Do
D-backs at Chase Field
The roof closes, the AC roars, and $4 hot dog nights make this the cheapest good time in August.
Downtown PhoenixAug 20 – Sep 27
$$Indoors
Date to confirm
Visitors in Town
What to show someone who's never been — without the tourist tax.
August · Survive It
Late August in Phoenix is an indoor sport. Everything below is cooled, shaded, or scheduled after sundown.
Eat
Pizzeria Bianco
The pizza that put Phoenix on the national map. Still the answer for out-of-towners.
Heritage Square
$$Indoor + out
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
$$Indoor + out
Culture
Scottsdale ArtWalk
The country's longest-running weekly art walk. Marshall Way galleries, free, no crowd panic.
Old Town ScottsdaleThursdays, 7–9pm, year-round
FreeIndoor + out
Escape
Flagstaff for the day
Two hours north, thirty degrees cooler, pines and a downtown built for walking. The August cheat code.
Flagstaff
$Outdoors
Escape
Sedona red rocks
Two hours and a different planet. Go on a weekday or leave Phoenix before 7am.
Sedona
$$Outdoors
Escape
Jerome & Verde Valley wine
A mining town clinging to a mountainside, plus the tasting rooms in Cottonwood on the way home.
Jerome
$$Indoor + out
Escape
Dobbins Lookout drive
You can drive to the best view of the valley. Free, and unbeatable forty minutes before sunset.
South Mountain
FreeOutdoors
Escape
Prescott & Watson Lake
Granite Dells, Whiskey Row, and a courthouse square that runs about 20 degrees below Phoenix.
Prescott
$Outdoors