Mrs. DX has a conference in Phoenix this coming January MLK day weekend. Probably going to be flying out Thursday and coming home Sunday. Any recommendations on what to do/where to go/what to eat? I think our hotel is about 20 minutes northeast from Sky Harbor Airport and will be renting car from Turo.
I was only there once, hot. Visiting a friend who pays more for water than a mortgage. We headed 100 miles north to Prescott, it's a desert Mayberry with 3 seasons due to higher elevation.
Rent or borrow a sports car and blister up the hill to Jerome, AZ.
Assuming in town from the 13th to 15th of Jan? The weekend is kind of an off weekend for the area. Right after the Holidays and before the spring event season kicks off.
You are a week before Barret Jackson (1/20 to 1/28). There is a weekly car show that will be jammed with good stuff that weekend right in your area https://www.facebook.com/Rockandrollcarshow/. That is a good Saturday early afternoon event, will be packed with people bringing cars down to sell outside the event. It is a good event weekly regardless, wide variety of vehicles from classics to Ring Brothers builds.
There is also Classics on Mainstreet in Old Town Scottsdale that Saturday. Gets a high end crowd of American and European classics.
You will be in peak snowbird season, golf is packed and expensive. Lots of nice restaurants and little shops in the area. I am right in the Paradise Valley/ North Scottsdale Corridor that is ~20min NE of the Airport.
Other suggestion to go a little North are not wrong. It is absolutely beautiful as you go north. Jan is snow season in a lot of those areas and it will be cold. The desert is also very green that time of year and stunning to look at. Prescott or Payson are both good. Sedona is ~2 hours and world class amazing as well, but will be more crowded.
Drive to Tucson and check out the Boneyard and Pima Air and Space Museum? If you haven't been before, both are worth it.
Edit: Also, hiking in Sabino Canyon. If you don't have a lot of time, it's a good substitute for Saguaro National Park.
Penske Auto Museum (free)
Dealership Row by the Penske Auto Museum (free)
Titan Missile Museum in Tucson
Ruby, AZ ghost town south of Tucson
Arizona Railway Museum in Chandler
Only in town for four days so I'm not sure you want to be driving 2.5 hours to Tuscon or Jerome.
I would say that if you go up to Jerome, you can hit Arcosanti, or get lunch in Sedona, or stroll through old town Cottonwood, and go to Jerome and the mining museum there. You can't do all of this in a day, but there are a lot of options along the route.
Where as with Tuscon, there isn't a whole lot between Phoenix and Tuscon and once your down there things are little more spread out. The drive to Jerome is far more exciting (up through the mountains.)
last time i was in Phoenix, i saw GWAR and X-COPS. timing is everything.
Ohso in paradise valley and Four Peaks in Tempe breweries.
Breakfast is big out there. I suggest Eggstacy on Shea at 69th along with I think it's called U.S. egg across the street. There are other locations for both but I have no knowledge.
Hike up Camelback in north Phoenix. It's awesome. Done it a few times.
Go to Taco Guild. It's in a converted old Adobe church. The tacos are *excellent* zomg
Did I mention they have a Tequila Altar?
If you're into music, the Musical Instrument Museum is amazing, worth several hours. Roger Penske's museum at his dealership in Scottsdale (I think) is also worth the trip. Comparing early Indy cars and Donohue's F1 car with a current Indy car (which is huge by comparison) is interesting. There is also an interesting (and kind of expensive) butterfly and aquarium complex. The trip to Ruby is a pretty rough road, don't take a rental econobox. A closer and easier to reach (and much more interesting, if it's open-= check first) ghost town/mining history complex is the Vulture mine over by Wickenberg. The drive up to Prescott is pretty cool if you go, be sure to check out the Palace bar on Whiskey Row and the Phippen art museum = and spare a thought for the Yarnell hotshots at their memorial on the way. If you go all the way to Flagstaff, the Museum of Northern Arizona and the Lowell Observatory are cool and eat at La Fonda restaurant, I've eaten there since I was at NAU 55 years ago, and it's still a family owned and operated, outstanding Mexican restaurant.
Came for Pontiac info, but I am NOT disappointed.
Noddaz said:Came for Pontiac info, but I am NOT disappointed.
Pontiac Phoenix advice would be to buy a 77-79 model, unless you want to be crazy and swap a newer 60 degree V6 into an 80-84 as some kind of weird Citation X-11 restomod.
If you go up to the Sedona area, be aware that a Phoenix club put on a few sports car hillclimbs in the area back in the early '60s (before I came to the area for graduate school). The Jerome event must have been really short, but the Sedona event was on Schnebley Hill road, which is unpaved and has spectacular views. The Schnebley Hill event was won back in the day by a guy named Doug Roe, who is famous among Corvair people because he had a killer early Vair race car (turboed) that took first overall, beating Cobras, etc. I had dinner with Doug Roe at a CORSA mini convention in Phoenix back around 1980 or so, where I was giving a program on stage rallying late model Corvairs. He was an interesting guy, also drove a Buick at Pikes Peak.
They also ran hillclimbs at Clifton and Bisbee, I drove Clifton one year in a friend's 850 Mini, it had ignition problems and we fought each other for last overall. He won the 2-car D Sedan class, I took the Horse's Ass award. It was fun.
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