Now that retirement is here.... I'm looking to visit the Phoenix area for a 30 day stay. The stay will be late February into March. I'm really into pickleball and I'd imagine that there are many places to play. I'd also like to hike and bike the desert/mountain areas in the area. I'm NOT a golfer.
Question: would it be better to stay on the outskirts of town for better access to the desert and mountains? I'd rather drive as little as possible. Or do Phoenix or surrounding cities offer easy access to all activities.
Last, I'm looking on AirBNB.... any other suggestions are appreciated
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
Been to PHX a few times. Familiar with the N-S-E, less familiar with the west and NW.
The suburbs have tons of outdoorsy stuff within the bypass freeways. So I'd stay in Scottsdale, Tempe, or maybe near downtown Mesa -- to also be close to cultural stuff and restaurants. (But it will be more expensive, and your dates are peak season.)
For wide-open desert stuff or frequent road tripping outside the area, stay near the 101 loop (NE) or 202 loop (SE). There are a lot of nice places in these sections (including Cave Creek), and you can do lots of good outdoors stuff there, but they can be a haul from anything else. It really depends on how often you wish to do stuff closer to Scottsdale.
I wouldn't stay in the city. Maybe in some weird geographical corner with a city address but is more suburban (like near Camelback Mtn). PHX is like LA in that it's a giant sprawl with tons of traffic, and most of the interesting stuff is away from downtown.
Other than the hiking and biking, I'd recommend:
- Desert Botanical Garden (Scottsdale)
- MLB spring training
- Heard Museum (downtown PHX) - great Native American museum
- Taliesin West (NE Scottsdale) -- Frank Lloyd Wright house
- Old Town Scottsdale: historical museum, contemporary arts museum, tons of restaurants + bars
- Organ Stop Pizza (Mesa) -- live organ recitals with cheap pizza/beer
- Rawhide Wild West Town (Chandler) -- theme park, good for a fun (and cheesy) western-themed dinner
For a day trip, go north to Sedona (note, 4300 ft elevation, will be colder, may get snow/ice): Red Rock State Park, Chapel of the Holy Cross. Stop at Montezuma Castle National Monument on the way. I like Flagstaff but would skip it in Feb/Mar unless you want to ski (plus it would add enough time to justify overnights).
For a few days, go south to Tucson: Saguaro National Park, Pima Air/Space Museum, Desert Museum (zoo), Old Tucson movie set/theme park, Titan Missile Museum, Kitt Peak National Observatory.
