The Best Places in Phoenix

Billiards-themed portraits of legendary players guard the bathroom doors at this East Valley pool hall and bar, which recently got a full revamp. League nights fill the tables, but plenty of people come just for the extensive craft beer list or the generously poured drinks from behind the full bar. The food holds up too, which is more than you can say for most places where the pool is the main event.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Pool Hall · Best of Phoenix

Flat-rate pricing by rack runs this midtown Phoenix thrift and vintage shop: $6 buys a T-shirt, $13 a jacket, and $20 is about as steep as it gets. The store's own flyer forgives the odd missing button by blaming Grandma's casino trip, which tells you exactly what kind of place this is. Vintage guitars hang beside the clothing racks, and the curios section covers old maps, childhood dishware, figurines, and board games.

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

A compact Japanese gift shop that ships nationwide, so you don't have to feel bad about ordering the fountain pen ink from your couch. In person, the Tempe storefront runs deeper than it looks, with notebooks, journals, loose-leaf teas, kettles, gel and ballpoint pens, and a sticker selection that will test the self-restraint of anyone under twelve, and most people over it.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Japanese Gifts · Best of Phoenix

A specialty fish store that doubles as a free, no-guilt aquarium visit: the tanks run floor to ceiling with coral, sea creatures, and fish you can get close enough to stress out. Staff leave you alone until you need them, prices are labeled, and the selection covers everything from starter setups to the kind of elaborate saltwater tank your houseguests will pretend not to be impressed by.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Aquarium Store · Best of Phoenix

A taco shop with a salsa bar that Phoenix New Times named the city's best in 2025, including a cilantro crema and a strawberry salsa that have no business working as well as they do. The menu is short, tacos and quesadillas and burros, but the kitchen pulls from across Mexico: cochinita pibil, Oaxacan black mole, Mexico City chicken tinga. Order the pecan horchata with fresh fruit before you leave.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Salsa Bar · Best of Phoenix

Thirty miles east of Phoenix, the Superstition Mountains block out enough city glow to remind you the sky has depth. Lost Dutchman State Park is a desert hiking and camping destination where the Flatiron peak silhouettes every photo whether you planned it or not. The dog-friendly campground works for an overnight, and the darkness is patient: give your eyes twenty minutes and the stars do the rest. Phoenix New Times named it the valley's top stargazing spot.

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

A cash-for-gold shop on West Northern where the metals testing happens right on the counter in front of you, which is either reassuring or fascinating depending on your chemistry background. Staff walks you through every step, and the prices offered have a way of surprising people who expected to get lowballed. Phoenix New Times named it the best place to sell gold in 2025, which tracks with the repeat-customer energy in the room.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Sell Gold · Best of Phoenix

A nail salon in the Town & Country plaza that takes sterilization as seriously as the nail art, which is saying something given the menu runs from classic manicures to Jelly Spa Pedicures involving jelly baths, mud masks, hot stones, and fruit masks. The artistic options lean elaborate, think glittery coffin shapes and sunset sets, though subtler choices exist for the quietly vain. Prices stay genuinely accessible, which keeps the appointment book full.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Mani-Pedis · Best of Phoenix

Mac repair shop in Old Town Scottsdale that's been around forever, predating Apple's own retail stores and the genius bars inside them. The pitch is that Apple stores are busy showrooms; MacMedia is where you go when you need someone who actually knows your machine, including the older ones Apple would rather you forget. House calls for Wi-Fi setup are on the table too, which the Genius Bar decidedly is not.

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

A plant shop where you might walk in for a small succulent and leave negotiating a 4-foot cactus into your car. The team sources everything from Arizona growers, so nothing here has that slow-death-in-a-big-box-store look. They'll pot your pick on the spot and hand you an actual care plan. The space reads more like a desert gallery than a garden center, which makes the impulse adoption feel almost reasonable.

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

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Cheap Fun for Kids · Best of Phoenix

At 21,000 acres, McDowell Mountain Regional Park is the largest in the Maricopa County system, which means you can spend a serious stretch of trail watching saguaros go from ankle-height seedlings to forty-foot elders without repeating yourself. The upper Sonoran Desert does its most theatrical work out here, all wide sky and arm-waving cacti. Bring water, wear shoes with grip, and resist the urge to touch anything that looks huggable.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to See Saguaro Cactuses · Best of Phoenix

A dry cleaner that does the one thing dry cleaners are supposed to do: returns your clothes clean, pressed, and intact, on the day they said they would. Broken buttons and vanished jackets are someone else's problem here. Prices sit a notch above budget, but the little black dress comes back sequins and all, which turns out to be the part that matters most.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Dry Cleaners · Best of Phoenix

Rows of rolling racks packed with leather jackets, deadstock tees, and secondhand oddities fill whatever space Flipside Flea takes over for the weekend. This roaming vintage clothing market moves between downtown Phoenix bars and event spaces, so the shopping comes with a DJ set and a Modelo. Follow them on Instagram to track where they land next.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Thrift Market · Best of Phoenix

The Roosevelt Row bodega that stocks coffee filters, Tito's, and Pokémon cards at 1 a.m., all under one roof. Milk and Honey Market is a neighborhood convenience shop open from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., which covers most reasonable emergencies and a few unreasonable ones. Snacks, energy drinks, local craft beer, and classic smoke shop staples fill the shelves. Two locations sit less than half a mile apart, a level of redundancy downtown Phoenix apparently needed.

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

Thirty-five dollars gets you a thirty-minute deep-tissue massage at this no-appointment-needed foot spa and massage shop tucked into a Glendale strip mall. Chairs up front handle the foot work; beds in the back are for serious back sessions. The therapists are thorough enough that regulars have a standing order to ask for the "magic potion," a salve that targets whatever's been bothering you. Open every day from morning to evening, it runs on walk-ins.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Cheap Massages · Best of Phoenix

Permanent jewelry, the concept where a jeweler welds a chain around your wrist so there's no clasp to lose or forget, is the move here. Mod + Co. is a Scottsdale studio specializing in 14k and 24k gold-fill pieces fused on-site, and the shop also carries rings, necklaces, and earrings for anyone who isn't ready to commit. Group bookings and bachelorette parties are welcome, which tells you something about the clientele and the general mood of the afternoon.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Permanent Jewelry · Best of Phoenix

The draw here is Fat Man's Pass, a natural rock tunnel you squeeze through on the way to Hidden Valley, a quiet basin that somehow feels untouched even though South Mountain is one of the busiest parks in the country. The Mormon Trailhead is your starting point for a hike that reads as moderate rather than punishing, which means you can bring along anyone who owns boots but not trekking poles. Wildlife in the wash, big rock formations, no wizardry required.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best ‘Hidden’ Trail · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Stadium Venue · Best of Phoenix

A 6,000-square-foot gym just north of Sky Harbor loaded with pro-grade equipment you won't find at most places in the Valley. The owner is a former pro bodybuilder who now works mostly with busy professionals, building routines around real schedules rather than competition prep, though the place handles that too. The mindset here runs serious, and the clientele tends to match it.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Bodybuilding Gym · Best of Phoenix

A specialty food shop built into a single shipping container inside The Churchill, Neighbor Market stocks natural wine, artisan olive oil, craft chocolate, cocktail syrups, and small-batch seasonings with a curator's eye for the obscure. The selection somehow never feels like it fits the square footage, which is part of the charm. Go when you need a gift for someone who already owns every kitchen gadget and would rather have something they'd never find themselves.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Specialty Food Shop · Best of Phoenix

Two rooms dedicated entirely to pet food make this Central Phoenix pet supply shop feel less like a store and more like a specialty grocer for your dog. The staff field questions about health issues, dietary quirks, and whatever else you've been quietly Googling at 2 a.m., and they never make you feel like a first-time pet owner. Toys, shampoos, and vitamins round out the shelves.

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

A 950-foot lazy river winds past stages, bars, and cabanas, which is either a water park or a very wet music festival, depending on your afternoon. Oasis Water Park covers seven acres with an eight-story waterslide, a wave pool, and a hot tub that holds 25 people at once. All pools are heated, so this runs year-round. Day passes are available to non-resort guests, and in Phoenix, that's a genuine public service.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Water Park · Best of Phoenix

Sea turtles the size of coffee tables, otters doing their otter thing, rays gliding overhead in a walk-through tunnel. OdySea is a full-scale aquarium in Scottsdale, with touch tanks, penguin encounters, and a Starbucks that quietly serves cocktails, which is either inspired or deeply on-brand for the desert. Tickets run around $50, though evening hours drop the price and some nights go adults-only for anyone who finds the school-group energy a bit much.

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

The glass cases at this Gainey Village jewelry boutique hold Cartier and Rolex alongside less-obvious names like Panerai and Blancpain, plus pre-owned Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet for anyone who prefers their splurge slightly seasoned. The in-house design team also produces original pieces, from bridal sets to statement jewelry. A service department handles repairs or ships the watch off to someone who can. An old-school institution in Scottsdale that has been dressing wrists for a very long time.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Buy a Really Expensive Watch · Best of Phoenix

The entrance looks like a Blockbuster that somehow survived, right down to the patterned carpet and VHS shelves. This Tempe escape room complex uses a fake video rental store called Quest Video as its lobby, where a clerk greets you, hands you a brief intro challenge, and sends you into one of three themed rooms: an Indiana Jones-style treasure hunt, a prison break, or a zombie apocalypse. Six thousand square feet of nostalgia-flavored puzzles, no late fees.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Make It a Blockbuster Night · Best of Phoenix

Walking tours built around Phoenix's haunted history, from festive phantoms to an after-dark crawl through the city's stranger corners. You don't need to believe in anything supernatural to enjoy them; the tours work just as well as oddball local history with better lighting decisions. A good way to see parts of the city that the cactus-and-sunshine brochure quietly skips over.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Guided Tour of Phoenix · Best of Phoenix

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.

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

A strip-mall shop in Scottsdale where the glass cases hold digital recorders, door alarms, throwing stars, and bulletproof backpack inserts, all arranged with the cheerful practicality of a hardware store. It's the kind of place that makes you feel both safer and slightly paranoid in the same visit. They also handle fingerprint clearance cards, which is either very convenient or a little on-the-nose depending on why you're there.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Do a Little Recon · Best of Phoenix

A streetcar museum tucked on Grand Ave that most Phoenicians walk past without a second glance. Inside, a collection of restored cars, old uniforms, and memorabilia traces the mule-drawn and electric lines that literally plotted the city's street grid. It's a small place, but spending an hour here reframes every wide boulevard you've ever complained about. The Phoenix New Times named it the museum you probably haven't visited, which is both accurate and a little embarrassing.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Museum You Probably Haven’t Visited · Best of Phoenix

A Korean skincare shop tucked into a Mesa strip mall, Populus Beauty stocks face masks, eye creams, and serums, most of them labeled entirely in Korean, which is where the staff earns their keep. The selection runs deeper than what the usual online algorithm surfaces, and the team can point you toward what you need. The return policy is strict, so asking before buying is the move.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Buy Korean Skincare · Best of Phoenix

A blowout bar that will take your hair wet, dry, or fresh from the shampoo bowl, which removes at least one reason to cancel. Primp and Blow runs through blowouts, braids, up-dos, and extensions across a string of Valley locations, with stylists who move fast enough to have you looking camera-ready in under 40 minutes. Makeup appointments are available too, if you'd like to commit fully to the bit.

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

A wicker basket a few hundred feet over the Sonoran Desert has a way of reordering your priorities. Rainbow Ryders runs hot air balloon flights over Phoenix, and the combination of cityscape and open desert below does something to your sense of scale that ground level simply cannot. They carry a serious safety record, which matters more than usual when the floor is a woven basket. Go at dawn; the math on summer afternoon heat in a balloon is not in your favor.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Way to See Phoenix From the Air · Best of Phoenix

Geodes the size of ottomans, fossil slabs, and crystals that look like they were staged by a very ambitious set designer share the floor here with pieces scaled for a backyard or a corporate lobby. Rare Earth Gallery sits in Cave Creek and reads more like a natural history museum than a shop, which is either a sales strategy or a genuine obsession, possibly both. Either way, it's a strange and surprisingly absorbing afternoon.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to See a Transformer · Best of Phoenix

A living-history Western town where you can catch a stunt show, ride a train, eat a steak, and watch a parade, all set in a lovingly hokey version of 1889 Arizona. It's unapologetically touristy, which is almost the point. Bring out-of-town visitors who need context for all the cowboy mythology, or return after years away and find it exactly as you left it. The duster is optional but spiritually required.

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

A stretch of the Salt River that spent decades as an open-air dumping ground for tires and appliances is now a riparian corridor drawing more than 200 bird species through central Phoenix. Six flat, easy trailheads make it approachable for casual walkers who happen to spot a kestrel, and serious birders show up with spotting scopes and the quiet intensity of people on a mission. Migration season in spring and fall brings the biggest variety.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Urban Birding · Best of Phoenix

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Outdoor Gun Range · Best of Phoenix

Signed albums and framed lyrics line the walls of this Scottsdale gallery, which sits somewhere between a serious auction house and a very good argument for obsession. Original paintings by Paul McCartney and Ronnie Wood hang alongside a Stratocaster signed by all three members of Nirvana during an SNL taping. Gold records and signed drum heads fill the gaps. Most people leave empty-handed and perfectly happy about it.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Music Memorabilia · Best of Phoenix

A men's clothing shop in downtown Scottsdale where the vibe is rustic and unhurried and the music is actually good. Rooster Bus stocks brands like Faherty, Howler, and Goorin Bros., the kind of labels that read as put-together without announcing it. The edit skews versatile, covering a backyard cookout as easily as a night out. For anyone who finds clothes shopping a quiet ordeal, this place has a way of making it something closer to an afternoon off.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Men’s Clothing · Best of Phoenix

A flower shop and coffee shop sharing a roof, which is either a stroke of genius or proof that someone ran out of square footage and improvised beautifully. Rowan Tree handles custom arrangements, wedding bouquets, and same-day delivery across the Valley (order before noon), while the adjoining Jasmine Jo Coffee Shop ensures you never have to choose between flowers and a latte. You can browse fresh blooms in person or order from home.

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

A nonprofit bike collective where you don't just drop off the bike and wait. Rusty Spoke, run by volunteer mechanics on Grand Avenue, puts you to work alongside them, teaching you to diagnose, adjust, and fix your own ride with parts sold at cost. It rewards curiosity over helplessness, which makes it either charming or humbling depending on how you handle a hex key. The Grand Avenue bike lanes make the whole trip feel intentional.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Fix Your Bike · Best of Phoenix

Wild horses actually wander the Salt River banks here, which tends to catch first-timers mid-float. This is classic Phoenix summer activity: rent an inner tube, pick either a two-hour run or a longer five-to-six-hour drift, and let moving water do the work while the desert bakes around you. Otters show up too, unbothered. The shorter route draws a crowd; the longer one is quieter. Sunscreen is non-negotiable, and the rapids prefer a rigid body over a relaxed one.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Way to See the Salt River · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Resort Massage · Best of Phoenix

A public tennis facility where the courts were recently resurfaced and reservations happen with a single phone call. Drop-in doubles, leagues, lessons, and ball machine time are all on the menu, and the lights stay on until 10:30 p.m. Court fees are a few dollars a session, which makes the regulars here less precious about their backhands than at most places. Phoenix New Times named it the best tennis courts in Phoenix in 2025.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Tennis Courts · Best of Phoenix

Motorcycle jackets share rails with lacy tops and Y2K graphic tees at this Tempe thrift shop, where the owners' fashion backgrounds show in every rack. Prices run with cut-rate thrift stores, but the edit is far tighter, and upcycled denim gets the kind of rework you'd actually want. Inventory turns over daily, so there's always a reason to stop back in.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Secondhand Clothing for Men and Women · Best of Phoenix

A rage room where you suit up in white protective gear, pick your targets (a computer, colorful bottles, assorted trinkets), and smash things to a playlist of your choosing. The vibe is deliberately inclusive, with a Pride flag at the front desk and signage whose language suggests the staff's commitment to welcoming everyone runs pretty hot. Adult nights add drinks to the destruction, and a neon paint room exists for those who'd rather make a mess than settle a score.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Rage Room · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Reconnect with Nature · Best of Phoenix

Hot pink walls and poster collages that look borrowed from a college dorm set the tone at this maximalist charm shop and trinket store in Scottsdale. The charm bar is the main event, with gold-plated options running from tiny martini glasses to handmade tomato seed charms, because a butter stick on your wrist is a personality statement. Clothing and a house swimwear line round things out. Groups can book time to browse together, which is the intended vibe.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Charm Store · Best of Phoenix

The DJs here spin actual vinyl, which means you hear the crackle before the beat drops. Spin Room is a music-driven cocktail lounge tucked into the CityScape complex downtown, built around a proper turntable setup and a crowd that came to dance. Sets run heavy on R&B, hip-hop, funk, and soul with a nostalgic lean. The full bar keeps things accessible, with cheap beers alongside named cocktails that match the throwback energy.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Vinyl Bar · Best of Phoenix

Floor-to-ceiling shelves packed with over 50,000 DVDs, Blu-rays, and games make this a video rental shop that has, against all odds, continued to exist. Superstar Video carries the latest releases alongside out-of-print rarities you won't find on any streaming service, and if they don't have it, the owner will track it down. New releases rent for a couple of dollars, which says everything about why people keep coming back.

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

A dedicated saltwater taffy department is either a sign of a candy superstore done right or a sign your dentist is about to buy a boat. Sweeties is a sprawling bulk-candy shop where nearly everything sells individually or by the pound, the shelves run floor to ceiling, and the childhood nostalgia is stacked as deep as the gumdrops. The staff is genuinely warm, which softens the blow of the inevitable sugar spiral on the drive home.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Candy Store · Best of Phoenix

Parking near a college football stadium ranks among life's reliable miseries, and Tempe's solution is a boat. On ASU game days, a water taxi runs across Tempe Town Lake, dropping fans at the stadium after a $5 park-and-walk at the Watermark garage and a $10 ride over. Hundred Mile Brewing is a partner, which explains the general good cheer on deck. Maroon and gold optional, but everyone seems to wear it anyway.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Way to Get to ASU Football Games · Best of Phoenix

Doug Robson built his name on Mexican food at Gallo Blanco and Otro Cafe, then opened Tesota and threw the rulebook out entirely. The menu roams from poke to pasta to Asian noodles to chicken wings without apology, and the sunny Camelback Road room, all natural light and colorful paintings, makes the whole thing feel coherent somehow. A comfortable, come-as-you-are restaurant where the logic is less "theme" and more "make it well."

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Restaurant With a Little Bit of Everything · Best of Phoenix

The dim lighting is a design choice, not an accident, and the 24-hour hours mean the staff has seen everything without flinching. This adult shop covers the full range: lingerie, toys, accessories, and a 200-channel digital arcade with private viewing booths. The team is notably relaxed and helpful, which goes a long way in a category where shopping can feel awkward. Phoenix New Times named it Best Adult Shop in 2025.

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

A century-old shopping center two miles from the Arizona State Capitol, the Gold Spot's golden brick courtyard has become an unofficial annex for state legislators, lobbyists, and the occasional curious constituent. Pita Jungle, a coffee shop, a salon, and a sandwich counter share the space with enough elected officials that eavesdropping feels almost civic. Consider it democracy, but with better focaccia.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Spot to Run into a Lawmaker · Best of Phoenix

Five vintage signs from vanished Mesa businesses glow outside The Post, an open-air neon garden that doubles as a love letter to the city's midcentury Main Street. Watson's Flowers, a porcelain Dairy Queen cone, and a Bill Johnson's bull head share the garden with a 15-foot Diving Lady, a replica of the last animated neon sign in Arizona, restored by the local artist who fixed the original after a storm took it down.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Preservation of Local History · Best of Phoenix

A women's resale boutique tucked into a strip mall in Ahwatukee Foothills, where the racks are hand-curated and the smell is notably not thrift store. Think Anthropologie dresses beside Lululemon sets beside a Coach bag or a Louis Vuitton one, all priced for people who do math at the register. The team runs sip-and-shop events with wine and markdowns, which is a reasonable way to make decisions you'll stand behind later.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Secondhand Clothing for Women Only · Best of Phoenix

The Ra Ra Room is a supper club tucked inside PHX Arena where entry runs $15,000 a year in membership fees, which means most people get in by befriending someone richer than themselves. Major Food Group runs the room, and the menu leans heavily on steaks and Italian. The real closer is the candy alcove at the end of the night, a small room stocked with lollipops, peanut brittle, and jelly beans that guests take home freely.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Restaurant You Can’t Get Into · Best of Phoenix

Midcentury decor and nods to Mesa's past set the look, but the 400-capacity concert hall books metal, punk, hip-hop, and indie acts on a proper stage. Beyond shows, the room leans hard into being a genuine community space, with record swaps, DJ workshops, open-format dance nights, and yoga sessions on the calendar. It's the newest piece of a local empire that already runs a beloved theater, a basement venue, and a record store nearby.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best New Music Venue · Best of Phoenix

A Birkenstock-forward shoe shop that has quietly become a fixture in downtown Tempe, drawing students, professors, and people who finally admit their feet deserve better. The selection runs from sandals and clogs to dressy leather styles, with brands like Dansko and Pikolinos filling out the racks alongside leather goods and accessories. The staff actually knows the inventory, which helps when you're deciding whether orthotics are a personality trait or just good sense.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Find Cute, Comfortable Shoes · Best of Phoenix

Pinball leagues run here most weeks, which tells you something about how seriously Tilt Studio takes its arcade. Tucked inside Arizona Mills mall, it's a full family entertainment center with laser tag, a snack bar, and a long row of Street Basketball machines that actually work, a small mercy in a genre plagued by stuck balls and swallowed credits. The hoops even feature a moving basket for anyone who finds a stationary target too easy.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Arcade Basketball · Best of Phoenix

The wedding-cake silhouette rising from a hill ringed with cactus is visible from the freeway, which is how most people know Tovrea Castle before they know anything about it. Built by an Italian entrepreneur dreaming of a resort, inherited by an Arizona cattle baron, and left to crumble before Phoenix restored it, the place has a strange, layered history. Tours happen twice a year by lottery, which somehow makes it more compelling.

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

A butcher shop that actually explains itself, which turns out to be the hard part. Underbelly carries grass-fed, locally sourced cuts in a clean, curated case that rewards the curious and doesn't punish the clueless, because whoever's behind the counter will walk you through the difference between a skirt steak and a bavette without making you feel bad about it. The rotating sandwich menu is a quiet bonus from a team that clearly has more to say.

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

A strip-mall card shop in Scottsdale where the staff can tell you whether that rookie pull is worth grading and will handle the PSA submission paperwork so you don't have to. The hobby has gotten expensive and a little arcane since the '90s, and Valleywide seems to exist specifically to meet that confusion with a straight answer. Weekend afternoons draw collectors of every age, which is either heartwarming or proof that the hobby never really left.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Sports Card Shop · Best of Phoenix

A women's clothing boutique tucked into The Frederick, a small uptown retail complex, Vida Moulin stocks California boho pieces, think cotton cashmere tees and gingham maxi dresses, that manage to be relaxed without looking like they came off a fast-fashion conveyor belt. The prices don't require a moment of quiet reflection at the register either. Phoenix New Times named it Best Women's Clothing in 2025, which feels about right for a shop that regulars visit just to see what's new.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Women’s Clothing · Best of Phoenix

A volunteer-run distro shop stocking thousands of zines on every conceivable obsession, Wasted Ink is the kind of place where you go for one thing and leave an hour later having agreed to collaborate on someone else's publication. The shelves double as a small archive of zine history, and the staff can help you figure out how to start your own. Phoenix New Times named it the best place to buy a zine in 2025, which feels correct.

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

Sunrise over the Sonoran Desert looks different from a Robinson R66 at altitude, which is the whole argument for booking with this family-run helicopter tour company out of Scottsdale. Routes cover metro Phoenix, Sedona, and the Superstition Mountains, with mountaintop picnic flights for anyone who finds restaurants too horizontal. Pilots are seasoned and apparently good at talking first-timers off the ledge before liftoff does it for them.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Helicopter Rides · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Golf Course · Best of Phoenix

A plastic-poo-flinging slingshot sits near a bar of beer-scented soap, which sits near cockroach-shaped toy cars, which is how you know you're in the right place. This Phoenix novelty and gag gift shop is a cheerfully unhinged bazaar of knickknacks nobody ordered but everyone quietly wants, from Magnetic Jesus Dress-Up kits to dragon merch to ass-shaped stress balls. The perfect stop when a normal card simply will not do.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Gag Gifts · Best of Phoenix

Birding has quietly shed its retirement-hobby reputation, and Wild Birds Unlimited is where the newly converted come to figure out what to do next. The staff will match you to the right seed and feeder for what's actually flying around Scottsdale, talk you through attracting peach-faced lovebirds to your yard, and flag any local avian health alerts worth knowing. A specialty shop that takes the hobby seriously without making you feel like a tourist in your own backyard.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Store for Birders · Best of Phoenix

Somewhere between the white rhinos and the maned wolves, you may find yourself face to face with a capybara, which is a reasonable argument for coming. Wildlife World is a private zoo on the western edge of Phoenix, one of only two nationally accredited privately owned zoos in the country, with around 1,300 animals spread across naturalistic enclosures, no concrete-and-bars austerity here. The animals range from penguins to African wild dogs, and the place leans educational without being preachy about it.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Meet a Capybara · Best of Phoenix

Film cameras are having their moment, and Wilson Camera has been ready since the Eisenhower administration. This old-school camera shop in Scottsdale sells and services vintage gear and develops nearly every film format you can feed it. The new owner leaned hard into analog when everyone else went fully digital, so you can actually drop off your rolls here rather than mailing them to some lab in Brooklyn like everyone else apparently does.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Old-School Camera Shop · Best of Phoenix

Canyon Lake sits in the Superstition Wilderness, and Yak N Sup is how most people actually get on it, renting out kayaks and paddleboards by the day or longer from their Apache Junction outpost. Beyond self-guided rentals, the team runs guided tours that range from daytime paddles to full-moon and paranormal-themed excursions, which is a sentence you don't write every day. They also help organize lake cleanups, so the water stays worth paddling.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Rent a Paddleboard · Best of Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
2. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Brewery · Best of the Valley

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

A wine bar where you skip the sommelier entirely and pour your own glass from a sleek, self-serve kiosk loaded with 24 options, several of them from Arizona. You fund a chip card at the bar, pick your wine, choose one, three, or five ounces, and push the button. Former schoolteachers run the place, which might explain why the whole system is genuinely easy to figure out after one drink, or even before.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Wine on Tap · Best of Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

The draw at this Thai bar and mookata spot is the tabletop grill sunk into a pot of bubbling broth, where you cook your own meal at the table. It lives on the patio behind Lom Wong, small and casual, with craft cocktails doing serious work alongside the smoke. The New York Times put it on their Restaurant List, which is a lot of attention for a patio bar where dinner is technically a DIY project.

1. The New York Times 2024 · The Restaurant List
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Cook-It-Yourself Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

The house margarita comes classic or customized with a rotating cast of infusions, watermelon and mezcal being a popular pairing. This Jalisco Mexican restaurant on Main Street splits its attention evenly between the kitchen and the bar, with a cocktail program run by a veteran Valley bartender. The food leans into both traditional plates and the occasional fusion detour, and the whole thing has a chic, polished room that feels a little more considered than your average neighborhood spot.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Margaritas · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix Magazine Street Corn Queso · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Most Creative Use of Tallow · Best of the Valley
2. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Pork Jowl · Best of the Valley
3. Phoenix Magazine Pork Belly · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Baking Supplies · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Baking Supplies · Best of Phoenix

A small Tempe shop packed floor to ceiling with single issues, trade paperbacks, manga, graphic novels, and enough indie and small-press titles to make a distributor nervous. Staff carry the kind of encyclopedic knowledge that can match a superfan or gently redirect someone who just wandered in. The wall of collectibles, including some genuinely odd merch, rewards browsing. Recent shelf finds included "Sir Charles Barkley and the Referee Murders," so the range is real.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Comic Book Shop · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Comic Book Store · Best of Phoenix

The shelves at this beloved Phoenix used bookstore run from paperback thrillers to vintage board games to vinyl, and somewhere in between you'll find a ukulele someone gave up on. Bookmans is a used-everything exchange, the kind of place where you drop off a box of stuff you're done with and walk out with an armful of things you absolutely didn't need. Plan for an afternoon; nobody browses Bookmans quickly.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Used Bookstore · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Used Everything · Best of Phoenix

An antique mall so large that people routinely miscalculate how long they'll be inside. Individual booths mean each seller curates their own little world, so a stretch of vintage film cameras can give way to a wall of Arizona kitsch or a case of rare Pokémon cards without any warning. Cowboy boots, obscure collectibles, mid-century furniture, and things you didn't know you needed are all here, somewhere. Clear the afternoon.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Antique Mall · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Antiques Mall · Best of Phoenix

You sign a waiver, pull on safety gear, and then someone hands you a crate of breakable things and walks away. Breakthrough is a smash room, which means the activity is exactly what it sounds like: hurling bottles and retired appliances at walls until your arms give out. A splatter room handles the paint-throwing crowd. It's a surprisingly efficient way to reset, and considerably cheaper than the destruction of property charge waiting just outside.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Rage Room · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Rage Room · Best of Phoenix

Bruce Springsteen swung by on his last Phoenix tour, which tells you roughly what kind of store Cave & Post Trading Co. is. It's a men's clothing shop in central Phoenix that leans into classic American workwear with a Western edge, carrying selvedge denim, pearl-snap shirts, and the sort of sunglasses that feel like they belong in a different decade. The owners are music people, so touring bands stop in regularly, though most regulars are just well-dressed guys who know what they like.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Men’s Clothing · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Men’s Clothing · Best of Phoenix

The name came from an old boot shop whose sign was too expensive to replace, which tells you everything about how Cowtown operates. It's a skate shop with a lived-in feel, stocking boards, trucks, and apparel for everyone from serious park rats to people whose knees have filed a formal complaint. Staff who actually skate work the counter, and the shop runs a nonprofit keeping younger riders in the scene.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Skate Shop · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Skate Shop · Best of Phoenix

A cactus-shaped shot glass and a roadrunner onesie in the same basket is a good sign that a shop resists easy categorization. Frances is a gift and lifestyle boutique tucked into a Camelback Road shopping center, stocking menswear, kids' clothes, home goods, jewelry, and Arizona-made finds alongside greeting cards and complimentary gift wrap, so you can walk in scrambling and walk out sorted.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place to Shop for Gifts · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Boutique · Best of Phoenix

Each location of this local adult shop chain gets its own decor scheme, so the Arcadia spot leans street art while the West Valley one goes full Alice in Wonderland. Groove stocks lingerie, dancewear, toys, and bachelorette supplies, and the staff are the kind of helpful that doesn't make anyone squirm. There's a rewards program for regulars, which the store describes, with admirable restraint, as benefiting frequent customers.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Adult Shop · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Adult Shop · Best of Phoenix

A boutique bodega stocked with natural wines, Arizona-made snacks, and objects no reasonable person needs but everyone leaves carrying. The purple psychedelic oven mitt, the artichoke candle, the butterfly dice: the inventory reads like a fever dream curated by someone with genuinely good taste. Cold drinks, eclectic merch, Baggu bags, and a hot sauce section round it out. It also hosts yoga sometimes, which tracks completely.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Bodega · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Buy Something You Don’t Actually Need · Best of Phoenix

More than 400 Indigenous-owned small businesses share a permanent indoor market in Old Town Scottsdale, selling handmade goods that range from beaded jewelry and hand-carved pottery to soaps and sand art. The nonprofit vending program requires all participants to be of Native American descent, so purchases go straight to the makers. A seasonal outdoor market runs on weekends in cooler months for anyone who prefers browsing under the sky.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Indigenous-Made Goods · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Indigenous-Made Goods · Best of Phoenix

A festival-wear shop on Mill Avenue stocked with shiny bodysuits, fuzzy sets, wild sunglasses, flow toys, and everything else you need to look properly unhinged under a light rig. Most of the merchandise comes from Arizona makers, so the sequins carry some local pride. The store has a posted zero-tolerance policy for bigotry, which shouldn't be a selling point but somehow still is. Go when your next event is two weeks out and you've convinced yourself you have something to wear.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Rave Gear · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Rave Gear · Best of Phoenix

A 360-degree ocean tunnel sits at the center of this mall aquarium, and yes, it's inside Arizona Mills, which somehow makes the sharks feel more surreal. Over 5,000 species move through 161,000 gallons, including reef sharks, stingrays, jellyfish, and a tank where kids can locate both Nemo and Dory without a map. The tide pool lets you touch baby sharks, and a paid add-on gets you up close with rescued sea turtles. Cheaper than its Scottsdale rival by a wide margin.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Aquarium · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Aquarium · Best of Phoenix

Part antique mall, part haunted house, Terror Trader is a horror-themed marketplace where local vendors fill coffin-shaped cases with slasher memorabilia, VHS tapes, and ceramic human organs. A museum room of real skulls anchors the space, and life-size slasher villains lurk around corners for good measure. Phoenix New Times named it the best place for horror buffs two years running. The crowd, predictably, does not shop in beige.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place for Horror Buffs · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Store for Horror Buffs · Best of Phoenix

A vast stage and a sound system loud enough to rattle the fillings out of your skull make The 44 in Glendale the go-to metal venue in the Valley, which feels cosmically correct given that Alice Cooper grew up nearby. National touring acts share the bill with tribute bands and local talent, and the bar food is cheap enough that you can eat and still afford a band tee. Bring earplugs unless you enjoy tinnitus as a souvenir.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place to See a Metal Show · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to See a Metal Show · Best of Phoenix

Chandeliers and exposed rafters inside a 1930s building that now hosts 1,800 people for live music on a good night. The Van Buren is a midsize concert venue in downtown Phoenix where general admission keeps things relatively democratic and the sightlines are genuinely hard to complain about. Live Nation books the calendar, which means a steady rotation of artists big enough to matter but not yet filling arenas.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Midsize Music Venue · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Midsize Music Venue · Best of Phoenix

Tens of thousands of used books spread across the fairgrounds floor once a year, priced so low it feels like a clerical error. The VNSA Used Book Sale is Phoenix's annual bibliophile free-for-all, run by volunteers and drawing serious collectors alongside people who just need something for the pool. Bring a tote, bring cash, and arrive with a loose plan, because the sheer square footage has a way of dissolving any sense of time or restraint.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Book Sale · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Book Sale · Best of Phoenix

A vintage shop tucked into a North Phoenix strip mall, Wang's moves the kind of T-shirts that make strangers stop you on the street: old Suns gear, beat-up band tees, the Marilyn Manson shirt your mom vetoed. Stock turns over constantly, so regulars follow their Instagram like a dispatch line. Prices run fair to real money depending on the piece, though the Saturday sale bins reliably yield something good for ten dollars.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Vintage T-Shirts · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Vintage T-Shirts · Best of Phoenix