49 Best Sights in Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe, Arizona

Known as "the West's Most Western Town," this area has rustic storefronts and wooden sidewalks alongside some of the best dining and window-shopping in town. It can be exceptionally touristy in some areas, but it's also the closest you'll come to the "Old West" as it was 80 years ago. High-quality jewelry and Mexican imports are sold alongside kitschy souvenirs.

Named for its resemblance to a camel's hump, Phoenix's most popular landmark is also one of its most popular hiking destinations. Its two trails, Echo Canyon Trail and Cholla Trail, are both difficult to climb but lead to stunning panoramic views of the Valley. Even if you don't hike, you can still spot the towering peak from many restaurants and hotels in the Camelback Corridor and Paradise Valley neighborhoods. The mountain is a 15-minute drive from Downtown Phoenix. Dogs are not allowed on the trails. For more information on hiking, see Activities.

Opened in 1939 to conserve and showcase the ecology of the desert, these 150 acres contain more than 4,000 different species of cacti, succulents, trees, and flowers. A stroll along the ½-mile "Plants and People of the Sonoran Desert" trail is a fascinating lesson in environmental adaptations. Kid-centric activity areas encourage tactile play and exploration. Specialized tours are available at an extra cost; check online for times and prices. The Desert Botanical Garden stays open late, to 8 pm year-round, and it's particularly lovely when lighted by the setting sun or by moonlight. You can plan for a cool, late visit after a full day of activities.

Pioneer settlers Dwight and Maie Heard built a Spanish colonial–style building on their property to house their collection of Southwestern art. Today the staggering collection includes such exhibits as a Navajo hogan dwelling and rooms filled with art, pottery, jewelry, kachinas, and textiles. The Heard also actively supports contemporary Native American artists and displays their work. Annual events include the World Championship Hoop Dance Contest in February and the Indian Fair & Market in March. Children enjoy the interactive art-making exhibits. The museum also has an incredible gift shop with authentic, high-quality goods purchased directly from Native American artists.

A fun destination for even casual music fans, the museum offers a rare display of music and instruments going back hundreds of years—including more than 15,000 instruments and artifacts from across the globe. Special galleries highlight video demonstrations as well as audio tracks that showcase the sounds that instruments, both primitive and contemporary, create. There's even an Experience Gallery where kids can make their own music.

This popular park with jaw-dropping views of the Valley is a good spot to picnic, rock climb, bike, or hike in a beautiful desert environment. The moderately difficult trail is 3.5 miles out and back, winding up a mountain strewn with boulders and towering saguaro cacti. Dogs are not allowed on the trail. For more information on hiking, see Activities.

Ten years after visiting Arizona in 1927 to consult on designs for the Biltmore hotel, architect Frank Lloyd Wright chose 600 acres of rugged Sonoran Desert at the foothills of the McDowell Mountains as the site for his permanent winter residence. Today it's a National Historic Landmark. Wright and apprentices constructed a desert camp here using organic architecture to integrate the buildings with their natural surroundings. In addition to the living quarters, drafting studio, and small apartments of the Apprentice Court, Taliesin West has two theaters, a music pavilion, and the Sun Trap—sleeping spaces surrounding an open patio and fireplace. Guided tours range from a 90-minute in-depth tour to an hour-long nightfall tour, with other tours offered seasonally. Wear comfortable shoes for walking.

To reach Taliesin West, drive north on the 101 Freeway to Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard. Follow Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard for a few miles to the entrance at the corner of Cactus Road.

The evolving complex and community of Arcosanti was masterminded by Italian architect Paolo Soleri to be a self-sustaining habitat in which architecture and ecology function in symbiosis. Building began in 1970, but Arcosanti hasn't quite achieved Soleri's original vision. It's still worth a stop to take a tour, have a bite at the café, and purchase one of the (pricey) hand-cast bronze wind bells made on-site.

Kids young and old get a thrill out of the largest collection of dinosaur fossils in the state. You can also pan for gold and see changing exhibits from around the world.

With more than 300 hands-on exhibits, this is the venue for science-related exploration. You can pilot a simulated airplane flight, travel through the human body, navigate your way through the solar system in the Dorrance Planetarium, and watch a movie in a giant, five-story IMAX theater.

What began in 1886 as the Tempe Normal School for Teachers, a four-room redbrick building and 20-acre cow pasture, is now the 750-acre Tempe campus of ASU, the largest university in the Southwest. The university has five campuses across the Valley, with the Tempe campus serving as headquarters. As you walk around campus, you'll wind past public art and innovative architecture—including a music building that bears a strong resemblance to a wedding cake, designed by Taliesin students to echo Frank Lloyd Wright's Gammage Auditorium, and a law library shaped like an open book—and end up at Sun Devil Stadium, which is carved out of a mountain and cradled between the Tempe buttes.

This museum is in the gray-purple stucco Nelson Fine Arts Center, just north of Gammage Auditorium on the Arizona State campus. For a relatively small museum, it has an extensive collection, including 19th- and 20th-century paintings and sculptures by masters such as Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Diego Rivera. Works by faculty and student artists are also on display, and there's a gift shop.

At the foot of Picketpost Mountain in Superior, the Boyce Thompson Arboretum is often called an oasis in the desert: the arid rocky expanse gives way to lush riparian glades home to 3,200 different desert plants and more than 230 bird and 72 terrestrial species. The arboretum offers a living album of the world's desert and semiarid region plants, including exotic species such as Canary Islands date palms and Australian eucalyptus. Trails offer breathtaking scenery in the gardens and the exhibits, especially during the spring wildflower season. A variety of tours are offered from October through April. Benches with built-in misters offer relief from the heat. Bring along a picnic and enjoy the beauty.

The largest butterfly pavilion in the United States gives kids (and their parents) a close-up view of thousands of butterflies in a temperature-controlled rain forest environment. You should also make time to check out the honeybee exhibit and the 3-D theater.

This site, whose original purpose still eludes archaeologists, was unknown to European explorers until Father Kino, a Jesuit missionary, first recorded the site's existence in 1694. The area was set aside as federal land in 1892 and named a national monument in 1918. Although only a few prehistoric sites can be viewed, more than 60 are in the monument area, including the 35-foot-tall—that's four stories—Casa Grande (Big House). The tallest known Hohokam building, Casa Grande was built in the early 14th century and is believed by some to have been an ancient astronomical observatory or a center of government, religion, trade, or education. Allow an hour to explore the site, longer if park rangers are giving a talk or leading a tour. On your way out, cross the parking lot by the covered picnic grounds and climb the platform for a view of a ball court and two platform mounds, said to date from the 1100s.

You'll get a full entertainment experience here with a steak house and buffet, concerts, and other live performances, and plenty of gaming including blackjack and keno. There's live music and dancing most nights.

Locals come here for blackjack, poker, keno, more than 200 slot machines, and a dash of Las Vegas–like nightlife.

Exhibits at the Cave Creek Museum depict pioneer living, mining, and ranching. See an original 1920s tuberculosis cabin and a collection of artifacts from the Hohokam and Yavapai tribes.

A playground for kids of all ages, this museum features hands-on exhibits where children learn by playing. Venture through the "noodle forest," relax in the book loft, or get a crash course in economics by role-playing at the on-site market.

Any visit to Arizona requires a viewing of petroglyphs, and this site provides the best glimpse in the metro Phoenix area. Some 1,500 of the cryptic symbols are here, left behind by Native American cultures that lived in or passed through the Valley during the last 1,000 years. The self-guided tour follows a ¼-mile path and includes a free audio guide. Telescopes point to some of the most skillful petroglyphs, ranging from animal forms to abstract figures.

One of the best collections of Western art in the nation includes paintings and sculpture by Frederic Remington, Albert Bierstadt, and others. The museum has an extensive historic photography collection, and is leading an oral history project to capture the stories of the area's longtime residents.

Urban Encanto (Spanish for "enchanted") Park covers 222 acres at the heart of one of Phoenix's oldest residential neighborhoods. There are many attractions, including picnic areas, a lagoon where you can paddleboat and canoe, a municipal swimming pool, a nature trail, Enchanted Island amusement park, fishing in the park's lake, and two public golf courses.

The pseudo-Western Frontier Town has wooden sidewalks, ramshackle buildings, and souvenir shops.

Goldfield became an instant town of about 4,000 residents after a gold strike in 1892; it dried up five years later when the gold mine flooded. Today the Goldfield Ghost Town is an interesting place to grab a cool drink, pan for gold, go for a mine tour, or take a desert jeep ride or horseback tour of the area. The ghost town's shops and saloon are open daily and gunfights are held on weekends.

Retired firefighters lead tours through nearly 100 restored fire engines and tell harrowing tales of the "world's most dangerous profession." The museum has the world's largest collection of firefighting equipment, and children can climb on a 1916 engine, operate alarm systems, and learn fire safety from the pros. Helmets, badges, and other firefighting-related articles from as far back as 1725 are on display.

Self-guided trails wind through lush cottonwood-willow forests, mesquite trees, and around a 4-acre, spring-fed pond and marsh habitat. Waterfowl, herons, and Arizona's rarest raptors shelter here.

In a parklike setting from 5th to 7th streets between Monroe and Adams streets, this city-owned block contains the only remaining houses from the original Phoenix townsite. On the south side of the square, along Adams Street, stand several houses built between 1899 and 1901. The Bouvier Teeter House has a Victorian-style tea room, and the Thomas House and Baird Machine Shop are now Pizzeria Bianco, one of the area's most popular eateries.

Prisoners were chained to this now 200-year-old mesquite tree on the northeast corner of Wickenburg Way and Tegner Street. The desert heat sometimes finished them off before their sentences were served.

Imagine thousands of square feet full of LEGO bricks, and not having to clean up any of them. No, it's not a dream---it's LEGOLAND. Kids can see giant LEGO creations as well as play, build, and watch. Buy a dual ticket with the adjoining Sea Life Arizona Aquarium and save on admission.

As the Phoenix metro area gives way to cactus- and creosote-dotted desert, the massive escarpment of the Superstition Mountains heaves into view and slides by to the north. The Superstitions are supposedly where the legendary Lost Dutchman Mine is, the location—not to mention the existence—of which has been hotly debated since pioneer days.