New to Scottsdale? Here’s what a local would tell you first.

Planning a visit

1. 1

   Pick your month

   October through April is the season: highs from the mid-60s to the 80s and full resorts. February and March are the peak for crowds and prices. June through September runs past 100°F most days, and resort rates drop with the heat.

   • When to Visit Scottsdale: The Honest Month-by-Month Answer → There are really only three Scottsdale seasons, and the calendar lies about all of them. The months ranked, the weeks that sell out a year ahead, the deal nobody takes, and how to pick a date by what you actually want to do.

   What every month feels like →

2. 2

   Choose where to stay

   Scottsdale is 31 miles long, so your base decides the trip. First-timers without a car should stay in or near Old Town; resort and golf trips spread north along Scottsdale Road.

   • Where to Stay in Scottsdale: Old Town vs. the Camelback Corridor vs. North Scottsdale → The one decision that shapes the whole trip. The three lodging zones and who each is for, the specific resorts we'd book in each, the walkable exception, the golf-and-quiet answer, and why the cheapest room on the map is usually in the wrong place.
   • Old Town → Walkable, the most restaurants and nightlife, the easiest first trip.
   • Camelback Corridor & the Paradise Valley Border → The big-name resorts between Old Town and Paradise Valley.
   • North Scottsdale & the Airpark → Golf, quiet, desert views, and a drive to dinner.

   Every resort and hotel, honestly reviewed →Compare every neighborhood →

3. 3

   Get here and get around

   You fly into Phoenix Sky Harbor (PHX), twenty to thirty minutes from Old Town. There is no train to Scottsdale. Rideshare covers Old Town, but most visitors want a car for hikes and anything north.

   • Phoenix Airport to Scottsdale: Every Way In, With the Honest Times and Costs → Sky Harbor sits twenty minutes from Old Town and there's no train to Scottsdale. The rideshare and where to catch it, the rental-car shuttle math, the free Sky Train and the bus that gets you there for a few dollars, the resort shuttles, the private-jet airport people confuse it with, and which option fits which trip.
   • Getting Around Scottsdale: Sky Harbor, the 101, the Free Trolley, and Why You Still Need a Car → The airport you actually fly into, the freeway that runs the city, the three north-south roads that matter, the free trolley, the light rail that doesn't come here, and what summer does to a parked car.
   • The Scottsdale Trolley: Yes, It's Free, and Here's Where It Actually Goes → Scottsdale's free trolley is real but no longer the Old Town loop visitors remember. The three weekday routes, how often they come, who they serve, and how to get around Old Town without one.
4. 4

   Plan your days

   Morning outside, midday by the pool, evening out. That rhythm works all year and is non-negotiable in summer.

   • Things to Do in Scottsdale: The 25 We'd Actually Send You To → Not a list of everything. A list of what's worth it: the hikes, the buildings, the rooms, the rides and the shows that earn their spot in a short trip — ranked by a local, with the tourist traps left off on purpose.
   • 48 Hours in Scottsdale: The Itinerary We Give Friends Who Fly In → Two days, one car, no wasted afternoons. The sunrise hike, the Old Town walk, the Greenbelt ride, the pool, and the four dinners we actually send people to — with a summer swap and a February warning.
   • Old Town on Foot: A Self-Guided Walk Through Scottsdale's Historic District → A two-hour walking route through the real Old Town: the Civic Center lawn, Brown Avenue's Western storefronts, the oldest saloon, the pink ice cream parlor, the 1909 schoolhouse, the galleries, the canal, and where the night ends.
   • Day Trips from Scottsdale: Sedona, Jerome, Tucson, and the Superstitions, With Honest Drive Times → Where to go when you've done the pool and the Preserve. Real drive times, what each trip is actually good for, the season that makes it work, and the day trip we'd talk you out of.

   What’s on while you’re here →The tours worth booking, and the ones to skip →Camping and hiking within a few hours of town →

5. 5

   Know where to eat

   Start with what the Valley does best, then book dinner early if you are here from February through April.

   • What to Eat in Scottsdale: Sonoran Dogs, Chimichangas, Dates, and the Steakhouse Question → Arizona's food is Sonora's food, and Scottsdale hides it behind a lot of resort dining rooms. The Sonoran hot dog, the chimichanga argument, the cheese crisp, dates and prickly pear, the Mexican institutions, and which steakhouse actually belongs here.

   Where to eat right now →Casual local spots →

6. 6

   Hike safely

   Most mountain rescues here start the same way: too late in the day, too little water. Go at sunrise, carry about a liter per hour, and turn around when half of it is gone.

   • The Best Hikes in Scottsdale, Ranked: From the Greenbelt Stroll to the Thumb → One ranked list across the whole city: the summit everyone wants, the spire that's actually harder, the perfect short hike, the flagship loop, the flat saguaro forest for the days you want the desert without the climb, and the honest difficulty of each. Plus the hour to start and the rules that keep it fun.
   • Camelback Mountain: Echo Canyon vs. Cholla, and How Not to Become a Rescue Statistic → Two trails, one 2,704-foot summit, zero Scottsdale addresses. Which route to pick, how to solve the parking before it solves you, the heat-closure rules, and why the descent is where the helicopter calls come from.
   • Summer Sunrise Rules: How to Hike the Desert from June to September → Triple-digit hiking isn't brave, it's arithmetic. The start-time table, hydration math, and the non-negotiables that keep Scottsdale hikers off the evening news.

   Every park and trailhead →The campgrounds and trails beyond the city line →

7. 7

   Pack for the desert

   A wide-brim hat, real sunscreen, a big water bottle and electrolytes, plus a warm layer from November to February. Nearly all of it fits in a carry-on.

   • What to Pack for Scottsdale: The Season-by-Season List From People Who Live Here → The desert punishes the wrong suitcase. What to bring in winter (a real jacket, honestly), in spring, in summer (less than you think, plus three things you didn't), for the trail, for the pool, for the ballpark, and the resort dress code nobody explains.

   The tested packing list →

Just moved here

Welcome. Everything in the visitor path is still useful: you’ll be the one hosting the visitors soon. These are the things that only matter once you live here.

1. 1

   Choose your part of town

   What it really costs, which neighborhoods suit which lives, and where locals shop and eat on a Tuesday, well away from the resort corridor.

   • Moving to Scottsdale: The Honest Relocation Guide, Costs and Neighborhoods Included → What Scottsdale actually costs, which parts of the city suit which lives, the taxes that are lower than you'd guess and the housing that isn't, the school-district map, the job base at the Airpark, the summer you have to plan around, and the honest pros and cons from people who chose it anyway.
   • Shea Corridor & Scottsdale Ranch → Nobody visits Shea on purpose. Everybody who lives here eats on it.
   • McCormick Ranch → The 1970s planned community that turned an Arabian horse ranch into lakes, fairways and bike paths — and still looks like the brochure.
   • South Scottsdale → Postwar ranch houses, the old Motor Mile, the start of the Greenbelt, and the restaurants locals drive past Old Town to reach.

   All the neighborhoods →

2. 2

   Read the first-year survival guide

   The sun that ages everything you own, the water that crusts your faucets, the HOA letter, and why your first October will feel like a reward.

   • Your First Year in Scottsdale: What Nobody Tells You Before the Moving Truck Leaves → The sun that ages everything you own, the water that crusts your faucets, the scorpion in the bathtub, the pool you'll use less than you think, the HOA letter, the summer schedule, and the October that pays for all of it.
3. 3

   Get ready for your first summer

   June through September changes your schedule: errands and exercise move to dawn, the monsoon arrives in July, and five-star pools go on sale for locals.

   • The Monsoon Field Manual: Haboobs, Flash Floods, and How Locals Drive Through July → Monsoon season is the desert's second personality: dust walls, flash floods, and the best evenings of the year. How to drive, hike, and sit on a patio through it without ending up on the news.
   • Summer Sunrise Rules: How to Hike the Desert from June to September → Triple-digit hiking isn't brave, it's arithmetic. The start-time table, hydration math, and the non-negotiables that keep Scottsdale hikers off the evening news.
   • The Summer Resort Playbook: Five-Star Pools at Summer Prices, and the Fine Print → From Mother's Day to the first cool night, Scottsdale's resorts price for locals. When the rates drop and snap back, the resort fee that never takes a vacation, day passes, spa-day loopholes, and the pools worth planning a July around.
   • Scottsdale's Public Pools: The Four Aquatic Centers, What Each Does Best, and What They Cost → The city runs four aquatic centers and three of them are open all year: the 50-meter competition pool on Cactus Road, the south Scottsdale waterpark with two slides, the summer-only lake-park pool on Hayden, and the north Scottsdale lazy river. Four dollars gets a resident in the door. Which pool suits which kid, the pass math, the seasons, and the free splash pads for the days you don't want to pay at all.
4. 4

   Meet your desert neighbors

   Scorpions, rattlesnakes, javelinas and the plants you should not hug: what is normal, and what to actually do.

   • The Desert Wildlife Field Guide: Rattlesnakes, Scorpions, Javelinas, and What to Actually Do → Everything out here that bites, stings, or knocks over your trash can, ranked by how much you should actually worry. Rattlesnakes, bark scorpions, javelinas, coyotes, Gila monsters, and the bees that are the real problem.
   • Bark scorpion → Centruroides sculpturatus, the small, pale, climbing scorpion that lives in Scottsdale walls and yards and is the only one of Arizona's dozens of species with a medically significant sting. When a local says 'scorpion,' this is the one they mean.
   • The Sonoran Desert Plants Field Guide: Saguaros, Palo Verdes, and the Teddy Bear You Don't Hug → Newcomers see brown. Locals see a crowded neighborhood. The saguaro, palo verde, ironwood, ocotillo, creosote, and cholla — how to tell them apart, when they bloom, where to see them, and why the fuzzy one is the dangerous one.
5. 5

   Sort out the house and the paperwork

   Which power company you have, where your water comes from, which school district you are in, and how property taxes and HOAs work here.

   • SRP vs. APS → The two electric utilities that divide Scottsdale: Arizona Public Service, the investor-owned company regulated by the Corporation Commission, and Salt River Project, the landowner-governed district born of the 1903 dam. 'Are you SRP or APS?' is the first question any neighbor asks about a power bill.
   • Scottsdale Water → Colorado River water, recycled water and a drought plan with teeth
   • School Districts & Colleges → Separate governments, elected boards and their own tax votes
   • Property Taxes in Maricopa County → The Assessor values it, the Treasurer bills it, schools get most
   • HOA → A homeowners association: the private corporation every owner in a planned community must join and pay, which enforces the recorded CC&Rs on paint, parking, plants and rentals. In Scottsdale it governs nearly every subdivision north of McCormick Ranch and few of the older ones south.

   How government works here →Gear for your first summer →

6. 6

   Learn the city you moved to

   Scottsdale went from a cotton-farming crossroads to a resort city in one lifetime. The story, and the weekly rhythm locals run on, make the place make sense.

   • What Happens in Scottsdale Every Week: The Standing Calendar Locals Run On → Underneath the festivals is a weekly rhythm that never needs a ticket: the Thursday gallery crawl, the Saturday market and the Saturday car show, bull riding on Wednesday and Friday, free two-step lessons, jazz behind a hidden door, bronze pours on weekday mornings. The whole standing calendar, Monday to Sunday, plus the monthly and seasonal layers.
   • The West's Most Western Town: Rodeo, Arabian Horses, and Western Week, Explained → The slogan is a 1940s marketing line. The horses are real. How to do the Parada del Sol parade and rodeo, the world's biggest Arabian show, the free horse shows nobody tells you about, and Western Week without buying boots that morning.
   • Taking Part in City Government → How to be heard at City Hall before the vote, not after

   Scottsdale history →The organizations that run the city →