Information needed- Lodging/Camping and the Faire

[Kruzar]

Huzzah!!!

It looks like My girl and I will be heading east from San Diego to come and attend this wonderful faire in Arizona over the President's Day weekend.  This will be our 2nd time attending, and our hopes is to dress in garb.  I do have a couple of questions that I am hoping can be answered....

1.  Lodging-  Are there any hidden hotel gems that I should really be looking into in the area?  I have done the main searches and most hotels look to be in the Phoenix area, and I know there is a little drive from Phoenix to the where the faire is.
2.  Camping-  Is there camping at the faire, or somewhere close... is this an option over getting a hotel?
3.  Garb-  I assume weapons are allowed, but must be peace-tied?
4.  Meeting area for R/Fers?  I would love to meet folks from the site out there if there is a meet and greet area.

Thanks for your help...

[Comte de Gilbert]

Bonjour monsieur ... greetings and welcome

1. not sure of spacific hotels, but if you are doing a search: close to faire check the apache junction area. Also there will be several of us caravaning in from the chandler area (which is about a 20-30 min drive)
2. this one I'm not sure about
3. Yes weapons are allowed. they will be peace tied at the gate...no matter how fancy, pretty or effectively you tie it yourself, they will insist on tieing their own god aweful pink ribbon on all of them.
4. Since you will be here for presidents day weekend, we will be having our 2nd annual president's day breakfast sponsored by myself and ma cousine le marquis de chandler. it will be between roughly 8:30-9:00 starting, which is a little over an hour before cannon.
    you can spot us in the VIP parking lot (just outside the front gate) We will be Ones flying the RF banner. One of our usual hangouts is at the Dancing pig pub, which is located just outside the joust ...all...the...way...at...the...back of the faire (good thing there  are several 
     pubs along the way)     additional meetings we will do on the fly

some other potentially useful information:
1. Outside booze is not allowed in, if they see flasks, they WILL make you empty them prior to entering...even if it's filled with water
2. Depending on what day / time you arrive, we will be having and RF meet and greet at an english pub named churchills on Friday night around 6ish for drinks and dinner    http://www.churchillspubandgrill.com/
3. Wear plently of sunblock...as presidents day weekend has been known to get quite warm, and Arizona sun can be brutal
4. If you find a Fry's grocery store when you get in town, swing in as I believe they have 2 for 1 tickets available at the service desk that are good for president's day monday.

If you need any additional information just let us know...we're here to serve. if you need contact information you can probably pm myself, marcus, or our lovely moderator Julianne

can't wait to meet you guys, have a safe trip, and see you in about a week and 1/2   

à bientôt mon ami

[Julianne]

Everything the Comte said and:

THERE IS NO ON-SITE CAMPING AVAILABLE. 
The nearest decent camping facility will put you farther and more expensively outside of hotels/motels outside of faire.


Having said that...you also never know for sure.  Arizonians can sometimes hook ya up....but I would pretty much count on looking at lodging in the Apache Junction area and if you have a lot of money ...Gold Canyon (really old...and I don't mean historically old..just old golfing community).

[Marcos Charron]

Folks

Found some good deals by going to Expedia and just typing in Apache Junction in the hotel page. They will search by area and show some low prices for this time of the year.

Marcos

[Kruzar]

Just as a follow-up... had a great time at the faire on Saturday, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Medieval Babes... My only disapointment was not meeting up with folks from the forum, but hopefully I will be back out to this faire next year.    I was very pleased that it was a cooler weekend, and the weather was perfect for going out in garb.

I will try and post some of the pictures I took at the faire once I get home. 

[Marcos Charron]

Kruzar

Glad you had a great time, sorry you did not make it to the Sat breakfast to meet everyone. Let us know if you come back over so we can meet up.

Marcos