What should i do in phoenix

Fast food just got a lot tastier. Multiple locations Travel might look different these days, but adventure is a lot closer than you might think. Rather explore your city on two wheels? Spanning miles, The Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt features an oasis of explorable paths, parks, and lakes, which lands it on a list of the top urban green spaces in the state.

Explore the scenic route on a group bike tour or opt for a self-guided ride and pedal at your own pace. As always, use caution when visiting trails, wear your mask around others, and bring plenty of water.

But you know that already. Want more Thrillist? Skip to main content Phoenix Travel. Downtown Mesa Farmers Market. Eat your way through a high-end dining experience outdoors. Dance the night away at an outdoor concert. Take an in-state road trip for a weekend getaway.

Shop your community farmers market, in-person and online. Have an open-air picnic in an urban park. Crammed full of western buildings and talented re-enactors, the town gives visitors a chance to enjoy a taste of the Old West in its heyday via the various activities it offers. Also worth checking out are the various exhibits and galleries dedicated to ancient Mesoamerican cultures and history as well. Looking for some more fun? Check out some of the coolest things to do in Arizona!

With just how many amazing things you must see in Phoenix, it makes no sense for you to skip this incredible museum. These days, visitors will find that it is full of award-winning exhibits featuring both pre-Colombian and modern Native American art and artifacts.

The state is packed full of amazing sights that will blow the mind, and you can see some of them in the Pueblo Grande Museum and Cultural Park. This National Historic Landmark is home to the largest archaeological site in Phoenix — the preserved ruins of an ancient abandoned Hohokam village. These days, visitors driving in from Phoenix will find the grounds of this small museum to be a well-maintained spot that is chock full of historical sites.

Visitors can wander down an interpretive trail that leads you through reconstructed and furnished buildings, giving modern tourists a chance to step back into the past. Once it gets too hot, visitors can also duck into the museum to check out the recovered artifacts. The museum is also home to many other activities, such as workshops, demonstrations, talks, markets, and even auctions! This walkable arts district stretches from 7th Avenue to 16th Street and is famously known to be the home of the arts community in Phoenix.

Drop by to check out all the murals that adorn the buildings, or the various sculptures that decorate the pavements. Either way, this part of Phoenix is just perfect for those looking to enjoy a fundamentally Bohemian vibe. This 3.

As the namesake implies, the Japanese Friendship Garden was established in to connect Phoenix with Himeji, its sister city. Visitors to this calm oasis will find it filled with lush plants and koi fish decorating its handcrafted landscape — all designed by the Himeji architects.

In addition to tea ceremonies, you can also check out the various tai chi and flower arrangement classes arranged by the garden, alongside craft workshops and summer jazz nights. There are also plenty of other events that feature various Japanese dancers, artists, and food, giving visitors a chance to experience Japanese culture!

Located within easy reach of the Airport Gateway District of Phoenix, the Tovrea Castle was originally a high-end hotel built by Alessio Carraro and his son. It was sold to Ambrose Tovrea, who turned it into a private residence until the death of his widow in , where it fell into ruin.

This two-hour tour gives you access to the cactus garden, with its 5, plants, and a look into the s palace. No travel guide to Arizona is complete without showing you one of the best places to visit — the Phoenix Mountains Preserve. Mountains like the Piestewa Peak and Lookout Mountain are both incredibly accessible locations that offer some of the best views you can find. Making your way to the summit tip is worthwhile, though, since it gives you a complete panorama view of Phoenix!

For those who are looking for something fun to do this weekend, try checking out the Mystery Castle. It was built over the course of 15 years by Boyce Luther Gulley, who had first abandoned both his family and his job, before vanishing for three years. Among those top attractions in Phoenix is the Hole in the Rock. Located south of the Desert Botanical Garden in Papago Park, Hole in the Rock is a small sandstone hill that is covered in all sorts of openings.

The open ceiling and the space inside this strange hill were likely used by the ancient Hohokam culture as a calendar to mark the season — something you can walk into to explore yourself! It was originally a venue for silent cinema and still carries that history with it in the form of a playable Wurlitzer organ. These days, the Orpheum Theatre is the place to be in Phoenix for ballet, family shows, live music shows, podcast recordings, and Broadway musicals. This makes the theatre perfect for those who need a fun night out — though you might find yourself wanting to visit the building itself just to admire its unusual appearance and history.

The building itself is an opulent masterpiece featuring intricate moldings, Solomonic columns, and beautiful murals meant to evoke the view of the sky from a Spanish villa. So if you would rather just explore the building, consider joining one of the tours available every other Tuesday! Built in in Phoenix, Arizona, Cosanti was the studio and home of the architect Paolo Soleri — a student of Frank Llyod Wright up till his death in Originally constructed for surgeon and physician Dr.

Roland Rosson in , the Rosson House Museum is a Queen Anne-styled Victorian house that is one of the earliest examples of non-adobe construction in Phoenix, Arizona. Visitors will find this top destination to be a source of fun for any and all history buffs, thanks to the home being a time capsule preserving 18th-century furniture, wallpaper, woodwork, and even decorative art.

Originally dammed in , Lake Pleasant is now a 10,acre reservoir that takes up about half of the Northwest Valley. On hot days, you can find both tourists and locals from Phoenix alike cooling off in the waters of the dam. You can rent out paddleboards and kayaks from a service on the south-east shore of the lake, or just laze about on tubes. Nature lovers also take note — Lake Pleasant is also surrounded by a protected location full of scenic trails and native wildlife, both along its shores and in its water.

Want to visit museums, planetariums, and observatories? Here are some amazing things to do in Flagstaff! You may not have expected this, but one of the best places to visit in Phoenix is a paradise built in response to antisemitism.

After being refused entry into an Arizona resort, wealthy Chicagoan Rose Eisendrath purchased 44 acres and constructed her own private desert oasis in Phoenix. The home was a beautiful place to visit, featuring a citrus grove, a swimming pool in the desert, and a living space spanning an impressive 5, square feet.

It has since been fully restored to its former glory — now as a center for water conservation studies. Located just a block away from the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix, the field is familiar to any baseball fan as the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Wrigley is a name that most people will be familiar with, seeing that it is the name attached to the world-famous chewing gum brand. As it turns out, William Wrigley Jr was not only a chewing gum industrialist, he was also the owner of the mansion overlooking the metropolis of Phoenix.

Central Ave is full of information about its plants, animals and human history, as well as tips for recreation in the park. The highest accessible point in South Mountain Park is this heart-lifting vantage point at metres. The Dobbins Lookout is named for J. Dobbins, member of the three-strong park committee and chairman of the Phoenix planning commission.

Talking Stick Resort incorporates a luxury hotel, a seater showroom, capacious Grand Ballroom, two golf courses and a casino with hundreds of slot machines and more than 50 table games. On the 14th floor is one of the best spas in Scottsdale, set in the open-air and graced by invigorating views of The Valley.

You can also get a sense of the heritage of the Pima and Maricopa people at a cultural centre in the hotel lobby with an exhibition of painting, jewellery and photography. To get an idea of what Phoenix looked like in its earliest days, make for Heritage Square, east of downtown and moments from big visitor attractions and venues like Chase Field and Talking Stick Resort Arena. Ensconced in greenery, Heritage Square has an assortment of residences and business properties raised between Forest Burgess Carriage House and Hughes-Stevens Duplex.

This is the last surviving set of buildings from the original Phoenix town site, and these interesting pieces of heritage have been put to use as bars, restaurants, gift shops and museums. This elegant Queen Anne style Victorian house on Heritage Square is an early example of a building constructed in Phoenix with fired bricks rather than adobe. Rosson House dates to and was built for physician and surgeon Dr. Roland Rosson and designed by San Francisco architect A.

Pay a visit and admire its period woodwork, furniture, decorative art, wallpaper and curtains on a guided tour. Your guide will be well versed in both the history of this residence and Phoenix at the turn of the 20th century, sharing facts that might even surprise long-term Phoenicians. The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art is in a minimalist concrete building and puts on temporary exhibitions that also branch out to design and architecture.

In this small massif is Piestawa Peak, which at metres is the second highest point in the Phoenix Mountains after Camelback. That might sound short, but this is not a climb to take lightly, as the going is rocky and the calf-shredding path is as steep as they come. It rests atop a metre knoll gazing over the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, which sweeps out to the south.

In the Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri set up his studio and home on a plot in Paradise Valley. Solieri had been a student under Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West, and created his own headquarters just a few miles away.

Well ahead of its time, Cosanti has lots of sustainable elements, like south-facing apses to collect sunlight in the winter and deflect it when the sun is higher in the sky in summer. Soleri also used a modified earth-casting technique to craft his popular ceramic and bronze windbells, which helped fund his architectural projects and are still produced and sold at Cosanti.

Here you can learn about the sinking of the USS Arizona battleship at Pearl Harbor in , and view the silver service from the ship. Blending with the northern foothills of South Mountain Park, Mystery Castle is a bizarre room three-storey mansion, like a cross between a Gothic castle and a hacienda.

On learning that he had tuberculosis in the s, the Seattleite Boyce Luther Gulley fled his family for Phoenix without telling them, purchasing a mining stake and spending the next 15 years constructing this property on it. Mystery Castle was built with whatever Boyce could get his hands on, be it stone, adobe, rail tracks, automobile parts or telephone poles. When his family received news of his death in they were shocked to discover that he had built this castle for his daughter, Mary Lou Gulley.

In his will Boyce stipulated that if his family lived there for three years they could open a trap door in the house. Come to hear the story, tour the house, and enjoy supreme views of downtown Phoenix.

Source: viator. One unforgettable way to soak up this evocative desert scenery is on the Desert Belle , a restored sightseeing boat making gentle minute cruises on the lake.

You can travel on the shaded upper deck or in an air-conditioned cabin, and will have lots of time to view the cactus-strewn desert terrain and catch sight of some of its wildlife. Saguaro Lake is roughly minutes east of downtown Phoenix, and the cruise aboard the Desert Belle is available through Viator.

This attraction on the west side of Papago Park chronicles the history of firefighting, but is also the setting for the National Firefighting Hall of Heroes, which pays tribute to firefighters who have died in the line of duty or have been decorated for feats of heroism.

These pieces come from as far afield as Japan, Germany and England, and include beautiful horsedrawn carts and motorised engines up to You could follow up a visit to the Musical Instrument Museum with a shopping expedition at this palm-shaded outdoor mall in North Phoenix. CB Live blends dining with entertainment, as a full-service eatery and bar combined with a stage for nightly DJ sets, live comedy and up-and-coming bands.

Set up as a commercial operation by the rich Illinois businessman William H. Bartlett in , Sahuaro Ranch was planted with pecan and citrus orchards, and raised cattle, horses and hogs. The music scene in Phoenix thrives on sounds old and new, with venues featuring local and touring acts almost every night of the week.

Local comedic talents and theatre offerings are other notable offerings. For a dose of fresh desert air after all that activity, Phoenix has a fab botanical garden as well as opportunities for hiking. So get exploring, because the best things to do in Phoenix are sure to entertain.

What is it: Various neighborhoods in downtown Phoenix get extra artsy on the first Friday of each month. Thousands gather to see artworks in more than 70 galleries. The monthly events feature rotating exhibitions by artists working with all mediums. Also expect to see live street performers and nosh on goodies from area eateries and food trucks.

Tour Phoenix and Scottsdale. What is it: A fun destination for the 21 and over crowd who like to mix drinking and gaming. Why go: Show off your video gaming prowess while you maneuver Ms. Pac-Man around the screen, gobbling dots for points. Why go: Not only is this acre garden have a spectacular vista but it's also the sunny home of an extraordinary amount of living creatures — you've just got to know how to spot them.

Spend some time visiting here and you can expect to take a flashlight tour, a group tour of self-paced trails where attendees are armed with flashlights to see and hear what dwells in the desert after dark. But since they're open from 7pm - am, you don't need to be out dancing to enjoy one — they're just as tasty after a long day at the office or following an afternoon of sightseeing.

Why go: Because you absolutely must eat these grilled, beefy hot dogs wrapped in bacon. What is it: A four-story castle, viewable from the freeway, that stands out like a beacon amidst the desert landscape. Make sure to schedule a tour. As you make your way through, learn about the three different families responsible for this feat of architecture coming to fruition.

What is it: Only o ne of downtown Phoenix's best and brightest spots for live music and fun events — and it's actually below street level. Why go: On most nights of the week, this is where to find the coolest bands playing all sorts of genres, from punk and garage to indie rock and honkytonk. You can also just hang out in the Rose Room, chatting and sipping drinks with pals. What is it: This Mexican restaurant strives to stay away from the Tex-Mex style, focusing on healthier regional fare from Baja and Cancun.

Dining in finds you surrounded by an array of paintings by contemporary Mexican artists. Why go: The food is ridiculously delish but the salsa bar is what ups the ante.