The Best Places to Drink and Do in the United States

Indoor putting venue where a laser dot shifts the tee-off position each round so the same 18 holes play differently every time. The smooth, well-graded course runs from forgiving to genuinely tricky, and pros are on hand to fix your stroke without making you feel like a hazard to society. The attached Bar19 does above-average bar food and decent pours, though the signage probably shouldn't need to say "don't overdo it before you putt."

Redcat Racing builds 1:10 scale radio-controlled lowriders, the kind that bounce, hop, and ride smooth on miniature spoked wheels, no parade permit required. Their Chevy Impala models are the calling card, and an '80s Monte Carlo that lifts and dances via joystick followed close behind. A mini truck with a flopping bed is coming next. Phoenix-area shops AZ Turn and Burn RC and Duncan's RC carry them if you want to see one in person before you commit.

A fair-trade shop in Old Town Scottsdale where every tag carries a story about who made the thing and whether they were paid for it. Clothing, jewelry, home goods, and handbags sit alongside work from local independent artists, all priced without the boutique markup you'd expect. The model is less retail transaction, more ongoing relationship between maker and buyer, which sounds earnest until you see how well it works in practice.

A national running chain that actually watches you run before selling you anything, Road Runner Sports does gait analysis in-store (or virtually) to match shoes to how your foot hits the ground. Street, track, or trail, the selection covers it all, along with the usual supporting cast of shorts, shirts, and visors. The kind of place where a casual weekend jogger and a marathon-obsessed type end up equally sorted.

A cactus garden behind the batter's eye in center field is either deeply Arizonan or deeply on-brand for a stadium that splits duties between the Diamondbacks and Rockies each spring. Salt River Fields sits on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community with Camelback Mountain framing certain sightlines beautifully. Grab a lawn blanket in the outfield, then slip out to the backfields before first pitch to watch players actually train.

The floor here runs 26,000 square feet, which is enough room to build up real speed before you remember you haven't skated in twenty years. Skateland is a roller rink, old-school and unashamed about it, with arcade games, a snack bar, and a lighting rig that commits fully to the bit. Kids get character glow skates on Sundays; adults get their own nights on Thursdays and Fridays where no one's kid is cutting across your lane.

A few pedals in and Phoenix disappears entirely, swapped for quiet Sonoran desert and the kind of saguaro scenery that makes you forget the city grid exists. South Mountain's trails run the range from a gentle beginner slope to a genuinely spine-jangling technical stretch, so there's something for toddlers on balance bikes and retirees alike. Hikers and dog walkers share the path, so a handlebar bell earns its place in your kit.

Removing a glove with your teeth turns out to be a teachable skill, and Spellbound Burlesque is the troupe doing the teaching. They run nearly monthly shows around Phoenix, with local regulars sharing the bill alongside national headliners, and a standing residency every second Wednesday at Century Grand. The whole enterprise leans body-positive and inclusive, which in practice means the performances are less Vegas showroom and more genuinely weird and fun.

Stinkweeds has been a fixture on Camelback forever, the kind of independent record shop where the staff actually knows what's in the bins. The focus leans toward indie labels, which means a healthy selection of local acts and obscure up-and-comers alongside the expected classics and new reissues. Vinyl, CDs, and the occasional find you weren't looking for all coexist here, which is the whole point of going in person instead of just opening an app.

Every product on the shelf at this west Phoenix soap and body care shop comes with an ingredient list and an EWG toxicity rating, because the owner believes you should know what you're rubbing on your skin. The focus is vegan bath and wellness goods, from coconut-almond soap to raw sugar scrubs in rotating scents. You can order online, but showing up in person lets you actually smell what you're buying, which turns out to matter.

A wood-clad 600-seat auditorium anchors this performing and visual arts center on the edge of Tempe Town Lake, with a black box studio theater, a gallery that spills into the lobby, and an outdoor amphitheater for when Arizona evenings cooperate. The Tempe Symphony Orchestra, Childsplay, and several other resident companies call it home, so there's almost always something on. Public art installations are scattered throughout, in case you arrive early and need somewhere to look thoughtful.

Chiptunes hum over a system where you can buy, sell, trade, or just linger with a controller at the in-store lounge. This retro and modern video game shop stocks titles, consoles, and accessories across every system ever made, plus repair supplies and reproduction cartridges for the obsessives. Coin-op rarities like "Demon Front" sit alongside weekly "Super Smash Bros." tournaments. The Phoenix New Times named it Best Video Game Store in 2024, and the regulars look like they already know why.

Every Wednesday night at The Hot Chick, a drag queen named Barbra Seville calls bingo numbers with enough side commentary to make ten rounds feel short. It's a weekly event, not a bar night, so come ready: prizes range from gift cards to air fryers to things that would embarrass your mother. Half-off wine bottles and $8 High Noon seltzers run all night, happy hour starts at three, and a DJ keeps things going after the last card is called.

A gift shop where the disco-dancing armadillo T-shirts share floor space with monsoon-scented candles and handmade cactus earrings. The Merchantile is a large, multi-vendor retail space organized by local maker, so each booth is essentially its own small shop. If you need something genuinely Arizonan to bring home, this is a better bet than the airport.

The intimacy works in your favor here: a mid-sized regional theater company tucked into a relatively small downtown house, where you're close enough to catch every flicker of doubt on an actor's face. The repertoire swings from classic musicals to newer dramatic work, and the room's acoustics make the whole thing land harder than a bigger stage would allow. A reliable anchor of Phoenix's performing arts scene.

A science boutique in Mesa where you can buy an actual fossilized dinosaur bone, which is either a totally normal purchase or proof that adulthood has its privileges. Tyrannostorus stocks stuffed animals, books, and specimens alongside goods for ancient Egypt, space, and shark enthusiasts, so the dino-obsessed child you once were will feel right at home, and so will everyone else who still has a favorite prehistoric creature.

Up to eight players can fight off zombie hordes or battle robots in deep space without leaving Scottsdale, which sounds like a gimmick until you're actually sweating. Velocity VR is a group entertainment venue with multiplayer virtual reality at its center, plus go-karts, axe-throwing, and food and drinks for when someone needs a breather. It scratches the same social itch as laser tag used to, just with considerably better graphics and more steps logged.

A Chicago-style speakeasy in suburban Glendale that survived a close call when its founders stepped away, saved by a general manager who bought the place outright and kept the plush seating and famously good acoustics intact. Local blues and R&B acts play the stage most nights, and a recently upgraded patio now lets you take your drink outside. Phoenix's blues scene is thin, so this one carries some weight.

A map shop that also keeps an enormous warehouse out back, which means the answer to almost any cartographic request is yes. Wide World Maps & MORE! carries road maps alongside wall maps, globes, and geography-themed decor, the kind of place where you walk in for one thing and leave planning a trip you hadn't considered. Old maps, new maps, maps of everywhere. GPS gets you there faster, but it never made anyone dream.

The name comes from David Bowie's "Space Oddity," and the kitchen leans into the theme without going full theme-restaurant about it. This New American bar and restaurant on Larimer keeps things approachable, with a concise menu that rotates through tight, careful cooking. It shares a block with the tasting-menu sibling next door, so the crowd tends to know what they're doing, which keeps the energy easy without feeling sleepy.

A small marketplace tucked inside a nondescript office building, Afri-Soul carries clothing, jewelry, accessories, beauty products, and handmade art sourced from across the African continent. The inventory turns up things you won't find in a conventional gift shop, paper bead bracelets, handwoven baskets, hand-painted belts, and bright cotton pieces that follow you home in your memory before they follow you home in a bag.

Yoga here is more of a pretext than a practice: the real draw is a herd of baby goats wandering across your mat while you attempt downward dog. Arizona Goat Yoga runs low-impact classes on a farm outside Gilbert, many with themes like '80s or Halloween where guests and animals dress accordingly. Alpacas occasionally join in, and some sessions add cow cuddling for good measure. The staff keep the animals calm, which is more than can be said for the humans.

The large metal tubs with fold-down side flaps are the key detail here: getting a reluctant dog into a bath is half the battle, and someone thought it through. Bark If You're Dirty is a self-serve dog wash and pet shop where you pick your level of clean, from a quick rinse to a full conditioned shampoo, then follow a staff member to the back and handle the scrubbing yourself. Brushes, flexible shower heads, towels, and brave-dog hair dryers are all supplied.

Bellair Golf Park is a driving range that stays open until 10 p.m., which tells you most of what you need to know about the vibe. TopTracer technology tracks every shot for those who like data, while everyone else just enjoys hitting things outside of the summer heat. It lands somewhere between serious practice facility and a genuinely good time, without the bill that comes with the fancier simulators around town. The west side's answer to a night out that doesn't require a dress code.

Row after row of paint, paper, clay, brushes, and mediums you'd need a degree to name fill this sprawling art supply store near ASU's campus. It draws everyone from grad students panic-buying portfolio supplies to hobbyists who wander in for one sketchbook and leave with a cart. If something isn't on the shelf, the website usually has it. Either way, you'll leave with more than you came for and a vague sense that your creative era is finally beginning.

Blue Dragon Vapor is a vape shop chain with several Valley locations, and the main thing separating it from the average smoke shop is that you don't feel vaguely ashamed walking in. The spaces are bright, clean, and well-stocked, with glass cases of hardware, a solid wall of e-juice, and staff who actually know what they're selling. Phoenix New Times named it Best Vape Shop in 2023.

A single painted "BOOKS" on the building exterior is the only advertisement this Sunnyslope used bookstore needs. Inside, towering shelves hold something north of 200,000 titles spanning fiction, nonfiction, true crime, romance, sci-fi, and out-of-print finds that have no business being this affordable. The staff will track something down for you or simply leave you to get pleasantly lost for an afternoon. Either way, clear your schedule.

Forty-four pool tables is a lot of commitment to a cue, and Bull Shooters makes good on all of it. This spacious north Phoenix pool hall and sports bar runs 7 and 9-foot tables alongside poker, darts, karaoke, and 34 taps pouring everything from beer to cider. Staff take the felt seriously, so keep your pint on a coaster or expect a word about it. The kind of place where regulars have a favorite table and know exactly which one it is.

A two-story sportsbook inside a Major League Baseball stadium, which makes it the first of its kind in the MLB, for whatever that's worth to your sense of adventure. The space runs to a loungy patio, more screens than any reasonable person can track at once, and Guy Fieri's casual food operation keeping the calories coming. It's open on non-game days too, which is when the vibe drops to a manageable hum.

A giant disco ball hangs over the record bins at this wine bar, coffee shop, and record store hybrid near Roosevelt Row, which tells you most of what you need to know. Come in the morning for espresso, stay through the afternoon with your laptop, then let someone else split a bottle with you by evening when the DJs take over. The barista and the bartender are the same person, which keeps the whole operation refreshingly unsnobbish.

Eight thousand square feet of new and used toys, organized into small nooks each run by a local collector devoted to a single franchise, is a genuinely unusual retail setup. This sprawling marketplace in north Phoenix covers G.I. Joe, Marvel, Hot Wheels, Transformers, Star Wars, Funko Pop!, and a dedicated anime section in the back with Gundam kits and Banpresto figures. Plan to lose an hour, possibly two, possibly your self-control around a wall of Hot Wheels.

The Japanese discount chain beloved on the West Coast landed its first Arizona outpost next to 99 Ranch Market, and Phoenix has been restocking its kitchens ever since. Nearly everything rings up under five dollars, which makes it easy to load a basket with bento supplies, Sanrio goods, craft materials, and seasonal decor without doing math in your head. The selection turns over constantly, so repeat visits feel like a different store.

Most convenience stores have given up trying by midnight. El Paisano Market in Tempe stays open until 3 a.m. on weekdays and 4 on weekends, with a full Mexican restaurant inside running nearly the same hours. Hot Cheetos nachos and a rotating burrito of the month sit alongside chicken sandwiches and cheeseburgers, which covers the full spectrum of what people actually want at 2 a.m. There's also a respectable Faygo selection, if you know, you know.

Horror-themed arcade tucked next to Tempe's Yucca Tap Room, Electric Bat runs about 60 pinball machines alongside a curated spread of Japanese rhythm games, all played on house-branded tokens. The pins skew toward beloved classics, the decor skews toward gothic, and a monthly goth night called Play Dead keeps the regulars coming back even when they've cleared every machine. There's a tiki bar inside, which feels like the logical conclusion of all this.

A 2020 sci-fi comedy used this retro video game store as a plot point, which tells you something about the depth of its inventory. Fallout Games stocks hardware and titles across decades of gaming history, from Vectrex consoles up through modern systems, with collectibles, vintage Nintendo Power issues, and every cable you've been hunting down in a bin since 2009. The kind of shop where you go in for one thing and resurface an hour later with five.

Chessmaster Sundays might be the best reason to show up on a weekend, but Grassrootz earns its place all week as a Black-owned bookstore and juice bar in Central Phoenix. The shelves run deep on hip-hop culture, Black history, and fiction, with comfortable chairs nearby for settling in. Children's storytimes, live music, and lectures keep the calendar full, making it less a shop than a neighborhood living room with good books and pineapple ginger lemonade.

Neon lights, a DJ booth, and rental skates that have seen things: Great Skate is a classic indoor roller rink doing what roller rinks do, and doing it on a packed schedule. Public sessions run most nights alongside kids' and adult lessons, themed skate events, and the occasional adults-only evening when the parents reclaim the floor. The food and drinks are rink-standard, which is exactly what the mood calls for.

Harkins put a Sonoran hot dog on the menu and called it the future of moviegoing, which is either visionary or just very Arizona. This dine-in theater at Lake Pleasant Towne Center pairs plush recliners and personal tabletops with a full food and drinks menu you order by pushing a button, like a La-Z-Boy crossed with a TGI Friday's, in the best possible, uh, fine: it works. Phoenix New Times named it the best luxury movie theater in 2023.

A giant netted cloud, frozen mid-drift above a downtown park, is not something you stumble past without stopping. Janet Echelman's sculpture hangs over Civic Space Park in steel and polyester twine, lit from within at night so it glows somewhere between storm formation and slow-motion tornado. Daytime shows you the bones of the thing; after dark it earns the gawking. Free to walk under, open to the sky, and significantly harder to explain than to visit.

Six Flags Hurricane Harbor is a full-scale waterpark on the northwest edge of Phoenix, and the Anaconda is its calling card, a multi-person raft slide that corkscrews and spins before depositing everyone into a pool in a satisfying heap. Younger kids have their own splash zones to tear through. When summer in the Valley runs past 110 degrees, "waterpark" stops being a leisure category and starts being a survival strategy.

Le Girls Cabaret sits on the Tempe-Phoenix border, pulling in a crowd from ASU, Sky Harbor, and the surrounding neighborhoods with equal democratic ease. It's a full-service strip club, heavy on neon and velvet, where the performers have a runway-model quality about them that the room seems well aware of. Phoenix New Times named it the city's top strip club in 2023, which tracks.

A small vintage shop on the Scottsdale-Tempe border stocked with psychedelic rompers, prairie dresses, and old Levi's that will make you quietly reconsider your entire wardrobe. Pieces are true vintage, some carefully restored, and the selection rotates enough that nothing feels like a costume bin. Prices are on the higher side for thrift but reasonable for the category, and the occasional fill-a-bag sale draws a line out the door.

A movie theater that runs 35mm repertory screenings alongside cult oddities like "Reefer Madness" is already a different animal from the multiplex down the road. Majestic mixes first-run releases with arthouse picks, grindhouse fare, and anime imports, plus weekly horror nights and movie parties with singalongs and themed food pairings. There's a full bar, which makes the celluloid oddities go down easier.

Colored concrete runs through the contest-style street course here, and the mini ramp sits in-ground where the desert sun can bake it properly. This is a full-featured public skate park in Queen Creek, newer enough that the surfaces still feel fast and smooth. It's a haul from central Phoenix, but skaters making the drive find an 11,000-square-foot layout that doesn't feel like an afterthought bolted onto a rec center.