Travel to Phoenix

[daredevil]

Well after waking up to snow again this AM, I decided enough is enough.
I'm going to Phoenix at 4:00pm.

Any advice to give?
Places to stay?

I'm thinking of just staying at a reasonable last minute deal from Priceline.

How about playing golf, any advice on places to try for a reasonable rate?

I will be bringing my wife and our 3 year old.

Oh yeah and a place that just MIGHT show the Flames game.

Thanks CP!

[The Goon]

I think you can find everything you're looking for in the Scottsdale area of Phoenix. Golf, hotels, good restaurants, shopping. There's a huge PGA Superstore there as well.

[Scoopdogg]

Use golfnow.com to book any golf rounds. You can get pretty decent deals.

[Kolbe31]

Sorry to bump such an old thread, didn't know where else to ask!

I'm heading down to Phoenix (technically Mesa) in the middle of April. I've been before, but don't really feel like I've taken advantage of what the whole Phoenix area has to offer.

I'll be going to a Coyotes/Stars game (April 13). For those of you who have gone to a game in Glendale before, what's your advice for tickets? By that I mean, should a person simply buy the cheapest tickets and then just sit somewhere better, or are the ushers/security pretty sticky about that?

Any golf course recommendations in Mesa?

Any other activities/places of interest that anyone would recommend?

[burn_baby_burn]

Head east of Mesa out into the desert into the Superstition Mountains. I love the landscape out there, very scenic.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Kolbe31

Sorry to bump such an old thread, didn't know where else to ask!

I'm heading down to Phoenix (technically Mesa) in the middle of April. I've been before, but don't really feel like I've taken advantage of what the whole Phoenix area has to offer.

I'll be going to a Coyotes/Stars game (April 13). For those of you who have gone to a game in Glendale before, what's your advice for tickets? By that I mean, should a person simply buy the cheapest tickets and then just sit somewhere better, or are the ushers/security pretty sticky about that?

Any golf course recommendations in Mesa?

Any other activities/places of interest that anyone would recommend?

I have gone a couple times to the Coyotes and my advice is to buy from the scalpers. Last year in what I hoped was the last ever home game for the Coyotes there were a few guys with handfuls of tickets for sale. I think we paid like $20-$30 for pretty good seats. There is a zone outside the stadium for scalpers, and negotiate hard with those guys!

I would definitely recommend a ballgame. The park is amazing and its definitely worth it. Again we paid roughly $7 each for tickets and sat wherever we wanted. I'm flying a day early this year just to go to another game there.

As far as golf courses, I've played a bunch of courses there. My favorite is probably Las Sendas. Its a desert course and I like that because its so different from what I can play here, and the costs are reasonable if you play in the heat. I've played a bunch of great courses there though. The thing I find is that more and more its not a great deal. Factor in the 10% exchange now and I think its about the same for a round as it is here, but maybe I'm just cheap!

[troutman]

Spring training (oops - that will be done in Mid April)

The Cubs are in Mesa, and have a big following. The SF Giants play in a beautiful park in Scottsdale (near all the cool bars and restaurants). Easy to get autographs from MLB stars.

http://www.dbg.org/

http://www.franklloydwright.org/abou...WestTours.html

http://www.pizzeriabianco.com/

https://www.desertmuseum.org/

http://www.scottsdaledowntown.com/

https://wetnwildphoenix.com/

http://www.hotelvalleyho.com/scottsd...ls/index.html?

http://mim.org/

[Komskies]

If you want a good place to eat before the game, there is a place right beside the arena called the Yardhouse that has very good food. Fair warning though, I was at the Chicago game in February and it was extremely busy there. Not sure if you'd have the same experience with a Dallas game, but with their playoff race going on you never know. I bought my tickets off of StubHub a few months in advance. Probably didn't get the best price I could've but I wanted to guarantee I had some. Do some pre-drinking because the beer at the game is surprisingly expensive!

I ate the best pizza I've ever had at Pizzaria Bianco. This place is often called the best pizza in America and it pretty much blew my mind how delicious it was. http://www.pizzeriabianco.com/

A good, challenging golf course we played was Johnson Ranch. It's a desert style course with a few really cool elevated tee boxes. Pretty long too if I remember correctly at over 7200 yards. It isn't in Mesa, you'd probably have to drive 30-40 minutes to get there, but that's pretty much the norm in Phoenix.

I don't really know if this is your kind of thing but my parents went to the Desert Botanical Gardens and said that was a really cool place to see. Well worth it they said.

[Komskies]

Originally Posted by Slava

As far as golf courses, I've played a bunch of courses there. My favorite is probably Las Sendas. Its a desert course and I like that because its so different from what I can play here, and the costs are reasonable if you play in the heat. I've played a bunch of great courses there though. The thing I find is that more and more its not a great deal. Factor in the 10% exchange now and I think its about the same for a round as it is here, but maybe I'm just cheap!

From what I hear if you want the smoking deals on golf rates you have to go in July/August when it's in the high 30s and low 40s and it's just too damn hot to go outside. They pretty much give it away at that point.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by troutman

Spring training (oops - that will be done in Mid April)

The Cubs are in Mesa, and have a big following. The SF Giants play in a beautiful park in Scottsdale (near all the cool bars and restaurants). Easy to get autographs from MLB stars.

http://www.dbg.org/

http://www.franklloydwright.org/abou...WestTours.html

http://www.pizzeriabianco.com/

https://www.desertmuseum.org/

http://www.scottsdaledowntown.com/

https://wetnwildphoenix.com/

http://www.hotelvalleyho.com/scottsd...ls/index.html?

http://mim.org/

Did you go to Taliesin West? I wanted to last year but didn't fit it in. Maybe this year I'll go, but I'd be interested in hearing someones opinion who has been there.

[bc-chris]

Originally Posted by Kolbe31

Sorry to bump such an old thread, didn't know where else to ask!

I'm heading down to Phoenix (technically Mesa) in the middle of April. I've been before, but don't really feel like I've taken advantage of what the whole Phoenix area has to offer.

I'll be going to a Coyotes/Stars game (April 13). For those of you who have gone to a game in Glendale before, what's your advice for tickets? By that I mean, should a person simply buy the cheapest tickets and then just sit somewhere better, or are the ushers/security pretty sticky about that?

Any golf course recommendations in Mesa?

Any other activities/places of interest that anyone would recommend?

my wife and i went to phoenix a couple years ago - we had a ton of fun

for the coyotes games - we went to 2. one was midweek and one was on the weekend. the midweek game was soooooooo empty. the weekend game (either a friday or saturday) was pretty full. a friend on mine has an 'in' with the coyotes and had arranged for us to pick up tickets at the arena. we were in the lower bowl for both games and i think it was maybe $50-60 total for both tickets.

i'm not sure if you're a shopper (i'm not), but my wife dragged me to an outlet mall - the outlets at anthem http://www.outletsanthem.com/
she absolutely loved it and i followed her around for what seemed like an eternity carrying bag after bag of clothing. they had really good prices. my wife signed up with them online before we left kelowna and was able to save an additional 5-10% on the already good deals.... but go early. we were there first thing in the morning and it was ok. by early afternoon it was a gong show of people

i'm not sure how much you want to drive, but we also went to sedona and the grand canyon - both were really cool

have fun - hope you have a great trip!

[burn_baby_burn]

You definately need to hit a ball game. Very nice park and tickets are very easy to purchase and cheap compared to other Big League markets. The roof should be open at that time of year as well. You can park like a block away from the Stadium for $3.

[The Goon]

Originally Posted by Slava

Did you go to Taliesin West? I wanted to last year but didn't fit it in. Maybe this year I'll go, but I'd be interested in hearing someones opinion who has been there.

I went on a tour of Taliesin West at sunset a couple of years back. If you're interested in architecture, I would definitely recommend it. Great place to take photos of/at. It wasn't a long tour but there was a lot of information.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by Komskies

From what I hear if you want the smoking deals on golf rates you have to go in July/August when it's in the high 30s and low 40s and it's just too damn hot to go outside. They pretty much give it away at that point.

This is true, I was there last year in July and it was over 110F everyday, and we paid $30 - 40 for courses that are well over $120 right now.

Here's a tip if you ever do that though, go play We-Ko-pa. It's on a native resort/casino and they can water it like they just don't care(about water in summer).
awesome course and it was only about $40.

and for things to do, here's another one
http://penskeracingmuseum.com/

also if you go to a ball game go to ALice Coopers restaurant a few blocks away.

[MRCboicgy]

Go Quadding in the desert, then shoot s##t up.

http://www.desertwolftours.com/

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Slava

Did you go to Taliesin West? I wanted to last year but didn't fit it in. Maybe this year I'll go, but I'd be interested in hearing someones opinion who has been there.

Yeah, I thought it was really interesting. It is still a design school, and there are students working there while you have your tour.

[Kolbe31]

Great stuff, thanks guys.

We actually miss spring training by about a week, but we are planning to go to a Diamondbacks/Mets game.

[cral12]

Anyone stay in Sedona area? Have some time off in a couple of months and came up as an option.

[Shin Pad]

I have stayed in Sedona about 2 years ago. Nice place - lots of hiking area, golf, etc. It's not big on night life. During the day, the it reminds me of Banff, except smaller. In a couple of months it will be cooler there - you might even see some snow (higher elevation than Phoenix, so cooler weather).