Family
Desert Botanical Garden
Do the flashlight tour or the last hour before close. The butterfly exhibit reopens with the season.
Papago Park
$$Outdoors
Kid-friendly, teen-friendly, multigenerational
Family
Plans that survive a toddler, a teenager, and a grandmother in the same car.
October is the payoff. Trails, festivals, rooftop everything — go outside while it lasts.
Family
Children's Museum of Phoenix
Three floors of climb-on everything for the under-10 crowd. Go at open, leave before the meltdown.
Downtown Phoenix
$Indoors
Family
OdySea Aquarium
The rotating SeaTREK carousel is the whole reason. Freezing cold inside, which is the point in August.
Salt River
$$Indoors
Family
Phoenix Zoo
Back in play once mornings drop under 95. Arrive at open, out by 11.
Papago Park
$$Outdoors
Family
Butterfly Wonderland
A humid glass atrium full of butterflies. Weirdly calming for everyone, not just the kids.
Salt River
$$Indoors
Family
Enchanted Island at Encanto Park
A 1948 carousel and a paddle-boat lagoon. Old-fashioned in the best way.
Encanto
$Outdoors
Family
Arizona Science Center
Planetarium, giant screen, and enough hands-on floors to burn a whole 110-degree afternoon.
Heritage Square
$$Indoors
Family
McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park
Free to enter, $3 for the train and the carousel. The default Saturday morning for a reason.
Scottsdale
FreeOutdoors
Family
Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch
Flat trails, 300 bird species, and a fishing lake. Free, shaded, easy with a stroller.
Gilbert
FreeOutdoors
Eat
Pizzeria Bianco
The pizza that put Phoenix on the national map. Still the answer for out-of-towners.
Heritage Square
$$Indoor + out
Do
Arizona State Fair
Deep-fried everything, a Ferris wheel over the fairgrounds, and concerts included with admission.
Downtown PhoenixOct 2 – Nov 1
$$Outdoors
Date to confirm
Culture
Heard Museum
The definitive collection of American Indian art, and the one museum every visitor should see.
Midtown
$Indoors
Eat
Chelsea's Kitchen
The canal-side patio Arcadia treats as a living room. Fish tacos, string lights.
Arcadia
$$Outdoors
Eat
Doughbird
Rotisserie chicken and pizza — the peace treaty for a table that can't agree.
Biltmore
$Indoor + out
Do
Topgolf Riverwalk
Misted bays, bad swings, good queso. Works for a birthday or a Tuesday.
Scottsdale Riverwalk
$$Indoor + out
Do
Corn maze & haunted nights
Pumpkins, a corn maze, and a hayride that gets meaningfully scarier after 8pm.
Gilbert / Queen CreekOct 1–31
$$Outdoors
Date to confirm
Do
Día de los Muertos festivals
Altars, processions, and Aztec dance across downtown Mesa and Phoenix. Free and enormous.
Mesa & PhoenixOct 24 – Nov 2
FreeOutdoors
Date to confirm
Do
Sunset kayak on Tempe Town Lake
Skyline on one side, Papago buttes on the other, and it's ten degrees cooler on the water.
Tempe
$Outdoors
Shop
Uptown Farmers Market
Get there by 8:30 in September or you're shopping in the sun. Best prepared-food row in town.
North CentralSaturday mornings, 8am–noon
$Outdoors
Shop
Gilbert Farmers Market
Under the water tower — produce, pastries, and a kid-to-dog ratio of roughly 1:1.
Downtown GilbertSaturdays, 8am–noon
$Outdoors
Culture
Phoenix Art Museum
Infinity Mirror Room, a serious fashion-design collection, and pay-what-you-wish Wednesday evenings.
Midtown
$Indoors
Culture
Musical Instrument Museum
Every country on earth, with headphones that switch automatically. Kids lose their minds in the play gallery.
North Phoenix
$$Indoors
Culture
Mesa Arts Center season
Four theaters, a contemporary art museum, and the shade structure that makes the plaza usable.
Downtown MesaSep 12 – May 15
$$Indoors
Date to confirm