Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the United States (1.6 million in the city, 5 million in the metropolitan area) and the most extreme of America's Sun Belt cities — built in the Sonoran Desert at 331 m elevation, it has the hottest summers of any major US city (June–September average daytime high 40°C+, with 110°F / 43°C days commonplace and the record at 122°F / 50°C) and receives just 21 cm of rainfall per year, making it one of the driest large cities in the world. The city was built on the water engineering of the Salt River Project (begun 1905, one of the first and largest federal water reclamation projects in US history) that tamed the Salt River and enabled irrigation of the Valley of the Sun — it is named Phoenix because it was built on the canals and agricultural infrastructure of the ancient Hohokam people (300 BCE–1450 CE) who abandoned the area after a prolonged drought, and the white settlers literally resurrected the canal system. Today Phoenix is the economic and political capital of Arizona, with a tech and financial sector that grew significantly during the 2010s; Scottsdale (adjacent city east) has the finest concentration of resorts, spas and golf courses in the United States; Tempe has Arizona State University (80,000 students, the largest university in America by enrollment); and Chandler and Mesa are Silicon Valley-level semiconductor manufacturing hubs (TSMC's $65 billion Arizona fab complex is in Phoenix). The Sonoran Desert surrounding Phoenix contains the saguaro cactus (the tall, armed, iconic desert cactus that grows only in the Sonoran — up to 12 m tall and 150 years old), roadrunners, Gila woodpeckers, coyotes and javelinas; the Camelback Mountain (825 m, within the city limits) and South Mountain Park (the largest municipal park in the US, 16,000 ha) make Phoenix's outdoor recreation exceptional for a desert city.
Camelback Mountain (825 m, the most iconic urban peak in the USA — the profile resembles a kneeling camel from the east) via the Echo Canyon Trail (2.4 km each way, 370 m elevation gain, Class 3 scrambling on the upper section) is the single most rewarding urban hike in the American Southwest; the summit view of Phoenix spreading across the desert for 50 km in every direction is extraordinary.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Desert Botanical Garden (1939, 53 ha in Papago Park) has 50,000 plants representing 4,000 desert plant species — the saguaro forest is the highlight (saguaros that are 150 years old and 12 m tall, the arms growing only after the plant is 70 years old); the garden is most spectacular in spring (March–May, wildflower bloom) but the saguaro forest is remarkable year-round.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Heard Museum (1929) has the finest collection of Native American art in the United States — the Hopi kachina doll collection (437 kachinas donated by Barry Goldwater), Navajo weaving, Pueblo pottery, and the 'Remembering Our Indian School Days' exhibit on the US government's forced boarding school system for Native American children (1870s–1970s); internationally recognized for cultural sensitivity and depth.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideOld Town Scottsdale's western-themed 5th Avenue shops, the concentrated art gallery district (50+ galleries making Scottsdale one of the top 10 US cities for visual art sales), and the restored Scottsdale Historical Museum with its original 1909 "little red schoolhouse" — the early evening gallery openings (first Friday of each month draws 10,000 visitors) are the best in the American Southwest.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideScottsdale's restaurant row on Scottsdale Road and the 5th/6th Street area has excellent Sonoran Mexican food — the Sonoran hot dog (bacon-wrapped, topped with pinto beans, tomatoes, mayo, mustard and jalapeño sauce, one of the great American regional foods), green corn tamales, carne asada and the best margaritas in the Southwest.
Sedona (2 hrs north of Phoenix via I-17 and AZ-179) is one of the most extraordinary landscapes in the United States — the red sandstone buttes (Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte) rising 300-400 m from the desert floor with the ponderosa pine forest at the base; the "vortexes" (energy centres that New Age devotees believe have spiritual amplifying qualities) draw 3 million visitors per year; the light at sunrise and golden hour is legendary.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Cathedral Rock Trail (1.7 km each way, 240 m elevation gain, Class 4 scrambling on the final section) leads to the saddle between the twin spires — the most photographed rock formation in Arizona; Oak Creek Canyon (25 km north of Sedona, Slide Rock State Park) has natural waterslides in red rock swimming holes (very crowded in summer).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideTlaquepaque (tla-keh-PAH-keh, named after the Mexican craft village near Guadalajara) is the finest arts and crafts village in the American Southwest — Spanish colonial hacienda architecture, 100+ galleries and shops under sycamore trees; the sculpture garden and the fine dining restaurant Rene at Tlaquepaque are exceptions to the otherwise kitschy shopping district.
Taliesin West (Scottsdale, 30 min from Sedona via Phoenix, or detour on the return) is Frank Lloyd Wright's winter camp and architectural school (1937) — the desert masonry construction using local rocks and sand in concrete with horizontal lines following the desert horizon is Wright's most radical desert architecture; guided tours of the living campus (still the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation headquarters).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSouth Mountain Park (16,000 ha, the largest municipal park in the United States) has 85 km of trails and the Dobbins Lookout (1,083 m) with the finest panoramic view of Phoenix; the Hieroglyphic Trail has 1,000-year-old Hohokam petroglyphs carved in the desert varnish on the boulders — the same Hohokam people whose canals Phoenix was built upon.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideHole in the Rock (Papago Park, free) is a natural sandstone formation with a 30 m tunnel framing the valley below — the Hohokam used it as a solar calendar marking the summer solstice sunrise through the window; Papago Park also has the Desert Botanical Garden and the Phoenix Zoo; the hiking in Papago Park is accessible and the red buttes are photogenic.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Phoenix Art Museum (70,000 works) has the finest Western American art collection in the world — Frederic Remington bronzes, Charles Russell paintings of cowboy life, Edward Curtis Native American photography, Georgia O'Keeffe landscapes and the Thorne Miniature Rooms; the fashion collection (from 18th-century gowns to contemporary couture) is also exceptional.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideRoosevelt Row (the arts district north of downtown, accessible by the Metro light rail) has the densest concentration of murals, galleries and farm-to-table restaurants in Phoenix — the First Friday gallery walk (monthly, 6 pm onwards) is the best street-art event in the Southwest; dinner at The Larder + The Delta or Bitter & Twisted cocktail bar for the definitive Phoenix creative-class evening.