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Most Instagrammable Places in Scottsdale — Trip Planner
Planning this trip in Scottsdale? Here’s how to decide what’s worth your time. The most photogenic spots in Scottsdale and the photo tours, viewpoints and experiences that get you there at the right light.
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Top experiences in Scottsdale
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What's actually worth your time in Scottsdale
Taliesin West on Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard is the one unmissable building, a UNESCO World Heritage site Wright began in 1937 as a desert camp and kept rebuilding until he died; tours must be booked ahead and it closes Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. The McDowell Sonoran Preserve is free and vast. Old Town's Fifth Avenue and Marshall Way are galleries and shopping rather than sights.
Scottsdale after dark
Scottsdale runs one of the very few genuine club strips in Arizona, packed into the Entertainment District around Craftsman Court and Saddlebag Trail, where doormen and queues appear on weekends and last call is two statewide. Two blocks away on the same Thursday, the Old Town ArtWalk has drawn a slower gallery crowd since 1975. Spring training and the WM Phoenix Open overwhelm both.
Scottsdale's museums, and which one to pick
Wireless headphones make the Musical Instrument Museum on East Mayo Boulevard unlike anywhere else: they trigger automatically as you step in front of each display, so a Peruvian harp begins playing as you reach it, and an Experience Gallery lets you strike a gong yourself. Western Spirit on Marshall Way is a Smithsonian affiliate. SMoCA holds James Turrell's Knight Rise skyspace in a converted cinema.
Scottsdale with kids, realistically
McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park is the local secret: free to enter, with a five-twelfths-scale railroad and a 1929 carousel, charging only per ride. OdySea Aquarium and Butterfly Wonderland sit together in the Salt River community. The constraint is heat, not attractions, so build the day around a morning outdoors and an afternoon indoors from May onwards.
When the weather turns in Scottsdale
Rain barely registers here; the indoor day is a heat day, roughly May to September. Scottsdale Fashion Square is the largest mall in Arizona and fully conditioned, the Musical Instrument Museum absorbs three hours, Western Spirit and SMoCA another two, and the resorts sell spa day passes to non-guests specifically for this purpose.