The Top 100 Things to Do Near Desert Belle Cruises
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Boat Ride · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Boat Ride · Best of Phoenix
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A 140-acre outdoor shooting facility east of Mesa, Rio Salado Sportsman's Club runs one of Arizona's more serious junior marksmanship programs, with .22-caliber rifle training for ages 10 to 20 and coaches certified through the NRA who point to a spotless safety record. The grounds include covered benches, a pistol range, silhouette ranges, and an indoor rifle range, so there's room to progress well past the basics.
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Arcade · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Arcade · Best of Phoenix
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A B-17G Flying Fortress sits on the tarmac at Falcon Field, and you can climb inside it, which is either thrilling or deeply clarifying about how uncomfortable the war effort was. This aviation museum at Mesa's working airport spans WWI through Vietnam, mixing warbirds like a B-25 and an F-4 Phantom with artifacts and memorabilia. The 30,000-square-foot hangar floor disappears fast once you're standing next to a MiG.
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A rusted steel and glass aquatic center building that people apparently stop and stare at instead of swimming. The complex packs in a lap pool, diving well, tube slide, lazy river, and a splash pad, all framed by McDowell Mountain views and a public art installation that, yes, belongs to the pool. Non-Scottsdale residents pay a modest surcharge for the privilege of wondering why their city's public pools don't look like this.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Public Pool · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Public Pool · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Public Pool · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Casino · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Casino · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Indoor Gun Range · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Indoor Gun Range · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to See a Spring Training Game · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Watch a Spring Training Game · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Driving Range · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Driving Range · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Buy a Band Shirt · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Band T-Shirts · Best of Phoenix
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The DJ here plays real saxophone solos during your Motown number and rosins up an actual fiddle when someone calls "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." This folksy Scottsdale bar and grill runs karaoke every night of the week, which already puts it in rare company in the Valley. The live accompaniment means no one has to endure a slide that reads "Instrumental Break, 16 Bars" while the singer reconsiders their choices.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Karaoke · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Karaoke · Best of Phoenix
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The front door looks like it belongs to a golf pro shop, but step through it and you're heading downstairs into a candlelit, white-tablecloth seafood restaurant that has been around forever. The menu pulls from coasts plural, Boston to New Zealand, with lobster, scallops, and a bucket of Blue Hill Bay mussels in drawn butter that earns its own sentence. Subterranean and unapologetically old-school in the best Scottsdale way.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Happy Hour · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Late Night Happy Hour · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best International Games · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Upscale Indoor Fun · Best of Phoenix
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The cocktail list pulls from the shelves around you, which tells you exactly what kind of place this is: part upscale liquor store, part proper bar, and committed to being both at once. Depending on which Phoenix-area location you land in, the extras might include a golf simulator, pinball, a pizzeria, or a cigar lounge. The drinks run from spritzes to stirred classics, and the bottles for sale are genuinely worth browsing.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Liquor Store · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Liquor Store · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Mall · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Mall · Best of Phoenix
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Shelves of wine bottles line every wall of this small, happily unpretentious wine bar tucked into a strip mall on Indian School. The vibe is couch-and-conversation, the kind of place where you sit down next to strangers and somehow end up closing it down with them. The food menu runs to pimento cheese and Moroccan spiced meatballs, which is a perfectly reasonable way to soak up a second pour. Phoenix New Times named it one of the top 100 bars in the city.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Bottle Shop · Best of Phoenix
- Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
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Yucca Tap Room is an old-school dive bar and live music venue where cheap drinks and a no-fuss atmosphere have kept generations of Tempe regulars coming back. The punk shows are a fixture, and moshers in Halloween costumes remain a perfectly normal Tuesday-in-October situation. Half the space now belongs to Electric Bat Arcade, a pinball room that on some nights draws a bigger crowd than the bar itself.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to See a Punk Show · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place to See a Punk Show · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to See a Punk Show · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Attraction Gift Shop · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Nighttime Encounters With Wildlife · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Attraction Gift Shop · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best LGBTQ Game Night · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Coffee Shop for the LGBTQ+ Community · Best of the Valley
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Watch the Sunset · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Watch the Sunrise · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place to Take an Out-of-Town Visitor · Best of Phoenix
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A private nonprofit zoo spread across 125 acres, where you can pet a stingray, feed a giraffe, and ride a camel before anyone in your group agrees on what to see next. Five trails loop through over 1,300 animals, and the Red Barn Petting Zoo handles the younger crowd's demands nicely. Bikes and roller blades are welcome, which says a lot about how far you'll walk. Zoo Lights draws a faithful crowd every holiday season.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Zoo · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Zoo · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Zoo · Best of Phoenix
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The Praying Monk formation on the southeast face is the shot everyone posts, but the ridge routes above Echo Canyon are where the real character shows. Camelback is a hiking and climbing destination right in the middle of the Valley, accessible enough that you can squeeze it into a morning, challenging enough that you'll feel it the next day. The rock gets called "choss" by the purists, which just means more routes for everyone else.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Intense Hike · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Hike · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Intense Hike · Best of Phoenix
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- Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: Lobstah Roll · Standout Signature Dish
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Fish Shop · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Fish Market · Best of Phoenix
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Frank Lloyd Wright designed this 3,000-seat performing arts auditorium for Baghdad before it ended up on a college campus in Tempe, which tells you something about its scale and ambition. The circular hall sits on the ASU campus flanked by pedestrian bridges and hosts touring Broadway shows, opera, symphony, and lectures. It's a proper night-out venue, the kind where you dress up a little and feel like the evening has stakes.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to See a Musical · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to See a Broadway Show · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Large Playhouse · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Go-Karts · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Go-Karts · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Art Classes · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Ceramics Studio · Best of Phoenix
- AZ Central Best Coronado coffee shops for more than just coffee · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes
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The Stormrider drops you roughly 70 feet into the water, which is one way to spend a Tuesday in Mesa. Golfland Sunsplash is a full-scale water and amusement park with a wave pool holding 450,000 gallons, a raft ride that starts nearly seven stories up, a lazy river, a toddler pool, miniature golf, and an arcade big enough to lose an hour in. Bring the whole chaotic family; the park has something for every age group and nerve tolerance.
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Art Supplies · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Art Supplies · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Bookstore · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Bookstore · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Bookstore · Best of Phoenix
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A cutlery shop for people who find Shun a little pedestrian, Phoenix Knife House stocks premium Japanese brands serious enough that you may not recognize the names until you're already pulling out your wallet. Beyond the blades, you'll find sharpening stones, knife rolls, and chef jackets, and the staff will talk you through all of it without making you feel like a tourist. Bring a dull knife for sharpening and leave with something embarrassingly sharp.
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A museum with over 15,000 instruments drawn from nearly every country on earth, where the displays sense your approach and pipe the corresponding music through wireless headphones. It sounds gimmicky and it works beautifully. The Artist Gallery leans into celebrity worship without apology, and larger nations get subsections drilling into folk and tribal traditions. The cafe handles global food at reasonable prices, which is not a given for a museum this size.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Take an Out-of-Towner · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Museum Gift Shop · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Buy a Housewarming Gift · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Housewarming Gifts · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Upscale Party Supplies · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Trade Vinyl or CDs · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Store for CDs · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Indigenous-Made Goods · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Indigenous-Made Goods · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Alt Fashion · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Secondhand Punk Clothes · Best of Phoenix
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