Sidling up along the eastern edge of Phoenix in Arizona’s fast-growing Maricopa County, Scottsdale has long outgrown its nickname: “The West’s Most Western Town.” Sure, you can still indulge in cowboy kitsch in its pedestrian-friendly Old Town—but mid-century modern architecture and wellness resorts have largely replaced the dude ranches, and golf courses now blanket the areas where cattle once roamed.
These days, in fact, you’re more likely to encounter hikers and yoga enthusiasts out “on the range” in the Sonoran Desert, and the restaurants and galleries of downtown are looking toward the future rather than trying to recapture some imagined past. Here are the best things to do and places to stay in this desert playground just north of Phoenix in the Valley of the Sun.
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Getting to Scottsdale
The center of Old Town Scottsdale is only a 15-minute drive from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, which connects the city to nearly 150 domestic and international destinations. The smaller Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport is about 40 minutes away by car.
Knight Rise, a “skyspace” by James Turrell at SMOCA
Sean DeckertThe pool at The Phoenician, a Luxury Collection Resort
What to do
You can’t come to Scottsdale without immersing yourself in the desert surroundings, and while Papago Park (and its impressive Desert Botanical Garden) and Camelback Mountain offer convenient diversions just across the border in Phoenix, the Scottsdale McDowell Sonoran Preserve is the city’s unbeatable gem. At 30,500 acres, the permanently protected nature sanctuary is technically America’s largest urban park—though that’s a bit misleading: Far from an arid answer to Central Park, it’s larger than some of America’s national parks, encompassing saguaro forests and more than 225 miles of hiking trails, where you might encounter roadrunners, Gila monsters, jackrabbits, and javelinas.
As of 2019, Scottsdale is also home to one of Arizona’s two UNESCO World Heritage Sites (the other being the Grand Canyon). Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and desert laboratory, is one of eight Frank Lloyd Wright buildings to make the UNESCO list. Wright started construction in 1937; you can see how he translated the Prairie style that he perfected in the Midwest into the new Sonoran surroundings through the use of “desert masonry” and petroglyph-covered stones that he placed around the property. On a guided tour visitors can look out for his delightfully mismatched design details, including a fire-breathing bronze dragon, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli’s Garden Sprites, and artworks by politician and journalist Clare Boothe Luce.
To see more cutting-edge creativity, head to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, which sits on the outskirts of the gallery-filled Scottsdale Arts District. Exhibits rotate frequently, but one constant that remains is the James Turrell “skyspace” Knight Rise, an oculus cut into the roof that transforms the already-dazzling desert sky into a work of transcendent beauty. Nearby, the Smithsonian-affiliated Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West houses an impressive collection of Native American pottery, Western movie posters, landscape paintings, and 19th-century photographs.
Scottsdale has rightfully earned a reputation as a place to be pampered, with resorts housing standout destination spas like those at the The Phoenician, a Luxury Collection Resort and the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. Further afield, at the Boulders Resort & Spa you can pair hot stone massages and desert rose exfoliation with an invigorating climb up the resort’s eponymous geological formations. Civana Wellness Resort & Spa offers desert bathing and a calming hydrotherapy circuit.
Barrel Racks at Citizen Public House
Grilled Deviled Chicken served with shaved carrots, yoghurt, jasmine rice and aleppo at FnB
Jill RichardsWhere to eat
From her Old Town restaurant FnB, Charleen Badman changed the game for the Scottsdale dining scene when she picked up the 2019 James Beard Award for best chef in the Southwest, ending a 12-year losing streak for Arizona chefs. She’s been called a “veggie whisperer,” but she’s really more of a veggie cheerleader, transforming local produce—from dates and citrus to heirloom beans—into wildly creative dishes worth shouting about. Badman of course knows her way around meat and fish, but the move here is to focus on the top half of the menu and order—well, basically everything. FnB beverage director Pavle Milic has been a champion of Arizona-grown wines from the start, and his own label, Los Milics, makes an appearance on the menu.
If you want to learn even more about Grand Canyon State terroir, stroll five minutes to the Merkin Vineyards Old Town Scottsdale tasting room, which pours wines made with grapes grown in Willcox and the Verde Valley, as well as ciders and Arizona wildflower and mesquite honey sparkling mead. Nearby, Citizen Public House bills itself as a gastropub, and while the cherry-BBQ-sauced short ribs and green-chile burgers are appropriately hearty, the standout is perhaps the lightest dish on the menu: A chopped salad that has followed the chef from restaurant to restaurant over the years is the closest thing Scottsdale has to a signature dish, and an oft-copied cult hit that even has its own Facebook page. Why? It comprises perfectly parallel rows of smoked salmon, Israeli couscous, arugula, pepitas, asiago cheese, currants, dried sweet corn, and marinated tomatoes, toped with herbed buttermilk dressing. It’s crunchy, salty-sweet, and filled with umami—the kind of salad you’ll dream about replicating at home.
Located just next door to the Old Adobe Mission—a Catholic Church hand-built by Mexican immigrants starting in the late 1910s—The Mission is a dimly lit Latin spot for steaks grilled over pecan and mesquite fire and inventive small plates, such as duck carnitas empanadas and roasted corn gorditas with huitlacoche cream. Don’t sleep on the frothy, egg-white-topped margaritas.
Elsewhere around town, consider Shinbay for an intimate omakase experience; Berdena’s for cardamom rose lattes and killer breakfast sandwiches; Raspa2 Jalisco for Mexican shaved ices, in flavors like tamarind, chamoy, and pecan; and Chula Seafood for sustainably harvested seafood in preparations like poké, smoked fish, and tuna melts on locally baked Noble Bread.
Andaz Scottsdale Resort & Spa
Don Riddle/HyattWhere to stay
Built in 1956, Hotel Valley Ho leans into its mid-century roots with a modernist-tinged design scheme that pairs funky geometric accent pieces and low-slung furnishings; the suites in the Tower hotel-within-a-hotel will make you feel as if you’re a guest at Don Draper’s swanky desert crash pad. The property was long a paparazzi-free playground for icons like Marilyn Monroe, Bing Crosby, and Natalie Wood (who held her wedding reception here), and concierge Ace Bailey guides a behind-the-scenes look at the hotel’s architecture and Hollywood history through an Ultimate Art & Cultural Tours offering priced at about $20.
The Scott Resort & Spa, meanwhile, has the Spanish Revival bones of a 1960s hotel reimagined into a desert oasis with an improbable Bauhaus-meets-Cuban design influence that somehow works perfectly. Think lots of brass, rattan, cane, vibrant botanical wallpapers, and a Caribbean-accented lobby bar serving cocktails like the Salt River Society, made with mezcal, amaro, lemon, pineapple, and aji amarillo.
Mid-century-inspired decor takes center stage at the Andaz Scottsdale Resort & Bungalows, where special suites are named for design legends like Eero Saarinen and Charles and Ray Eames, and much of the art is sourced from the nearby Cattle Track Arts Compound.
In late 2021, the East Coast resort group Gurney’s acquired the celebrity-magnet Sanctuary Camelback Mountain, a collection of casitas, suites, and villas on 53 acres in the shadow of the eponymous hiker’s playground in neighboring Paradise Valley. Beyoncé and Jay-Z honeymooned here; expect more understated elegance than outright glitz.
For a bit more Western flair also in Paradise Valley, The Hermosa Inn occupies adobe structures built in the 1930s by cowboy-inspired artist Lon Megargee. Far from the mid-century style that dominates the rest of Scottsdale, the guest rooms and casitas here are decked out with chocolate-brown leathers, rough-hewn timber beams, and kiva fireplaces. Don’t be surprised if hummingbirds join you for your morning coffee out on your bougainvillea-drenched patio.