The question we get more than any other, from people planning a first trip and from people who have been three times and still guess wrong, is “when should we come?” The internet’s answer is “October through April,” which is true in the way that “the ocean is wet” is true. It doesn’t help you pick a week. This does.
The three seasons that actually exist
Forget four seasons. Scottsdale runs on three, and the boundaries are sharp.
High season runs from about the second week of January through the middle of April. Typical highs climb from the upper 60s to the mid 80s, the sky does its clear-blue thing nearly every day, and the whole country’s cold-weather population knows it. Resort rates peak, tee times vanish, and every restaurant we like takes a reservation two weeks out. This is the Scottsdale in the brochures. It is also the Scottsdale in the traffic reports.
Shoulder season is the two ends of the year the brochures skip: late October through mid-December, and late April through May. Weather is a coin flip between perfect and slightly warm, rates are high but not peak, and the town still has its full menu of things to do. This is where locals send their friends.
Summer is June through most of September: triple digits every afternoon, a resort market that cuts its rates by half or more, and a rhythm that lives before 8:00 AM and after 8:00 PM. It is not a mistake to come in summer. It is a different trip, and the summer resort playbook explains how to run it.
The months, ranked
Our order, with the reasoning. Every month links to its own page with the weather table, the event calendar, and what to pack.
- November. The best all-around month. Highs in the mid 70s, evenings that want a jacket, Canal Convergence lighting up the Waterfront for ten nights, the Arizona Fall League playing the cheapest professional baseball in the country, and rates a step below February’s. Thanksgiving weekend is busy; the two weeks before it are the sweet spot.
- March. The best weather of the year, full stop: highs near 80, lows in the 50s, and spring training filling every ballpark and patio. The catch is that everyone knows it. Book hotel, tee times, and dinner in the fall or accept what’s left.
- October. The season reopens. The first week can still touch the mid 90s, the last two weeks are why people move here. The Old Town Farmers Market returns, patios reopen, and the Preserve trails are walkable at noon again.
- February. Glorious, and the most expensive month of the year. The WM Phoenix Open, the Arabian Horse Show, Western Week and Parada del Sol, and the first pitch of spring training all land in twenty-eight days. Come if you want the spectacle. Come in November if you want the weather without it.
- April. Warm, dry, and the first month the pool is honestly swimmable. Early April is still high season with Bike Week in town; the last ten days are quieter and warmer, and rates start to slip.
- January. Cold mornings, in the 40s, and perfect afternoons. Car Week, Barrett-Jackson and the Celebration of Fine Art tent all open. The first week is a holiday-hangover bargain; the rest is peak.
- December. Beautiful and cold-edged, with the best lights in the state: Christmas at the Princess, Scottsdazzle in Old Town, and the Railroad Park. The two weeks before Christmas are quiet and reasonable. Christmas through New Year’s is neither.
- May. The value month. Highs push into the mid 90s by the end, but mornings are still yours, the crowds are gone, and resorts drop to shoulder rates. If you can only travel in late spring, this is the one.
- September. The first three weeks are August with a different name. The last week is a preview of October at summer prices. Book it for the rate.
- June. Brutal, dry, cheap, and honestly doable with a 5:00 AM alarm. The driest month of the year, which means no storm cancellations.
- August. The monsoon’s most humid stretch and its best sunsets. Same rules as July, better photographs.
- July. Highs of 106, overnight lows in the 80s, and the monsoon arriving in earnest. The resort deal is real. The town, mostly, is not open for business in the afternoon.
Pick by what you came for
The ranking is general. Your trip isn’t.
- Hiking and the Preserve: November through March. Gateway, Tom’s Thumb and Camelback are all-day propositions in these months and dawn-only propositions from May on.
- Pool time: late April through mid-October. Resort pools are heated, but a 67-degree January afternoon is a lounge-chair day, not a swim day.
- Golf: the courses are best in fall overseeding’s aftermath, mid-November through April. Summer twilight rates are the no-membership golfer’s best friend, if you can stand the heat.
- Baseball: March for spring training, October for the Fall League.
- Old Town nightlife: it runs year-round, but the patios and pool parties are a February-through-May phenomenon.
- Value: the last week of September through mid-October, or May, hold the best ratio of weather to rate on the calendar.
The weeks that sell out a year ahead
Three stretches need booking before you get on the plane, sometimes before you buy the ticket: the Phoenix Open week in early February, the middle two weeks of March when spring training peaks, and Christmas to New Year’s. Add Barrett-Jackson week in late January if you want a resort near WestWorld. Everything else can be booked a few weeks out with reasonable results.
The deal nobody takes
Every year the same thing happens: people ask us when to come, we say “the first half of November or the second half of October,” and they book February anyway, because February is when they’re cold at home. Fair enough. But if the point is Scottsdale rather than escaping winter, autumn is the answer, and it costs less. The 48-hour itinerary runs exactly as written in either window.