First time to Arizona -- flight question
 

Hi everyone,

I am planning my first little trip to Arizona. I will be staying at the Camelback Inn JW Marriott Resort in Scottsdale. I have the option to fly into Phoenix or Mesa. Is one airport more convenient or better to fly in than the other? Is Scottsdale similar to Palm Springs in that everything is very spread apart and you must rent a car?

Any info is greatly appreciated!!

Thank you,
Sue

Phoenix Skyharbor Airport is a large airport with all the sevices you would need. Not familiar with Mesa.
If the place you are staying offers airport pickup and shuttle service to "downtown" Scottsdale, then you might not need a car. Also depends if you want to do any exploring of Phoenix or up to Sedona/Grand Canyon.
You can do tourist things with "excursions", etc.
The quick answer is yes you need a car.

You absolutely need a car unless you plan to stay at the Camelback the entire trip and do nothing else (including downtown Scottsdale).

I didn't know Mesa had an airport. Phoenix is a big-city international airport and it's very easy to get to Scottsdale from there (especially since you WILL have a car :-) )

AZA is a small airport, about 25 miles SE of downtown Phoenix, used by <b>one</b> airline, Allegiant Air.

For Camelback, PHX will be significantly closer.

Mesa AZA Airport is about twice the distance to Scottsdale, so Phoenix PHX Airport would be the logical choice. About 15 miles vs 30 miles.

OTOH, if you are flying from one of the cities that Allegiant Air services (mostly smaller secondary airports), you can get a non-stop to Mesa Airport, the only airline that uses AZA. So, if you have to make a connection somewhere in order to fly into PHX then perhaps AZA may be a better choice.

I would also recommend a car in that part of the country. I don't really know about their public transportation but I don't remember it being very extensive (I may be wrong) so taxis are probably the other option, but since the city is spread out it could get expensive very quickly.

Yes, Scottsdale is very spread out. Luckily one of my acquaintances was not able to convince S'dale to annex some land of his that was 60 miles away from city hall!!

The Phoenix airport is quite close (only a few miles) to the Camelback Inn. The Mesa AIrport is a loooong way away.

You will love the Camelback Inn! It is an easy drive from the airport. You definitley will need a car- there is nothing to eat or do in the immediate area around the Camelback.

sf7307, there are about 14,000 airports in the US; about 600 have airline service.