One night in Phoenix or Scottsdale

Depends on your budget. Hotels in Paradise Valley are very nice. You could go up to the Boulders - very nice resort.

Stay up in Cave Creek/Carefree area. There's a Hilton hotel at Rancho Manana golf course, a Hampton Inn in Carefree, and a bunch of locally owned hotels/inns. Cave Creek is awesome. Have dinner at Harold's (live music as well) or El Encanto (best Mexican food in town and great atmosphere), then walk over to the Buffalo Chip for drinks and bull riding in the back yard.

Other recs are Janey's Bodega for some patio sips and live acoustic tunes, Horny Toad, and Hideaway or Roadhouse for the biker bar flare.

You'll have a head start hopping on I-17 north towards Sedona in the morning vs staying in PHX or Scottsdale.

In-laws have a snowbird house in Legend Trail we frequent. We love Cave Creek a lot more than going down into Old Town Scottsdale. They're very different from one another, complete opposite actually lol. Wealthier folks live up that way, but the vibe is WAY less pretentious than Old Town Scottsdale.

Depends on what day/night yall will be there, it's a lot quieter of a town during the week than the weekends. It gets pretty busy with folks from the city (and tourists) on the weekends. Buffalo Chip may not have bull riding on weeknights, not sure. Live music may also be hit or miss to find during weeknights.

If

quote:

---

We will be flying into PHX in the afternoon and driving to Sedona the next morning in early October. Any hotel recs in Phoenix or Scottsdale?

---

Sounds like you just need a place to crash. Are you looking for a place near good restaurants or bars for that one night?

quote:

---

Sounds like you just need a place to crash. Are you looking for a place near good restaurants or bars for that one night?

---

Pretty much. I think we’re going to head out of the city though.

quote:

---

Pretty much. I think we’re going to head out of the city though.

---

Give some thought to staying in downtown Phoenix. I’ve spent a lot of time there attending NBA and MLB games.

Any Marriott, Hilton, or Hyatt between 7th Ave and 7th St, south of I-10 should be fine. It’s very safe and walkable. The area has multiple live music venues to get something out of the night. Restaurant recommendations would be trying something by 2 time James Beard Award winner Chris Bianco - either his pizza place that led him to be the first chef to win a JB for pizza, or Tratto (take a Waymo fully autonomous Jaguar to his higher end Italian restaurant with a great reputation), or The Farish House, Sottise, Harumi Sushi (featuring a unique purple rice), Mancuso’s (high end Italian), Blanco Cocina (Mexican), Pa’La Wood Fired Cooking, The Kettle Black (English Pub), and lots of great bars - I can recommend several depending on your goal.

Images from downtown:



Edited:
If you’re into Hollywood tourism, the opening scene of Psycho was filmed downtown, as was the climactic bus scene from Clint Eastwood’s The Gauntlet. If you have any Eastwood fans traveling with you…