The Top 100 Things to Do Near Salt River
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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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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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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 2024 · Best Liquor Store · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Liquor Store · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in 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 International Games · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Upscale Indoor Fun · 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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- 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 Mall · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Mall · 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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- 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 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 2023 · Best Zoo · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Zoo · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Zoo · 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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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 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 2023 · Best Indigenous-Made Goods · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Indigenous-Made Goods · 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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- 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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- 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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- 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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- 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 Secondhand Punk Clothes · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Alt Fashion · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Chicano Art Space · Best of Phoenix
- AZ Central Best Midtown Phoenix coffee shop for working or studying · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes
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- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Rave Gear · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Rave Gear · Best of Phoenix
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The floor bar sits right next to the stage so you never have to choose between a drink and the show. This mid-size live music venue on Mill Avenue holds around a thousand people, which is somehow both big enough to book national touring acts and intimate enough that there isn't a bad spot in the house. A Perfect Circle, Social Distortion, and the Black Keys have all played here, and local showcases keep the calendar full between the headliners.
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Climbing Gym · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Climbing Gym · Best of Phoenix
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A neighborhood dive bar that fully commits to the bit: vintage furniture with backstories, a cigarette machine, free arcade games, and a jukebox that always has Marty Robbins on deck. The drinks are cold, the Old Style is colder, and the backyard patio with lawn games fills up with the kind of crowd that looks like they've been regulars for years, even if they just discovered it last week.
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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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- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Way to Cuddle Cats · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Cat Cafe · Best of Phoenix
- AZ Central Best downtown Phoenix coffee shops for more than just coffee · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes
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- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Comic Book Store · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Comic Book Shop · Best of Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Plant Shop · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Plant Shop · Best of Phoenix
- AZ Central Best Grand Avenue coffee shops for more than just coffee · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes
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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.
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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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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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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 2024 · Finalist · Outstanding Bar/Nightlife Experience
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Bougie Bowling · 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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- 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 Ice Skating · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Ice Skating · Best of Phoenix
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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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Karaoke spills out of this LGBTQ+ bar at Park Central before you even reach the door. Inside, Kobalt runs on the pleasant fiction that everyone already knows each other, with drag shows, RuPaul's watch parties, and trivia filling the calendar alongside the sing-alongs. Show tunes, '80s ballads, and early-aughts pop keep the room generous and loud. Cocktails hover around eleven dollars, which makes it easy to stay for one more song, then another.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Gay Bar · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Drag Shows · Best of Phoenix
- AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
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