The 100 Best Things to Do in Phoenix

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A coffee shop where you can also get clay under your fingernails, PIP Coffee + Clay pairs a small cafe with a ceramics studio on North 24th Street. Wheel-throwing classes run about two hours, keep group sizes small, and require you to put your phone away, which turns out to be the whole point. Your mug may come out lopsided. That's fine. Grab a coffee or a beer while the creative juices do their thing.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Art Classes · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Ceramics Studio · Best of Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best Coronado coffee shops for more than just coffee · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Outdoor Dance Party · Best of Phoenix
2. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix

A chrome Dayton wire wheel serves as the flower pot, and the espresso machine has been custom-painted, and that sets the tone. Xolo is a coffee shop that doubles as a rotating gallery of Chicano and lowrider art, with tuck-and-roll chairs and vintage photography that looks lifted from an East L.A. album. The family next door runs a tattoo shop with the same soul. Pop-ups bring lowriders into the lot and zoot suits through the door.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Chicano Art Space · Best of Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best Midtown Phoenix coffee shop for working or studying · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

Lines form before the doors open at this specialty seafood counter, which tells you most of what you need to know. Faroe Island salmon, live sea urchin, razor clams, and whatever else flew in that morning fill the case alongside premium tinned fish and prepared foods. The shop insists it isn't a restaurant, then sells poke banh mi and sashimi boxes to go. Wednesday's lobster roll has its own cult.

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: Lobstah Roll · Standout Signature Dish
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Fish Market · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Fish Shop · Best of Phoenix

A coffee shop where the décor has opinions about where you sit. PHX Cat Cafe is a nonprofit cat lounge in downtown Phoenix where a rotating crew of adoptable cats nap in elevated perches, bat at toys, and occasionally judge you from across the room. The small admission fee buys you time among the felines, decent coffee, and access to events like cat yoga and drag bingo. Over a thousand cats have found homes through the place, which gives the whole thing a satisfying excuse.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Cat Cafe · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Way to Cuddle Cats · Best of Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best downtown Phoenix coffee shops for more than just coffee · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

A 1982 Piaggio Apé truck imported from Italy parks in the garden and pulls espresso, which tells you most of what you need to know about Pueblo's priorities. This plant shop and coffee stop on Grand Avenue occupies a lush warehouse where indoor tropicals crowd every corner and a vintage gardening library invites you to stay longer than planned. The pottery, succulents, and houseplants are the main event, but the outdoor patio has a way of making an errand feel like an afternoon.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Plant Shop · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Plant Shop · Best of Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best Grand Avenue coffee shops for more than just coffee · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

Fried chicken and Champagne share a menu at this retro-glam bowling lounge off Roosevelt Row, which tells you most of what you need to know about its vibe. A handful of lanes, a circular bar, pool tables, and DJs make it more of a night out that happens to involve bowling than the other way around. Sushi and nachos cover the snacking spread. Dress accordingly, because the decor is very much meant to be photographed.

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Outstanding Bar/Nightlife Experience
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Bougie Bowling · Best of Phoenix

Dungeon masters run scheduled D&D nights here, but the tabletop games, rotating support groups, and writers' meetups make this cozy Tempe coffee shop feel more like a community center that happens to pull excellent espresso. The decor leans Oz, the music leans groovy, and the crowd leans toward people who are relieved to have found it. Phoenix New Times named it the best LGBTQ game night in the valley.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best LGBTQ Game Night · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Coffee Shop for the LGBTQ+ Community · Best of the Valley

Fifty acres of Sonoran desert planted with thousands of cacti, succulents, and wildflowers in the middle of Phoenix. On summer Saturday nights the garden runs Flashlight Nights, a self-guided after-dark walk where night-blooming plants open and the wildlife, scorpions included, wanders freely. During the day the trails draw everyone from serious botanists to families who've already said "wow" forty times. The gift shop, no small afterthought, stocks prickly pear everything and locally made goods worth the detour.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Attraction Gift Shop · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Nighttime Encounters With Wildlife · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Attraction Gift Shop · Best of Phoenix

The two-level track is lit in multicolored neon, which makes the electric Superkarts feel less like a family outing and more like a fever dream you're steering. This massive indoor entertainment complex near the highway packs in go-karts, arcade games, laser tag, duckpin bowling, VR stations, and a full bar, so pacing yourself is an actual consideration. Tall guests may find the karts a snug fit, but that's part of the negotiation.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Go-Karts · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Go-Karts · Best of Phoenix

Set a budget before you walk into this curated vintage clothing shop in the Roosevelt Arts District, because the racks run from 1920s eveningwear to a 1980s purple fringe jacket and your willpower will not survive unassisted. Prices aren't thrift-store prices, but the inventory is the kind that makes you want to become a slightly more interesting version of yourself. A clearance rack in the back starts at $5, for those who want the daydream on a discount.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Vintage Clothing · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Vintage Clothing · Best of Phoenix

A sneaker resale shop on Central Avenue that also stocks Labubus, those unsettling little monster toys currently colonizing every shelf on social media. Archive AZ is a buy-sell-trade hub for high-end kicks, mostly Nike-heavy, with rare past releases alongside current drops. The storefront is easy to walk past, which somehow feels right for a place that lets the inventory do the talking.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best High-End Sneakers · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best High-End Sneaker Shop · Best of Phoenix

A mid-size indoor concert hall seating around 5,500, sitting in that useful gap between arena and nightclub. Downtown Phoenix's go-to for touring musical acts, stand-up comics, Broadway productions, and the occasional boxing card. George Lopez filmed a live HBO special here, which tells you something about the room's range. It handles Doc Severinson and Nickelback with equal indifference, which is either a compliment or a programming philosophy.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Large Music Venue · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Large Music Venue · Best of Phoenix

Somewhere past the hiking packs and climbing gear, there's a homebuilt tunnel maze where search-and-rescue crews wriggle through pipes hauling a 200-pound dummy. That's not the main event for most visitors, but it tells you something about this old-school Phoenix outdoor shop. Gear, rentals, high-res topo maps, a vintage climbing collection organized by era and country, and classes on backpacking and wilderness survival round out a place that takes the outdoors more seriously than its drop ceilings suggest.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Outdoors Store · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Outdoors Store · Best of Phoenix

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to See a Musical · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to See a Broadway Show · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Large Playhouse · Best of Phoenix

A tiny paperback copy of "Fifty Shades of Grey" sitting next to a miniature bag of Lay's barbecue chips pretty much sets the tone. Auntie Em's is a dollhouse supply and curiosity shop in Historic Downtown Glendale with thousands of small-scale items, from hand-painted furniture to tiger-skin rugs. The other half of the store belongs to retro toys: pedal cars, vintage Barbies, model trains. No website, so you just have to show up.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Buy Something Small · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Tiny Things · Best of Phoenix

The Ice House Tavern overlooks the rink so you can watch hockey with a drink while your kids are doing laps below, which is a pretty good deal for everyone involved. Phoenix's go-to public ice rink keeps the Zamboni humming with public skates, figure skating lessons, youth and adult hockey leagues, and pick-up games. Admission runs on the cheaper end of the spectrum, and free intro lessons sweeten it further.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Ice Skating · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Ice Skating · Best of Phoenix

The circuit grading system here is the tell: instead of chasing pitch ratings, you work a color-coded route until the movement clicks, which turns a climbing gym visit into something closer to a puzzle session. The walls are rope- and harness-free, the floors are padded, and the whole warehouse-scale space runs yoga and fitness classes most days of the week. There's a coffee kiosk, a dog-friendly courtyard, and enough community events that regulars treat it like a neighborhood club.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Climbing Gym · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Climbing Gym · Best of Phoenix

A gift shop in Phoenix's Melrose District where butterfly claw clips and gravestone stickers reading "DIDN'T DRINK ENOUGH WATER" share shelf space with gold jewelry and desert-themed graphic tees. Bunky Boutique stocks men's and women's apparel, quirky cards, candles, and accessories with enough rotating inventory that regulars leave with something they didn't know existed last month, usually for a friend who absolutely needs it.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Boutique · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Boutique · Best of Phoenix

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Intense Hike · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Intense Hike · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Hike · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Miniature Golf · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Rides · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Rides · Best of Phoenix

The First Draft Book Bar sits inside this independent bookstore, which means you can browse for an hour, lose track of time entirely, and justify it with a glass of wine. Changing Hands stocks the full range from beach reads to gifts to knickknacks, with staff who actually know the shelves. Regular author readings, workshops, and book clubs keep the place feeling like a neighborhood institution rather than a retail transaction.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Bookstore · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Bookstore · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Bookstore · Best of Phoenix

The lighted bays stay open until 9 p.m., which tells you everything about who this driving range is for. Coronado is the anti-Topgolf: no bay reservations, no cocktail menus, no Instagram moments, just a bucket of balls and a borrowed wood if you need one. A nine-hole course and chipping greens round things out. Happy hour drops ball prices and brings $2 cans of beer, which is about as civilized as a Tuesday evening gets. Bring cash.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Driving Range · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Driving Range · Best of Phoenix

The tiered stadium seating along the back wall means you never spend a show craning around someone's hat, which is a small miracle for a mid-size Phoenix music venue. Crescent Ballroom books a steady diet of indie, art rock, and folk acts, with a candlelit bar and lounge up front serving tacos and cocktails alongside free sets from local musicians on quieter nights.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Medium-Size Music Venue · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Small Music Venue · Best of Phoenix

A fine natural history emporium in the Melrose District where the inventory runs from entomology specimens and coyote vertebrae to, if you have three grand lying around, a human skull, all ethically sourced. The shop also carries books, crystals, and botanicals for those who prefer their curiosities still living. The event calendar is where it gets interesting: taxidermy classes, Victorian seances, and the occasional chat with a coroner.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Bones · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Creepy Stuff · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best In-Store Events · Best of Phoenix

An 80-minute narrated cruise around Saguaro Lake, which feels like a minor miracle given how thoroughly the Sonoran Desert surrounds you. Desert Belle runs sightseeing tours on a two-deck boat, with an air-conditioned lower level and an open-air top deck where mountain goats occasionally materialize on the canyon walls. The schedule also includes live music, craft beer, and wine cruises for anyone who needs the excuse.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Boat Ride · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Boat Ride · Best of Phoenix

The stone ramada at the top of South Mountain was a New Deal project, which gives it a pleasantly melancholy grandeur. Getting here takes a twenty-minute wind up a paved mountain road, and the payoff is a panorama wide enough to hold Camelback, Papago Park, and what feels like every last suburb Phoenix has ever annexed. Come at dusk and the sprawl goes from overwhelming to genuinely cinematic.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Watch the Sunset · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best View of Phoenix · Best of Phoenix

The Coors bottle piñata, hanging next to Pokémon and a classic star-pointed sphere, tells you pretty much everything about this place. Dulceria La Bonita is a Mexican candy and party supply store that calls itself a wholesale operation but is open to anyone with a cart and ambition. The selection of sweets runs deep enough to reward a few laps before you commit, and the piñata wall alone is worth the detour.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Mexican Candy Store · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Buy a Pinata · Best of Phoenix

A 50-foot spiral tower at the entrance to a Goodyear neighborhood, designed by a local astronomer to function as both a lookout and a quiet prompt to feel small in a good way. Climb the staircase for views of the Estrella Mountains, then stay for sunset, when tiny lights embedded in the exterior begin to glow. It closes at 8:15 p.m. sharp, which is the desert's way of telling you not to linger past the point of wonder.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Reach for the Stars · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Stairway to Heaven · Best of Phoenix

An artist-run collective on Roosevelt Row, Eye Lounge has been the gravitational center of Phoenix's First Fridays artwalk for years, which is either a sign of quality or a sign that everyone else gave up. Contemporary exhibitions rotate through, the murals outside change with the shows inside, and the crowd on a First Friday runs heavy on the local artists whose work might be on the walls next month.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Stop During the First Friday artwalk · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best First Friday Stop · Best of Phoenix

Baskets of polished crystals sorted by type, shelves of tarot decks, deity statuary, magickal oils, and candles fill this long-running New Age and occult shop in north Phoenix. You can order online, but the whole point is choosing your tiger's eye in person. Beyond retail, the shop runs classes on candle magic, divination, and protection spells, and offers psychic readings when you need something more bespoke than a book recommendation.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best New Age Store · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best New Age Store · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best New Age Store · Best of Phoenix

Kachina dolls centuries old sit alongside contemporary paintings, jewelry, and weavings made by Native artists from across the country, with the Southwest's tribal traditions given particular depth. The Heard is a serious art and cultural museum in downtown Phoenix, been around forever, with permanent collections, rotating shows, festivals, and education programs. A shop and cafe round out the visit for anyone who lingers.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best First Friday Stop · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Museum Mainstay · Best of Phoenix

A sandstone formation in Papago Park shaped by erosion over millions of years, with a literal hole worn through it that frames the Phoenix skyline like a proscenium arch. The hike up is 0.3 miles, doable in questionable footwear, and the payoff at sunrise or sunset is the kind of thing that makes locals forget they've seen it a hundred times. The Hohokam may have used it as a calendar; now it's an Instagram backdrop, which feels like a lateral move.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Watch the Sunset · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place to Take an Out-of-Town Visitor · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Watch the Sunrise · Best of Phoenix

Duckpin bowling, axe throwing, and a copper frog you try to land coins into: Lane Park is an adult games hall in Old Town Scottsdale where the activity rotates with the season, shuffleboard in summer and curling when it cools down. Craft cocktails and pizzas keep things going between rounds. It reads like someone asked what a bar would look like if it took the games as seriously as the drinks.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best International Games · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Upscale Indoor Fun · Best of Phoenix

Koi drift under a 12-foot waterfall while the rest of Phoenix does whatever Phoenix does. This three-and-a-half-acre Japanese garden, formally called Ro Ho En, sits inside Margaret T. Hance Park and moves at a completely different speed than the city around it. Stone lanterns, quarried Arizona rocks along the shore, and a traditional teahouse pull the place toward genuine stillness. A quiet hour here requires almost no effort and costs almost nothing.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place for Meditation and Quiet · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Oasis in the Desert · Best of Phoenix

A bulletin board by the register plastered with fliers for local art classes and studio events is a good sign you've found the right art supply store. Jerry's Artarama in Tempe is a sprawling shop stocked with canvases, every conceivable brush and paint, custom framing, and art books, with sales deep enough that serious artists plan trips around them. Local artwork lines the walls, and browsing counts as half the visit.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Art Supplies · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Art Supplies · Best of Phoenix

A small live music venue on a one-way stretch of Central Avenue, south of downtown in a neighborhood that keeps the vibe honest. Touring acts and local bands share the bill, and people show up on a Tuesday without needing much convincing. Parking and security have been sorted, which clears the last excuse. Phoenix New Times named it the city's top small music venue in 2025.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Small Music Venue · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Small Music Venue · Best of Phoenix

An art gallery that holds an open call every two years, gets over 500 submissions, and sometimes picks exactly one artist. That's the curatorial standard at Lisa Sette Gallery, an old-school institution in the Phoenix arts scene representing a tight roster of Arizona painters, photographers, and mixed-media artists. The work tends toward the serious and the strange, in the best possible, completely non-graded sense of that phrase.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Art Gallery · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Art Gallery · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Art Gallery · Best of Phoenix

The I-10 freeway runs underneath it, so the park above feels like a magic trick: grass, dog runs, a playground, and a Japanese Friendship Garden built with Phoenix's sister city of Himeji, all floating over the highway in the middle of downtown. It sits right on the edge of Roosevelt Row, so a morning walk can turn into a long afternoon without much planning required. One of the few spots in central Phoenix where pedestrians have the obvious upper hand.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Park · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Urban Park · Best of Phoenix

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Public Pool · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Public Pool · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Public Pool · Best of Phoenix

A former department store at Desert Sky Mall that now holds more than 200 vendors under one roof, Mercado de los Cielos is a Hispanic marketplace where shopping and eating blur into a pleasant afternoon-long problem. Counter stalls turn out tortas, mariscos, gorditas, and agua frescas, with photos above every register for the indecisive. Pick up a raspado from the fruit stand and let it guide you around the rest.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Mercado · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Marketplace · Best of Phoenix

The Día de los Muertos section alone runs from traditional calacas to Marilyn Monroe in skeleton face, housed in a dense, color-saturated shop on 24th Street where the shelves have no empty corners. Mexican Arts Imports carries Talavera, Lupita dolls, metal work, textiles, and clay figurines at a scale that makes a single visit feel genuinely insufficient. Plan for more time than you think, and budget for things you didn't know you needed.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Mexican Imports Store · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Da De Los Muertos Treasures · Best of Phoenix

A packed-dirt trail running about 2.5 miles along Central Avenue, shaded by ash and olive trees with some of Phoenix's finest historic homes lined up alongside it. The path was laid out for Orangewood residents who got around on horseback, which feels improbable now that it's full of joggers, dog walkers, and people nursing coffee from the Uptown Farmers Market. In a city that runs hot and hard, the shade here is something to plan around.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Walking Path · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Walking Path · Best of Phoenix

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Take an Out-of-Towner · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Museum Gift Shop · Best of Phoenix

Hand-painted signs about human rights share wall space with Spanish-language books on LGBTQ+ liberation at this bilingual bookstore on mural-covered Roosevelt Street. The shop has become a genuine community gathering spot, hosting BIPOC open mics and children's storytime alongside a cafe where you can nurse a coffee mid-browse. It stocks the kinds of titles Amazon's algorithm would never think to surface.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Spanish-Language Bookstore · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Bilingual Bookstore · Best of Phoenix

Over 17,000 works spread across 285,000 square feet put this art museum firmly in the "clear your afternoon" category. The collection runs from American and European classics to Latin American, Asian, and contemporary work, plus a fashion design wing that earns its place on the same floor. A dedicated kids' gallery keeps the family from splitting up at the entrance. Free admission on Wednesday evenings and the first Friday of each month.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Art Museum · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Art Museum · Best of Phoenix

Every summer, somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 Mexican free-tailed bats take up residence in a flood-control tunnel near Camelback and 40th Street, and every evening from May through October they pour out at dusk to eat their weight in insects. Park at the intersection, walk the canal, and stay quiet. The bats genuinely do not care that you exist, which is both reassuring and a little humbling.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Bat Colony · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Communing With Creatures of the Night · Best of Phoenix

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Zoo · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Zoo · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Zoo · Best of Phoenix

A 1,200-foot climb packed into just over a mile, Piestewa Peak sits in the middle of the Phoenix metro and functions as the city's default answer when someone asks where to hike. The Summit Trail is short and steep, with the final stretch earning its reputation near the top, where the reward is a full 360-degree sweep of the Valley. Prefer flat ground? The Freedom Trail loops the base for nearly four miles of desert flora at a friendlier pace.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Hike · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Hike · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Discount Movie Theater · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Discount Movie Theater · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Discount Movie Theater · Best of Phoenix

A gallery-shop in northern Phoenix where the inventory changes constantly because everything is made by hand and no two makers work the same week. Forged knives, blown-glass tumblers, ceramic oil pourers, and natural-edge cutting boards share shelf space in proportions nobody can predict. It's the kind of place where you come in for a gift and leave reconsidering your kitchen entirely.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Support Local Artists · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Buy Local Art · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Local Art · Best of Phoenix

The showroom occupies a restored 1954 Ralph Haver building, which feels less like a coincidence and more like the whole point. Red Modern Furniture deals in authentic midcentury pieces, no reproductions, so you'll find Eames, Knoll, and Saarinen chairs alongside Murano glass lamps and one-of-a-kind finds. Price tags are serious, but browsing is free, and the website even archives sold pieces for the committed window-shopper.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Vintage Furniture · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Midcentury Modern Furniture · Best of Phoenix

Four public pickleball and tennis courts sit inside this north-central Phoenix park, and they cost nothing to use. The courts are lined for both sports, lit for evening play, and recently resurfaced, so the bounce is clean. A hitting wall is there for solo sessions, and the farmers market runs on Saturday mornings if you want a reason to linger. Show up, claim a court, or fall into a pickup game with whoever's already there.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Public Pickleball Courts · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Public Tennis Courts · Best of Phoenix

A resale and new boutique in Tempe whose T-shirts announce it as "a safe haven for weirdos," which is accurate marketing. Rocket a Go~Go covers the full spectrum of alt fashion, from pinup and rockabilly to goth, punk, and rave, with brands like Doc Martens, Tripp, and Demonia filling the racks alongside studded belts, horror-themed jewelry, and Halloween housewares. Sizes run 0 to 3X, and you can buy, sell, or trade.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Secondhand Punk Clothes · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Alt Fashion · Best of Phoenix

Every Wednesday evening, a crowd of cheerful masochists gathers outside this long-running specialty running store before six, stretches in the parking lot, and then disappears into a Phoenix neighborhood in the heat. Runner's Den has been fitting Phoenicians for shoes, clothes, and gear for an old-school institution, with staff who'll analyze your gait and point you toward the next road race on the calendar. The weekly group run ends with snacks and fellowship, possibly hot dogs.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Running Store · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Running Store · Best of Phoenix

Fabric is sold by the pound here, which tells you everything about the philosophy. SAS is a sprawling, cheerfully chaotic fabric store where cosplayers, sewists, and anyone mid-DIY spiral come to dig through bolts, scraps, and notions they didn't know they needed until this exact moment. The organization is approximate at best, but the staff can find anything, and the buttons and trims alone justify the trip.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Fabric Store · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Fabric Store · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Fabric Store · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Mall · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Mall · Best of Phoenix

Thirty-two soundproofed, air-conditioned lanes with touch-screen targets that rotate 360 degrees give this indoor shooting range a distinctly modern feel, even if the members-only lounge looks like a hunting lodge from another century. No membership is required to rent from one of the largest firearm selections in the state, and safety classes run from beginner family sessions to holster-draw practice. The Cosmic Shooting night, with blacklights and color-changing ammo, is either inspired or unhinged, possibly both.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Indoor Gun Range · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Indoor Gun Range · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Buy a Band Shirt · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Band T-Shirts · Best of Phoenix

The Chicago dogs are the tell: a poppy-seed bun, the full Chicago lineup of toppings, and a strict no-ketchup policy enforced by peer pressure alone. Sloan Park is the Cubs' spring training home in Mesa, built with green steelwork and red brick that quietly impersonates Wrigley in the desert sun. There's a rooftop bar, a lawn in the outfield, and food trucks in the Citrus Grove, so the game is almost secondary.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to See a Spring Training Game · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Watch a Spring Training Game · Best of Phoenix

You suit up head-to-toe in protective gear, borrowed shoes included, before anyone lets you near a drop of paint. This central Phoenix art studio runs messy, high-contact sessions where you can pedal a bike to splatter a canvas, work a hand crank for something more deliberate, or disappear into a glow-in-the-dark splatter room and just go feral. Take your work home or collect it later once it dries. Family-owned and built for groups, date nights, or anyone overdue for a tantrum.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Make Art and Get Messy · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Interactive Art Activity · Best of Phoenix

Tucked into a Mesa industrial park, this retro arcade runs on a flat admission fee covering unlimited play, no tokens required. Classic cabinets like Galaga and Tempest line the floor alongside over a hundred pinball machines, while '80s soundtracks play under projections of Star Wars and Back to the Future. Vintage toys and memorabilia fill the gaps. Regular pinball tournaments mean the serious players have trophies to prove something.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Arcade · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Arcade · Best of Phoenix

The slot machines alone number over a thousand, which tells you something about the scale of Talking Stick Casino before you've even found the table games. It's a full-on resort casino with blackjack, craps, roulette, sports betting, a spa, hotel rooms, a pool that hosts live concerts, and enough restaurants to cover everything from Mediterranean to fine dining. The outside world does tend to dissolve once those doors close behind you.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Casino · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Casino · Best of Phoenix

A record store where the turntable wall runs from a $60 Crosley mini to a $13,000 German Firebird, with a Lamborghini collab somewhere in the middle playing actual engine sounds. The crates on the floor hold used records in rough shape for nearly nothing, while four-figure collectibles wait behind the counter. Phoenix New Times named it the city's favorite record store, and it opens early on Record Store Day with the full spread.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Record Store · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Buy a Turntable · Best of Phoenix

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Karaoke · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Karaoke · Best of Phoenix

The Rebel Lounge is a small, divey rock club on Indian School Road that sits on the bones of the Mason Jar, Phoenix's old-school punk institution. The room is cramped and no-frills, which is exactly the point: the energy comes from whatever band is crammed onto the stage, local or touring, punk or otherwise. Phoenix New Times has named it the city's top music venue, and the crowd tends to look like they actually mean it.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Phoenix-Centric Music Venue · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Really Big Honor · Best of Phoenix

A live music club on Indian School Road that's been the Valley's home for blues, jazz, and roots acts for as long as anyone can remember. Owner Bob Corritore, a serious figure in the blues world, has put Pinetop Perkins and Sanford Clark on that stage. Local and touring rock acts fill the gaps. The bartenders are half the reason to stay, apparently able to match any set with a story.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Blues Club · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Blues Venue · Best of Phoenix

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Happy Hour · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Late Night Happy Hour · Best of Phoenix

A specialty retail shop where one wall is given over almost entirely to figures, another to title belts, and the trading card section runs deeper than you'd expect a strip-mall suite to allow. The Wrestling Guy Store PHX stocks WWE and AEW merch alongside genuine rarities, including commemorative folding chairs from Phoenix pay-per-views. The store also hosts in-person appearances by retired legends, for when owning the bobblehead isn't quite enough.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Store for Wrestling Fans · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Store to Show a Wrestling Geek · Best of Phoenix

Boomboxes stacked floor to ceiling on one wall, rows of vinyl, rap cassettes, and old issues of XXL on another, and a dance floor where breakers have been known to throw down mid-afternoon. Trill is a hip-hop shop on North 16th Street that covers all four elements under one roof: DJing, MCing, graffiti gear, and b-boy culture. Ice-T has been vocal about the love. Kids can learn to scratch here; serious diggers can lose an hour in the crates.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Hip-Hop Shop · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Hip-Hop Shop · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Hip-Hop Shop · Best of Phoenix

A local boutique home goods shop with three Valley locations, urbAna stocks the kind of stuff that makes housewarming gifts feel considered rather than grabbed at the checkout line. Arizona-themed glassware, midcentury-inspired barware, taper candles with fancy matches, and chic disposable partyware for hosts who want the aesthetic without the aftermath. The "Welcome to the Shitshow" rocks glasses are there for when the new neighbors' AC goes out in July.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Housewarming Gifts · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Buy a Housewarming Gift · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Upscale Party Supplies · Best of Phoenix

A few hundred railroad-tie stairs bolted to a desert hillside outside the master-planned community of Verrado, this outdoor staircase climb is the kind of workout that skips the gym and goes straight to the consequences. The ascent is genuine, unshaded, and merciless in the Arizona sun, so bring water and leave the dog behind. The payoff at the top is a view of the White Tank Mountains and a small loop trail to catch your breath.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Stairs · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Stairs · Best of Phoenix

From the outside it reads as a plain warehouse in Phoenix's industrial district, which is exactly the point. Inside, Walter Where?House is an EDM venue built around giant art cars styled after Volkswagen vehicles, a laser-drenched stage called Kalliope, and a rotating gallery of local art. The whole thing traces back to Burning Man culture, so flow objects and eccentric outfits are less a dress code suggestion and more a natural outcome.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best EDM Venue · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best EDM Venue · Best of Phoenix

A thrift shop that tapes a handwritten note to every tested electronic, confirming it actually works, which sounds minor until you've hauled home three dead blenders from Goodwill. White Dove runs several Valley locations, keeps the floor clean and organized, and puts real finds in a glass case rather than quietly flipping them online. Proceeds go to Hospice of the Valley, so the dopamine hit comes with a clean conscience.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Thrift Store · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Thrift Shop · Best of Phoenix

Endless bins of vinyl organized well enough to lose an afternoon in, plus shelves of CDs, books, instruments, memorabilia, and toys for anyone still convinced that owning a thing beats streaming it. Zia buys and trades more liberally than most used-music shops, though the math is roughly a quarter of resale value in cash. Bring your duplicates, leave with someone else's.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Trade Vinyl or CDs · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Store for CDs · Best of Phoenix

A 20-by-20-foot phoenix sculpture lit from within by LEDs, it becomes a glowing beacon after dark along the light rail corridor linking north and south Phoenix. By day the fiberglass catches sunlight and pulls color out of thin air. Isaac Caruso spent seven years on it, which feels right for something this unhurried about making an impression. The fiery palette and upswept feathers do the talking without any help from a plaque.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Art Along the Light Rail · Best of Phoenix

Wall-to-wall shelves of retro cartridges, rare consoles, and reproduction carts fill this strip-mall game shop in Mesa, where the vibe runs closer to a friend's basement than a retail floor. Staff will happily disappear into a thirty-minute conversation about a 1994 JRPG without once making you feel like a tourist. Prices are honest, the selection is deep, and nobody here is gatekeeping anything.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Video Game Store · Best of Phoenix

The whole roast ducks hanging in the hot deli are your first clue that this is not a routine grocery run. Arizona's only outpost of the pan-Asian supermarket chain stocks an enormous produce section, a serious fresh seafood counter, and an aisle of imported snacks that rewards slow browsing. The bakery near the exit, stocked with egg tarts and milk bread, is the reason most carts get a little heavier on the way out.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Asian Supermarket · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Go-Karts · Best of Phoenix

A gallery and gift shop in Old Town Scottsdale where a Chuck Jones Looney Tunes painting might hang next to Dr. Seuss drawings and a rack of stickers. The mix is deliberately eclectic, leaning into pop culture without apology, and the shelves stretch into jewelry, books, and children's items. It anchors the Thursday Scottsdale Art Walk but stays open seven days a week, which is a quiet mercy for anyone who can't do crowds.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Stop During the Scottsdale Artwalk · Best of Phoenix

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Airplane Museum · Best of Phoenix

A drum shop tucked into an unremarkable strip mall in Scottsdale, stocked deep enough that "in stock" is practically the store's motto. The owner, Ron, runs the place himself, steers you toward what you need rather than what costs more, and knows his inventory cold. If you're scrambling to replace a snare head before tonight's gig, this is the call to make before you panic-order online.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Drum Shop · Best of Phoenix

An open-air pedal bar that trundles through Old Town Scottsdale with a ring of barstools, a cooler stocked with canned drinks, and a rotating set of bar stops along the route. Yes, it looks exactly like the thing you made fun of from the sidewalk. The joke is that it's a good time, provided your group has at least some tolerance for novelty and zero tolerance for dignity. Pack your friends, grab a Beatbox, and let Scottsdale happen to you.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Way to Party in Old Town Scottsdale · Best of Phoenix

Tucked into a nondescript commercial park in south Phoenix, Arizona Power Exchange is a members-based BDSM dungeon and community hub that's been around forever. The calendar runs from shibari workshops and non-monogamy discussions to fetish balls and, improbably, board game nights. Two public events a year, Kink Karnival and Bizarre Bazaar, let the curious browse gear and watch demos before committing to anything.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Hurt the One You Love · Best of Phoenix

The walls at this Phoenix custom cap shop are stacked floor-to-ceiling with thousands of hats, plain or absurd, and the embroidery counter does the rest. Famous cartoon characters brandishing weapons, fighting roosters, Grim Reapers, "Sinaloa is mine" stitched black on black, a bedazzled Yankees logo. You hand them a hat and a vision; they sew it on. You can be basically anyone walking out, which also means almost no one is off the table.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Ball Cap Store · Best of Phoenix

A mom-and-pop pet grooming shop in a west-side strip mall, Bark & Purr handles cats and dogs of any age, including the anxious, reactive, and difficult cases that other groomers quietly turn away. The staff take time before your appointment to understand your pet's particular quirks, so call ahead rather than walking in. Wear something dark-colored, or don't, and just lean into it.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Pet Grooming · Best of Phoenix

A baseball bat bracelet modeled after Cartier's nail design tells you everything about this Old Town Scottsdale shop's angle. Baseballism sells clothes and accessories that celebrate the game in general rather than pushing straight team merch, so the hoodies and glove-leather bags work year-round, not just during Cactus League season. It skews tasteful, which is a word that doesn't get used much in the souvenir aisle.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Spring Training Souvenirs · Best of Phoenix

Threading salon tucked into a Phoenix strip mall where regulars know to book ahead, because walk-ins are usually out of luck. The specialists work fast and light, shaping brows by feel and conversation: tell them exactly what arch you want, or let them read your face and advise. Full-face threading, tinting, and brow lifts round out the menu for anyone who showed up with time to spare. Closed Sundays and Mondays, so plan accordingly.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Eyebrow Threading · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Buy a Guitar · Best of Phoenix

The smell of aging paper hits you before you've found a shelf to browse. Book Gallery is an antiquarian bookshop stacked floor to ceiling with rare volumes, first editions, and signed works, some behind glass. A Harper Lee-signed "To Kill a Mockingbird" and a first printing of "Naked Lunch" give a sense of the range. If the specific thing you're hunting isn't here, the owner can usually track it down.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Collectible and Antique Books · Best of Phoenix

Blacklight lanes, craft cocktails, and a Skee-Ball machine are all doing equal work here, which tells you what kind of bowling alley this is. Bowlero's Scottsdale spot near Old Town leans hard into the party-night format, with arcade classics and a food menu that runs from nachos to birria tacos. It's the kind of place where a date night can quietly become a group outing, and nobody minds.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Bowling Alley · Best of Phoenix

Guitar repair and setup shop run by a luthier who is also a working musician, which turns out to matter. John Bronson has set up acoustics and electrics for the Gin Blossoms, Billy Corgan, and Roger Clyne, and when Geddy Lee's bass needed work, Fender routed it here. Beyond repairs, he understands how an instrument should feel and sound after adjustments, not just how to tighten the screws. Half the visit is talking gear with the staff, which is either a feature or a warning depending on your schedule.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Guitar Repair · Best of Phoenix

A chest-high sea of pink balloons is probably not how you pictured spending a Tuesday, and yet here you are. Bubble Planet is an immersive walk-through attraction inside Arizona Mills Mall with a psychedelic sound-and-visuals dome, a mirrored infinity room strung with blinking lights, and a ball pit styled as a giant bubble bath. Bring your own socks or you'll pay mall-kiosk prices for a pair at the door.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Immersive Attraction · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Library · Best of Phoenix

The trail starts flat along the shoreline and then climbs the cliffs above Saguaro Lake, where the views keep getting better the higher you go. This five-mile out-and-back north of Phoenix is easygoing enough that you can spend most of it looking at the water rather than your feet. A side path partway along drops to the shoreline for a wade, and Burro Cove at the far end opens up to Four Peaks in the distance.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Hike With a Water View · Best of Phoenix

Alpacas are not llamas, and the owner of this family farm north of Phoenix will tell you so, cheerfully, before you've even met the herd. During cooler months, small groups can feed, pet, and walk the animals on a leash across the property. The alpacas tolerate photos with the patience of minor celebrities who have made peace with their fame. A casual, outdoor animal encounter, and a good excuse to finally learn the difference.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Encounter an Alpaca · Best of Phoenix

Phoenix logs more sunny flying days than almost anywhere, which explains why the metro supports over forty aviation schools. CAE stands out by skipping the small-Cessna rite of passage: their simulator-based training puts you at the controls of a Boeing 737NG or an Embraer before you ever touch the real thing. The kind of place where weekend hobby shades into a second career, whether you know it yet or not.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Learn to Fly · Best of Phoenix

A massive antique mall in Mesa where you can lose an entire afternoon without noticing. The stock runs from vintage furniture and jewelry to old maps, cookware, and the kind of tchotchkes that somehow feel essential in the moment. Prices stay low and the inventory turns constantly, so repeat visits rarely feel redundant. Bring comfortable shoes and no particular agenda, and expect to leave with something you cannot explain.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Antiques Mall · Best of Phoenix