Do
Arizona State Fair
Deep-fried everything, a Ferris wheel over the fairgrounds, and concerts included with admission.
Downtown PhoenixOct 2 – Nov 1
$$Outdoors
Date to confirm
Visitors in Town
What to show someone who's never been — without the tourist tax.
October · Peak Phoenix
October is the payoff. Trails, festivals, rooftop everything — go outside while it lasts.
Eat
Pizzeria Bianco
The pizza that put Phoenix on the national map. Still the answer for out-of-towners.
Heritage Square
$$Indoor + out
Do
Cardinals home games
Retractable roof, retractable field, and the tailgate lots that open four hours early.
GlendaleSep 13 – Dec 27
$$$Indoors
Date to confirm
Do
Suns season tip-off
Footprint Center, October, the annual optimism. Enjoy it while it's undefeated.
Downtown PhoenixOct 6–31
$$Indoors
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
Eat
Barrio Café
Silvana Salcido Esparza's cochinita pibil and the mural district that grew around it.
16th Street
$$Indoors
Culture
Heard Museum
The definitive collection of American Indian art, and the one museum every visitor should see.
Midtown
$Indoors
Culture
Musical Instrument Museum
Every country on earth, with headphones that switch automatically. Kids lose their minds in the play gallery.
North Phoenix
$$Indoors
Culture
Taliesin West
Wright's desert laboratory, a UNESCO site. Take the earliest tour in September, the 4pm one in October.
North Scottsdale
$$Indoor + out
Culture
Roosevelt Row mural walk
The densest concentration of murals in Arizona, and it changes every few months. Free, always open.
Roosevelt Row
FreeOutdoors
Culture
Scottsdale ArtWalk
The country's longest-running weekly art walk. Marshall Way galleries, free, no crowd panic.
Old Town ScottsdaleThursdays, 7–9pm, year-round
FreeIndoor + out
Escape
Flagstaff for the day
Two hours north, thirty degrees cooler, pines and a downtown built for walking. The August cheat code.
Flagstaff
$Outdoors