Hi guys! Stephen and I just got back from visiting Scottsdale for a quick vacation with my family. We were only there for a long weekend, but thought I would recap the few things we did and share recommendations that many of you sent over. This way if you’re ever visiting the area you can have a few recommendations to pull from 🙂

For starters, we flew into Phoenix and rented an Airbnb in Scottsdale. This was a super easy drive from the airport–less than 15 minutes! If you’re going during the summer obviously prepare for it to be HOT. I mean, I know Phoenix is hot but the locals were telling us it can get to 115-120+ degrees in the summer. Except, it is dry heat so it actually probably feels better than the 95 and 90% humidity we get here in NC. Anyway! Since we went in February we had great weather. It was mid 60s to low 70s each day. Here are a few things we did activity wise in Scottsdale and then I’ll list all the restaurants we ate at and the ones that were also recommended!

What We Did 

-Topgolf: Most of you are probably familiar with Topgolf or Drive Shack. Scottsdale has a Top Golf so we did this late one afternoon. It was something good to do since we had a bigger group and it was a nice way to relax after the hike.

-Sunset Peak Hike: I didn’t get to go on this hike since I had to catch up on some work, but everyone else said it was great! Stephen said the difficulty level was moderate and it was definitely a good workout. If you went all the way up to the top, roundtrip it takes about 2.5 hours.

-Chaparral Park: This park was in walking distance from our Airbnb which was really nice. It’s a huge park with walking and running paths around a giant lake, plus baseball and soccer fields, plus 2 dog parks. Since my sister brought her dog with her (she drove from LA) this was perfect. We walked a couple miles one morning and visited the dog park for a bit. Perfect way to enjoy the weather.

-Cave Creek Outfitters Horseback Riding: My parents looked up several spots for horseback riding and this one was a great pick. You can choose to ride for either an hour or two hours and we chose the two hour ride. In hindsight we all said 1 hour would have sufficed though. It was really fun and we were glad we did it but just didn’t need 2+ hours on a horse LOL. But this place was cool because they also rescued some of their horses which was awesome to hear. Our guide was great, and we basically just rode on a path through the dessert which was really pretty. During the late spring and summer they only do rides in the early morning and evening because of the heat so just something to take note of!

Where We Ate & Other Recommended Spots
Loco Patron
Diego Pops Super cute restaurant (very instagrammable!). Food was really good and reasonably priced. Margaritas tasted really fresh. Would definitely recommend.
Canal Club
Dutch Bros
Positano
Roaring Fork
Blanco
The Yard
Joyride Tacos
The Henry Loved the vibe of this restaurant inside and they had a really cute patio. Service wasn’t great but they tried to make up for it by offering free apps lol. Otherwise food itself was really good.
Century Grand
Undertow
Four Peaks 

Alright guys, I know that was a quick recap but we were only there for 72 hours so that’s all I got! Hopefully this helps give you some ideas. Feel free to leave any other suggestions or recommendations below for anyone else 🙂 xx C