Arizona area guides
Dining, outdoors, culture and day trips for the places we cover — curated from official sources, written for people moving to (or investing in) Arizona.
Phoenix
Phoenix is America's fifth-largest city and the heart of the Valley of the Sun — a sprawling desert metropolis where James Beard-winning kitchens, mountain preserves inside the city limits and a fast-growing arts scene share roughly 300 days of sunshine a year.
34 places
Scottsdale
Scottsdale pairs resort-town polish with real Sonoran wilderness: Old Town's galleries, bars and chef-driven kitchens sit twenty minutes from the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, the largest urban preserve in the United States.
30 places
Mesa & the East Valley
Mesa anchors the East Valley alongside Tempe, Gilbert and Chandler — a fast-growing quadrant where Sonoran Desert trailheads and Salt River adventures sit minutes from college-town energy, spring-training ballparks and revived downtown dining rows.
24 places
Tucson
Tucson is a UNESCO City of Gastronomy ringed by five mountain ranges, where 4,000 years of continuous farming heritage meets Sonoran-Mexican food, saguaro forests and a laid-back university-town spirit.
39 places
Sedona
Sedona's red-rock buttes rise like a natural cathedral two hours north of Phoenix — a small town wrapped in world-class hiking, energy-vortex lore, creekside swimming holes and a serious arts-and-dining scene.
22 places
Flagstaff
At 7,000 feet among the world's largest ponderosa pine forest, Flagstaff is Arizona's mountain town — a Route 66 college city with four real seasons, dark skies made for stargazing, and the Grand Canyon ninety minutes up the road.
19 places
Yuma
On the Colorado River where Arizona meets California and Mexico, Yuma is the sunniest city on earth by the record books — a historic river crossing turned winter haven, and the nation's winter-vegetable capital.
23 places
Pinal County
Between Phoenix and Tucson, Pinal County is Arizona's open-road middle: the Superstition Mountains and Lost Dutchman legends, ancient Hohokam ruins, wildflower-covered Picacho Peak and the desert science of Biosphere 2.
12 places
Gila County
Gila County climbs from saguaro country to the pine forests of the Mogollon Rim — home to the world's largest natural travertine bridge, Roosevelt Lake, ancient cliff dwellings and the old mining towns of Globe and Miami.
10 places