フェニックスのツアー・観光アクティビティ

Ranked by traveller reviews: 1) kayaking the Salt River past the wild horses, 2) a Grand Canyon and Sedona day trip, 3) a sunrise hot-air balloon ride over the Sonoran Desert, 4) a guided ATV tour of the desert, 5) a guided hike up Camelback Mountain, 6) stargazing in Sedona’s dark skies, 7) the Desert Botanical Garden, 8) a Roosevelt Row food tour, 9) the Musical Instrument Museum and Heard Museum and 10) Old Town Scottsdale’s galleries, bars and Western storefronts.

Plan two to three days in the Valley plus one or two for the canyons. Day one: a sunrise hike, the Desert Botanical Garden, the Heard Museum and dinner in Roosevelt Row. Day two: a balloon flight or Salt River kayak in the morning, an ATV tour or the Musical Instrument Museum, Old Town Scottsdale at night. Day three: the Grand Canyon and Sedona on one 13–14-hour tour — or split them over two days for a proper look at each.

Sunrise on Camelback’s Echo Canyon trail or the gentler Piestewa Peak, Dobbins Lookout in South Mountain Park, Hole-in-the-Rock at Papago Park, the murals and First Friday art walk on Roosevelt Row, Old Town Scottsdale and its Thursday ArtWalk, the Arizona Capitol Museum, Tempe Town Lake and ‘A’ Mountain, and the free wild-horse viewing along the Salt River’s Bush Highway pull-offs. Spring-training games in March are cheap rather than free.

Sedona’s red rocks (two hours; tours from about $127–168 including Jerome and Montezuma Castle), the Grand Canyon South Rim (3.5 hours each way; combined Grand Canyon and Sedona tours are $226–243), the Apache Trail with Tortilla Flat and a Canyon Lake cruise (one hour), the Superstition Mountains and Goldfield Ghost Town (45 minutes), Tucson and Saguaro National Park (two hours), and Prescott’s Whiskey Row (90 minutes). Antelope Canyon is 4.5 hours away — better as an overnight.

Stargazing tours in Sedona or the desert north of Scottsdale, the First Friday art walk on Roosevelt Row, Old Town Scottsdale’s bars and the Tempe Mill Avenue strip, a Suns game at the Footprint Center or a Diamondbacks game under Chase Field’s retractable roof, sunset from Dobbins Lookout on South Mountain, rooftop bars downtown, and in summer the Desert Botanical Garden’s Flashlight Nights.

Winter is peak season: highs around 65–70°F make it the best time for hiking, golf, ATV and balloon trips. Late February and March bring Cactus League spring-training baseball, the Waste Management Phoenix Open and the Barrett-Jackson auction in January, and from late November there are ZooLights at the Phoenix Zoo, Las Noches de las Luminarias at the Desert Botanical Garden and Glendale Glitters. Sedona and the Grand Canyon may have snow — a bonus for photos.

The Arizona Science Center, the Children’s Museum of Phoenix, the Phoenix Zoo and neighbouring Desert Botanical Garden, OdySea Aquarium and Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale, the Musical Instrument Museum’s hands-on room, Hole-in-the-Rock in Papago Park, a gentle Salt River kayak or, in summer, tubing, the Wildlife World Zoo, Golfland Sunsplash and spring-training games in March.

October to April, with November to March the prime months — sunny, dry and mild. March adds spring training and desert wildflowers but is the busiest and priciest. From June to September daytime highs reach 105–115°F: hiking and balloon flights move to dawn and many outdoor tours pause.

Yes, if it is your only chance — the tours are the highest-rated long-distance experiences in Phoenix, with about three hours at the South Rim plus a stop in Sedona, but they run 13–14 hours door to door. If you have two days, do Sedona on its own and stay overnight near the canyon; if you have one, book the small-group tour and accept the early start.