A Travel Guide to Pinetop Arizona
I am certainly no expert when it comes to Pinetop, and we have officially only been once. However I thought it might be helpful for others if I shared some of the recommendations I received + the things we did while we were in the area.
Safety
While many businesses had signs specifying that masks were necessary to enter, there was only one business where anyone was wearing masks. Of course this is subject to change, but in most businesses the staff wasn't masked up, and there was always someone coughing inside which made me a little weary. Side note: I've always been a germaphobe January 2022
Accommodations
The major reason we went to Pinetop is because a friend of mine from the gym, Emily, bought a property in Pinetop and turned it into the most gorgeous AirBnB. It's been open for reservations for a couple of months, and I finally made it a point to head out there while there was still snow on the ground. There is so much character, but I did a detailed post on all the reasons you must book this property. You can read that Instagram post here, but in all honesty I cannot recommend it enough. Not to mention it is the cleanest AirBnB we've ever stayed in, and cleanliness is the most important thing when it comes to staying at someone's property.
Getting Around
You will need a car, whether it's a rental or your own. Lyfts and Ubers are a miracle if you can find one, so if you want to run your own schedule you'll have to have a car.
Food & Drink
The Pasta House was highly recommended in the area, for some Italian food, so of course we had to check it out. We ordered lasagna and chicken parmesan, and shared both. This was a delicious meal, and our favorite of all the outings we had when it came to restaurants. If you're in Pinetop, it is worth a visit for dinner. No doubt about that. If you tend to get heartburn or acid reflux easily, make sure to be prepared since there's a lot of red sauce which will definitely take its toll on you.
Another evening when we went out, we went to Cafe Pinoli which was a little lackluster for us. I ordered lamb chops, and Aaron had the chicken parmesan. While my lamb chops were delicious, as well as the serving of pasta on the dish, the asparagus that came with the dish were unseasoned and cold. I know trying to make sure three different things are all warm at the same time,
There's nothing quite like fresh bread, and pastries. Baked in Pinetop is the perfect stop. We got a fresh bleu cheese and caramelized onion bread, which was divine. There was also zucchini bread, which we devoured in a few days. It was so well made, and absolutely delicious. We definitely should've grabbed a cinnamon roll, but we were trying to be good so we skipped. Next time!
We got takeout, on our way out of Pinetop, at the Bistro at Annie's. I ordered a salad and Aaron got a Reuben sandwich which he found delicious. My salad was just what I needed with some major fiber.
We didn't get a chance to check out Pinetop Brewing Company but it comes highly recommended, and it looked really nice. I'll make sure we hit it up next time!
Recommendations
If you're up for a short road trip one of the days of your trip, you should head to the Petrified National Forest. If you're new around here, my husband loves national forests so we try to frequent them whenever we're in the area of one (which newsflash seems to be quite a bit.) It's pretty incredible there's so many national forests and parks throughout the country, and there's several in every state. Since we frequent them, we do have an annual pass which gets you into any of them unlimited amounts of times into any registered national park, which is a great savings if you're going to either go to the same park a few times on a trip OR if you frequent different parks throughout the year.
