Bed and breakfast in Cottonwood

Lofts of Old Town LLC rents vacation lofts on Main Street, in the middle of Old Town. Origins Bed and Breakfast takes guests at 5180 East Comanche Drive, out on the eastern side of town.

The difference is what is outside the door, and it is the whole decision.

Staying on Main Street

The Old Town strip runs about half a mile, and everything on it, tasting rooms, restaurants, the breweries, is inside that. Staying on it means you park once when you arrive and do not touch the car again until you leave, which for a weekend built around tasting is not a small thing. Our Old Town guide covers the street room by room.

It also means being on the street when the street is busy. Old Town has festival weekends, live music and the Verde Valley Wine Festival, and that is lively rather than quiet.

A loft is self-catering, so no breakfast, and usually a kitchen instead.

Staying out of town

Comanche Drive is a few minutes’ drive east, residential and quiet, and a bed and breakfast means breakfast and a host who knows the area. For a first visit that local knowledge is worth more than most people expect.

Why stay in Cottonwood rather than Sedona

Price, mostly, and position. Cottonwood is central to the whole valley: twenty minutes to Sedona, ten to Clarkdale and Jerome, twenty-five to Camp Verde, and it is where the wine actually is. A room here is typically a good deal cheaper than the equivalent up the hill.

The Verde Shuttle runs Cottonwood to Sedona hourly, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days, for $2 each way, so basing yourself here and visiting Sedona without a car is genuinely practical.

Both of these are small and neither has many rooms. October, with the festival weekends, and the spring are when they go first.