Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission.
Everyone knows that person who spends weeks sniffing around travel blogs, going deep into Tripadvisor rabbit holes, collecting Google docs from friends of friends, and creating A Beautiful Mind –style spreadsheets to come up with the best vacations and itineraries possible. In this recurring series, we find those people who’ve done all the work for you and have them walk us through a particularly wonderful, especially well-thought-out vacation they took that you can actually steal.
In February 2020, on the cusp of the world shutting down, I had a near-religious awakening on horseback.
My sister-in-law, Megan, and I were visiting White Stallion Ranch ( 9251 W. Twin Peaks Road ) in Tucson, Arizona. The family-owned dude ranch offers five to eight horseback rides every day but Sunday, which is the horses’ rest day. About half of them are slow rides, where the horses crisscross the ranch’s 3,000 acres at a meditative walk. The rest are fast rides punctuated by long stints of loping, a pace one notch below an all-out gallop.
To go on a fast ride, you have to prove you can bring your horse up to a lope and back down to a full stop in the ranch’s arena, a test Megan and I aced after just one hour-long private lesson. We signed up for a fast ride immediately afterward, and as soon as we hit top speed on the trail, I was hooked. Racing past giant cacti on a 1,000-pound creature was the closest I’d ever come to euphoria. I was desperate to do it again and again — and to share the feeling with my husband, Nick, and daughter, Margot, who was 3 years old at the time.
But you have to be at least 8 years old to fast-ride, so Megan and I waited until March of this year to return to White Stallion with Nick and Margot. Like last time, we opted for the ranch’s popular “Full American” plan (yeehaw!) — which includes lodging, three buffet-style meals a day, and unlimited riding and other outdoor activities — paying around $400 per person per night. Unlike last time, our visit coincided with a record-breaking heat wave. We managed the unusual triple-digit temps by dumping electrolyte packets in our water bottles, tying ice-filled bandannas around our necks, and avoiding early-afternoon rides.
Day 1
3 p.m.: Feed horses
Our driver, a former schoolteacher wearing the unofficial ranch uniform of bootcut Wranglers, a cowboy hat, and a belt with a big ol’ buckle, met us at baggage claim and drove us the half-hour to the ranch. Margot grabbed a handful of horse biscuits from the jar near the front desk after we checked in and fed them to the horses in the nearest corral.
6 p.m.: Grab a margarita from the honor bar
Every evening at 6 p.m., the wait staff put out apps in the honor bar, open from 7 a.m. until midnight each day. There’s self-serve beer, soda, wine, canned cocktails, and three kinds of premixed margaritas, plus liquor at the front desk. I took a boot-shaped glass down from the wall and helped myself to a classic margarita, marking my selection on a chit so the ranch could add the cost (a very reasonable $5) to our bill at the end of the trip.
Day 2
8 a.m.: Eat pancakes in the desert
Every guest is assigned a horse for the duration of their stay. Mine was a pinto named Corona with a fiercely swishy tail. After the wrangler adjusted our stirrups, we followed her single-file out of the corral and into the Sonoran Desert, where we dismounted about half an hour later for scrambled eggs and blueberry pancakes served on enamelware before riding back to the ranch.
11 a.m.: Stamp leather
While Megan and I napped in our air-conditioned guest room, which had a king-size bed and two twins draped with Pendleton blankets, Nick and Margot monogrammed leather key chains in the game room.
1 p.m.: Take a horseback lesson
Nick and Margot signed up for an hour-long group horseback lesson ($25 per person) hoping to take the fast-ride test at the end. But the group was so big that they ran out of time.
2:30 p.m.: Retreat to the pool
The lead wrangler offered everyone a backup canteen of ice water to stick in their saddlebag and urged us to keep hydrating and speak up if we got too hot. About 30 minutes into the 90-minute ride, Margot said she felt woozy, and the second wrangler took her and Nick back to the ranch. Fortunately, by the time Megan and I returned to the ranch, Margot was in the pool, seemingly recharged. Lesson learned: Don’t schedule back-to-back sessions, especially in the afternoon.
4:30 p.m.: Pick up the pace
Megan and I were eager to speed things up after two slow rides, so having already proven our fast-ride credentials on the last trip, off we went. I was relieved to confirm that loping was exactly as exhilarating as I remembered it.
8 p.m.: Hold a reptile
The ranch provides evening entertainment, and on this night, it was a critter show. The kids went crazy for the leopard gecko, scorpions, and chinchilla. At the end of the presentation, we all held the bearded dragon, whose claws got stuck in my gold chain.
Day 3
8 a.m.: Ride fat-tire e-bikes
I ordered bacon, rye toast, and scrambled eggs off the made-to-order breakfast menu (no extra cost). Megan took Margot rock climbing, and Nick and I rode fat-tire e-bikes through the desert. I fell off in some soft sand early on but got the hang of it after that. I nearly caught air going over a berm.
4:30 p.m.: Marvel at giant cacti
Megan and I went on another fast ride. The wranglers try their best to line the horses up according to speed. But after our first lope, the rider at the front of the line said she had to pull hard on the reins to keep her horse from getting too close to the lead wrangler’s horse. The wrangler radioed the ranch, who dispatched a third wrangler with a less speedy steed. While we waited, I took pictures of the saguaro cacti. They can grow up to 50 feet tall and are found only in this part of the world.
6 p.m.: Play board games in the lodge
In the lead-up to dinner— served at seven every night — we checked out a vintage bookshelf edition of Guess Who? from the front desk and played it at a table in the lodge near the piano, a favorite resting spot of the resident ranch cat, Ranger.
Day 4
10:30 a.m.: Live out a dream five years in the making
Finally, our first fast ride as a family! (Nick and Margot passed their horsemanship test earlier in the morning.) The wrangler gave Margot a crop in case her horse was sluggish. I turned around after our first burst of speed to see the biggest grin on her face. Megan, who could stay for only three nights, headed to the airport when we got back.
2 p.m.: Shoot arrows and swim
Nick and Margot took an hour-long archery class. Afterward, we all hit up the pool, which has a conversation ledge that wraps around the deep end. We didn’t get in the hot tub or sauna, but in the fall or winter, when temps can dip into the 40s, I definitely would.
4 p.m.: Attend a rodeo
We filed into the bleachers overlooking the arena to watch an exhibition rodeo. My favorite events were barrel racing and breakaway roping. A local college student who happens to be granddaughter of rodeo legend Leo Camarillo roped a calf seconds out of the gate.
8 p.m.: Watch an actually good magic show
“Magic Mr. B,” a local fifth-grade teacher with long blond hair parted down the middle, did an hour of impressive tricks peppered with jokes that were genuinely funny. I knew Margot would love it, but I was surprised by how much fun I had.
Day 5
8 a.m.: Learn to forage
We gathered in the cactus garden to get a tour of the ranch’s edible plants from local expert Diego. We chewed on mesquite pods and sucked nectar from ocotillo flowers. At the end, we got to take home prickly-pear candy and lip balm as well as a couple of the saguaro-growing kits Margot had been coveting in the ranch’s gift shop.
10:30 a.m.: Lope through the desert again
Another day, another glorious 50-minute romp down a dusty trail. The soles of my Frye boots started coming off, and I had to ask the head wrangler to duct-tape them back on. (Before we left, I bought Margot a pair of Ariat boots — which, it turned out, everyone at the ranch seemed to be wearing. I got myself this pair once we returned home.)
4:30 p.m.: Pen cattle
Two British ladies who have been visiting the ranch forever talked us into signing up for cattle penning, where a team of four riders attempts to round up cattle into a pen. “It’ll be a laugh!” they promised. It turned out we were the only newbies — one supercompetitive family with kids had been coming since they were kids—but we still managed to get three of the five cows into the enclosure in under 30 seconds.
7 p.m.: Eat enchiladas among palm trees
Some friends who were also in Tucson for spring break met us for a dinner of chicken fajitas, cheese enchiladas, and steak tacos on the patio. The adults lingered over tres leches cake while the kids checked out the goats, pigs, and ponies in the ranch’s petting zoo.
Day 6
6 a.m.: Bird-watch at sunrise
The ranch is home to roadrunners, Gila woodpeckers, and a great horned owl with a nest of owlets. Early morning was the only time of day it was cool enough to stroll around the property with a cup of coffee and look for them.
8 a.m.: Scale a rock face
Margot wanted to show off what she had learned earlier in the week. A driver took us and another family to the east end of the ranch, where the instructor got us in climbing shoes, helmets, and harnesses. He belayed us as we took turns tackling different routes to the top. The kids made it look easy, but I almost gave up halfway through.
10:30 a.m.: Scramble up Suicide Pass
Our horses picked their way up and down a steep, rocky trail, giving us a thrill every time they stumbled. As we waited to go down one particularly vertical incline, I asked Margot whether the ride was more fun than a roller coaster at Disneyland. “Definitely,” she said, beaming.
8 p.m.: Line-dance to Kesha
I did ballet for over a decade — this was my time to shine. Art and Elaine, a married couple with a microphone and speaker, taught a big group of us the Electric Slide, the Cupid Shuffle, and the two-step.
Day 7
7:30 a.m.: Search for crystals
The last fast ride of our trip, offered only on Saturdays, was the best one. First we rode to breakfast at the same spot as before, then we started our ascent up a butte inside of Saguaro National Park. Once we got back onto White Stallion property, our wrangler told us to keep an eye out for crystals. We didn’t find any, but when we got back to the barn, she gave us each one she’d picked up on a previous ride.
1 p.m.: Play Pac-Man
With a couple of hours to kill between lunch and our flight, we retreated to the game room to play Foosball, ping-pong, air hockey, and video games. Our driver, an older man with a bushy goatee, turned out to be the ranch’s erosion expert and a fan of Soul Stories , a weekly community-radio soul-music program he played on our ride back to the airport.
The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here . We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
