Overall, we enjoyed our stay at Tanque Verde Ranch. The setting is beautiful, and the chance to ride horses and swim were great for a family trying to get (if only briefly) away from winter up north.
The ranch is a spacious, large compound right at the edge of Saguaro Nat'l Park East. It has both an indoor and outdoor pool (both heated), a tennis court, lots of horses, a restaurant and bar, and an outdoor eating area somewhat removed from the main hotel area (for the "Cowboy Cookout").
The building our room was in was clearly older -- the internal brick, etc. reminded me of some of the '50s era hotels I stayed in with my parents when I was a kid in the '80s. But the furnishings were more modern and nice. We also had a nice porch with lovely views west, and a firepit outside. My only real complaint with the room was the lack of lighting -- basically two lamps for a room with two queen beds.
The morning ride to breakfast was lovely, once we finally got on the horses and out of the corral. The food was good, and the setting was spectactular.
Dinner at the Cowboy Cookout, however, was less impressive. It was lovely to eat outside at night, and the band was good. My kid had fun making s'mores. However, due to a delayed incoming flight we weren't able to get to dinner until 7 (it opens at 6, closes at 8, and there are no other options at the ranch if they're doing the Cowboy Cookout). By the time we got there, the buffet was almost completely depleted. What was left was cold. The food was not replenished in the last hour for latecomers -- so if you're doing the Cowboy Cookout, get there as soon as it opens.
My one main issue with what otherwise would have been a lovely experience was the chaotic service. When I booked the room a few months in advance, I wanted to book the horseback ride to breakfast, but there was no way to do so on the hotel booking site. I emailed the hotel, and it took a week for them to respond, asking for more details (kid's age, horseback experience, etc.). I responded right away, and then never received any response from the ranch. I followed up a week or two later, and again, radio silence. Finally I had time to phone the ranch, and was told that they couldn't help me and I'd have to book online on a different site. I went there and booked, and confirmed at check-in, but when we went to the stable the next morning, no one had us listed. (It also turned out that they'd booked a couple of other people for a ride under our room number, because they were checking in that day, so there was a ton of confusion.) Eventually, after some uncertainty when the staff said they didn't have horses for us, they were able to accommodate us.
At checkout, again, things were chaotic and it seemed they were understaffed. The manager was working the front desk and was trying to deal with a van that was supposed to be leaving to take guests somewhere, missing lunches for half the van that no one had any record of, another guest who wanted a last-minute airport ride that they couldn't accommodate, and me, who just wanted to hand in the keys and go (but then had to correct a number of issues with my bill).
Another thing to keep in mind is with the horseback lessons for kids. My child has had a couple of weeks of riding camp over the past two summers. She can trot / post but has not yet learned to canter or gallop. I wanted to book her a lesson, but there was no obvious option for her -- either she had to do a lesson for rank beginners, or she had to prove that she could lope already. We needed something in the middle, and so went elsewhere for her lesson.
Overall, we did enjoy our stay at Tanque Verde Ranch. It was great to have heated pools (especially in light of recent weather in Tucson), and the setting was beautiful and relaxing. It would have been better, however, if there hadn't been the running undercurrent of uncertainty and chaos.
