and gloves at the beginning of the buffet line.
• The menu is actually mostly the same (there’s a new seafood paella and a pasta that I don’t recall seeing last year), though the specials still change daily of course.
• They no longer serve Ora King salmon, aka the “wagyu of the sea” on the a la carte menu but serve Norwegian salmon instead now. Not as good. Seriously, that Ora King was so good that I often crave it and even buy it locally or on Goldbelly (referral link) now.
• I got a couple mosquito bites but nothing like last year in September when I got at least 10.
• Didn’t see any wild animals this time.
• There were a lot of people during our trip who had won a free trip to Miraval from Oprah back in May. Jealous!!

You can still take home a bunch of food in takeout containers on your last day, and you can start your check-in day as early as you want (I started at 8 am with power cycling!) and the departure day as late as you want (my friend stayed until 6 pm). The classes are still pretty much the same, and you still have to sign up in advance (as early as you can!). I didn’t use the spa this time, but noticed that all the prices went up.

I feel like there isn’t much Globalist recognition at Miraval. For example, there aren’t really any complimentary upgrades for Globalists, everyone is eligible for upgrades even without status (last year, my no-status friends got a suite since it was their babymoon). And when I inquired about late checkout, they said it’s not just for Globalists either, it’s also for everyone, and of course contingent on what time the next person assigned to your room is arriving. For non-Globalists, this is great for you to be on a level playing field with everyone.

Now onto the fun stuff…I finally got to do 2 of the activities I didn’t get to do before due to the classes not being offered during my week or were full.

Mountain Biking

I took Mountain Biking: Techniques and Mountain Biking: Introduction. Ideally it would be done in the opposite order, but that’s just how it was for me since I came on a Sunday/Monday. There’s also an Advanced class.

I’ve never really done much mountain biking before and the instructors here are awesome. One of them started out 4 years ago in the beginners class, and loved it so much she became addicted and started going to competitions and going pro. She loves teaching beginners at Miraval since that was her origin story.

We first started out warming up in the parking lot and learning basic techniques on how to properly start/stop, use the gears, and adjust the seat height dynamically during a ride (for example, when want it to be lower when you’re going over an obstacle so the seat doesn’t keep slamming into your butt). They had some very small obstacles and curbs and stuff to practice on. Every thing we did built upon the last, and it was great teaching. We biked around the property through shrubs and then went out onto trails, where they have a single-lane and an area with obstacles they built – logs, rocks, sand pits, and 2×4 beams to challenge ourselves gradually.

The bikes are designed to go over anything as tall as the pedals if you just ride straight into it, and that was a lot of fun to challenge our perceptions of what we can/can’t do.

Our instructor even showed us how she could ride over a rock as tall as the seat — pretty amazing what mountain biking can do!

Nobody fell during the Techniques class, but a couple people fell during the Beginners class (not too badly) and one girl actually fell into a cactus. She was wearing a fuzzy sweater so the cactus balls literally stuck to her like velcro and then a bunch of needles were still stuck after those were removed, which she said took her an hour to get out afterwards. She was smiling the whole time though! What a good sport.

Beekeeping

I finally got to take Noelle Patterson’s well-known and super popular beekeeping class. He’s had over 7000 participants go through his class and it’s extremely engaging and educational. First you have to sign a waiver, which was actually hilarious because the waiver has something about getting shot by a paintball, and there are no paintballs on the property…

Next we walked down to the hives and had a short lesson on bee colony structure and the functions of each type of bee. Then we donned our beekeeping suits and walked over to the hives, where Noelle used his bare hands to reach into the hives and show us the slats with the honeycombs and point out different things to us such as the nursery, the queen bee, and more.

I learned a lot about bees and also slowly started getting over my fear of bees during this class. I won’t spoil it all for you, but it was truly fascinating and I highly recommend this class. Absolutely one of the best and most memorable classes I’ve ever taken at Miraval. Noelle is also super efficient and takes photos of everyone holding up a honeycomb at the end.

For anyone who’s scared of getting stung by a bee, you wear full on beekeeping suits that zip up and have velcro so they can’t enter. Out of the 7000 participants, nobody has ever been stung who used the suit. However, one guy defied instructions and took off his glove at the hive because he wanted to take photos. Noelle told him immediately to put his glove back on, and the guy looked him straight in the eye and said, “I’M A MAN.” He immediately got stung on the hand right after that. 🤦‍♂️

Fortunately, bee stings are actually no more than a mosquito bite as long as you get the stinger out quickly by scraping (not squeezing/pinching!) the stinger out at an angle. He was able to scrape out the stinger quickly for the guy and he was fine after that.

Outback Hike

I went on the 2 hour outback hike on my second day. At first I thought it was pretty boring, since the landscape was just desert, with dry amaranth and mostly yellow. But as the guides explained various types of plants and about the Native Americans who used to live here a thousand years ago, my eyes were opened and I started to take more pictures to remember the facts and stories they were telling us.

This is a really easy and mostly flat hike, so I think anyone could do it.

New Challenge Courses in 2022

The guides told us that 9 new challenge courses are being built starting in December. Currently, each challenge course (Quantum Leap, Out on a Limb, Ziplining, Desert Tightrope, etc) are single classes lasting 2 hours. They will probably combine some of the challenge courses into one 3 hour class with more than one person on the course at a time (currently it’s basically 1 person at a time, 2 for ziplining). Something to look forward to and come back for next year!