Things to Do in Scottsdale, by Distance from the Front Door

On foot (under 25 minutes)

Old Town Scottsdale Farmers Market, Saturdays from October through May at the Civic Center, is 14 minutes away and the best first morning of a trip: Arizona produce, tamales, bread, coffee and live music. Scottsdale ArtWalk opens the Main Street and Marshall Way galleries every Thursday from 7 to 9 PM, a 24-minute walk or a three-minute ride. Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West (3830 N Marshall Way) is a serious museum of the American West in a handsome building, and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art on the Civic Center campus, 20 minutes on foot, is small, free-spirited and often surprising. The Arizona Canal path at the Waterfront (20 minutes) is the flat run, walk or bike ride, and Scottsdale Stadium (22 minutes on foot, 3 by car) hosts the San Francisco Giants each spring and the Arizona Fall League each autumn.

Under 15 minutes by car

Camelback Mountain (Echo Canyon trailhead, 12 minutes) is the Valley’s signature hike: 1.2 miles and about 1,300 feet of climbing to the summit, steep, exposed and best started at sunrise. Phoenix closes the trail from 8 AM to 5 PM on excessive-heat days, so in summer it is a dawn-only outing. Papago Park (11 to 13 minutes) is the gentle alternative, with the Hole-in-the-Rock formation and wide trails, and it shares a neighborhood with the Desert Botanical Garden (11 minutes), which is worth a full morning in any season and a full evening during its winter luminaria nights, and the Phoenix Zoo (12 minutes).

East along Indian Bend Road, the Talking Stick entertainment district (11 to 12 minutes) stacks OdySea Aquarium, Butterfly Wonderland, Topgolf, Octane Raceway (indoor and outdoor go-karts) and the Talking Stick Resort casino and its concert venues into a few blocks; it is the rainy-day and teenager itinerary. Salt River Fields (14 minutes) hosts the Diamondbacks and Rockies in spring, the Arizona Fall League in autumn and Taco Fest in October. Tempe Town Lake (12 minutes) rents kayaks and pedal boats and is the place to watch the Mill Avenue crowd.

Fifteen to thirty minutes

Taliesin West (22 minutes), Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home and school, is the one attraction every visitor should book; tours run daily from November through April with a self-guided audio option, and reservations sell out in peak weeks. The McDowell Sonoran Preserve’s Gateway trailhead (about 25 minutes) opens onto more than 30,000 acres of protected desert with well-marked loops from easy to strenuous, and Pinnacle Peak Park (30 minutes) is the classic sunset hike with a summit view of the whole Valley. In Phoenix, the Musical Instrument Museum (about 25 minutes) is a genuine world-class museum that people underestimate until they visit, and the Heard Museum and Phoenix Art Museum downtown (about 25 minutes) cover Native American art and the broader collection. See Phoenix attractions.

Seasonal and signature

The winter calendar is the reason people come: Barrett-Jackson in January, the WM Phoenix Open and the Arabian Horse Show in February, spring training from late February through March, Western Week and the Parada del Sol parade in Old Town, and Canal Convergence and Scottsdazzle in November and December. In summer, Salt River tubing (about 35 minutes east, May through September) is the Valley’s float trip, and the resort dayclubs and Maya in Old Town take over the afternoons.

Day trips

Sedona is about two hours north for red-rock hiking and galleries; leave by 7 AM in peak season. The Grand Canyon South Rim is about three and a half hours each way, feasible as a long day but better as an overnight. Tucson and Saguaro National Park are under two hours south. The Apache Trail and Tortilla Flat are a scenic hour and a half east.

Coming up

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