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Old 10-14-2013, 03:05 PM
 
Location: Chandler, AZ
4,054 posts, read 5,067,807 times
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No one mentioned Biosphere 2? Tombstone and Old Tucson Studios?
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Old 10-14-2013, 03:07 PM
 
9,091 posts, read 19,135,847 times
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None are particularly close to Phoenix though

I went to Biosphere 2 shortly after I moved out here .... I haven't been back since it's changed management, but it was a horrible waste of time and money and the tour guide as just awful

There are plenty of good options in southern AZ though
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Old 10-14-2013, 03:10 PM
 
9 posts, read 29,491 times
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Phoenix is not only boring but pretty slow for as large as it is!! There are some things to take in but a person has to look long and hard to find the activity that even comes close to what there is in any large City of Phoenix's size!!

So go watch the Cardinals lose or drive Downtown to see how lousy the Suns play!! Sports are everywhere in this City but the teams hardly ever win and there isn't too much local interest from what it seems!! Everybody knows the Yankees, Giants, Dodgers, Braves but hardly anybody even knows who the Diamondbacks are!!

[mod cut- off topic]

edit
Somebody posted before that most large cities have an element of boredom, even Los Angeles!! That is nonsense!! L.A. has tons of things to do, if not right in the City then in the area, especially theme parks of all kinds!! Where in Phoenix can you go someplace that even comes close to a theme park except the Castles place ??!!

I don't consider the State Fair on the same level as a theme park, that seems to be the big excitement around here at this time!! Wow-wee, the State Fair, it lasts three weeks and then it's gone for another year!! That's about how things operate in the Midwest, everybody looks forward to a once-per-year Fair full of fried junk food and thrill rides but not much else to do other than that!!

Last edited by observer53; 11-06-2013 at 07:55 AM..
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Old 10-14-2013, 06:07 PM
 
1,292 posts, read 3,454,592 times
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What you can do with out-of-town guests really depends on who they are, their ages, what their interests are, and how outdoorsy they are.

We probably don't have as many things to do or so as Boston or D.C. (much older) or cities whose economies are built on tourism (Las Vegas, L.A.) but we have our charms. I lived in L.A. for 11 years before coming back here and the "excitement" of living through two major earthquakes that devastated our home, civil unrest and rioting in response to a controversial court trial that shut down the city and devastated the city's economy, unending construction traffic snarls and miles-long traffic tie-ups at any hour of night or day, soaring home prices for tiny bungalows and an obsession with celebrities and personal appearance, both of which warps one's frame of personal values; and a celebrity murder trial that was all anyone could talk about, all made the cultural amenities of L.A. when visitors came a whole lot less attractive to me. Say what you will about the heat, but you can plan for it. I don't have to worry about earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, civil unrest, or typhoons here. Boring has its advantages.

We had a fantastic theme park for about a decade (Legend City), now it exists only in my memories:







You could walk from Legend City, to the Phoenix Municipal Baseball Stadium (Go, Phoenix Giants!), to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, to a Go-Kart track, to the Phoenix Zoo, and to the Desert Botanical Garden, and grab a baked Italian sandwich at Riazzi's, all within about a 5 minute walk of each other, back in the 1960s and 1970s. That hub on Van Buren/Washington was our city's big recreation zone back then.

Things to do in Phoenix and its neighbors for out-of-town visitors, off the top of my head:

CULTURAL: Musical Instruments Museum (really world-class, for whatever type of music you prefer, from classical to rock); Heard Museum; Phoenix Art Museum; Taliesin West and the many Frank Lloyd Wright buildings around town; First Fridays; Casa Grande ruins (in Coolidge, not Casa Grande); Cosanti (Paolo Soleri's studio, where they make the wind bells and where he pioneered his ram-earth construction techniques for Arcosanti) and Arcosanti up at Cordes Junction; ASU Museum of Anthropology (well worth a visit); Cooperstown (Alice Cooper's Restaurant, near DBax stadium); Pueblo Grande Museum (You want old? We got old buildings. 1,500 years old); Riordan Mansion (beautiful Arts and Crafts style home/museum in Flagstaff); Rosson House in downtown Phoenix.

OUTDOOR TYPES: South Mountain (largest city park in America, larger than NY's Central Park); Piestewa Peak; Phoenix Zoo; Sedona; Flagstaff, Desert Botanical Gardens; Hole in the Rock in Papago Park; Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum; Deer Valley Rock Art Center, Camelback Mountain (Make sure your guests are fit enough to do some of those mountain trails, bring water and make sure it's not too hot.) Cactus League games. Cardinals, DBax, Coyotes, college games.

OFF THE WALL ATTRACTIONS: Mystery (Gulley) Castle (for an example of Vernacular Architecture at its best); Hall of Flame (world-class fire engine museum); Arizona Military Museum (very cool for veterans and military buffs, also kids); Phoenix Police Museum (check out the boulder we used to manacle arrestees to while they waited for the Territory Marshal); Center for Meteorite Studies (Well, _I_ think it's cool!), the World's Smallest Museum in Superior; and of course, The Thing! (What is it?).

WITH KIDS: MCormick-Stillman Railroad Park (at Christmas-time especially, but fun park any time); Arizona Science Center; Zoo (of course), and especially the Zoo-Lights display at Christmas; Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff; Arizona Museum of Natural History in Mesa (Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs! DINOSAURS!) Pima Air and Space Museum near Tucson and the Titan Missile Museum (climb down into a deactivated nuclear missile silo for a fascinating glimpse of Cold War history); McDowell Mountain Aqua Park in Scottsdale.
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Old 10-15-2013, 09:18 PM
 
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YES! Not a damn thing for my guests to do - luckily they only come to spend time with me.
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Old 10-16-2013, 01:45 AM
 
Location: New Mexico and Arizona
267 posts, read 689,429 times
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Musical instrument museum, with concerts and special activities.
Titan Missile Museum just south of Tucson; either the basic frequent short tours or the occasional top-to-bottom special tour.
Arcosanti up by Cordes Junction.
A trip to a mountain-top observatory... check for times and availability of tours or open times.
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Old 10-16-2013, 01:51 AM
 
Location: New Mexico and Arizona
267 posts, read 689,429 times
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My in-laws visited Biosphere a few months ago and thought it was more interesting now that the school is doing research there; they thought people there were knowledgeable and interesting.

Wife once did Old Tucson with a youth group quite some time ago and wasn't impressed with the food and thought the place overall was just okay. Have there been changes?
AZ-Sonora Desert Museum, of course.
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Old 10-16-2013, 04:16 PM
 
Location: La Jolla, CA
7,284 posts, read 16,594,650 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Madhatter015 View Post
L.A. has tons of things to do, if not right in the City then in the area, especially theme parks of all kinds!! Where in Phoenix can you go someplace that even comes close to a theme park except the Castles place ??!!
That has to be one of the most disparate comparisons possible. Comparing Phoenix to L.A. is like comparing Des Moines to Phoenix.
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Old 10-16-2013, 05:15 PM
 
717 posts, read 1,050,139 times
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Whenever I go back to Phoenix i'm always more excited about the possibilities for getting out of town on day trips than staying in the "city". PHX truly lives up to its "one giant suburb" rep. Mill Ave is probably the most interesting and vibrant area in the entire metro, and its nothing you couldn't find in dozens of small towns and small cities throughout the country.
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Old 10-17-2013, 10:20 PM
 
1,484 posts, read 2,251,322 times
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I took mine on a boat ride on the lake - the one out by Ghostfield. They enjoyed the shootout at Ghostfield. Yeah, it's touristy but your guests wanna do something touristy right? That and the boat ride was very nice. I agree compared to other large cities there's not a WHOLE lot, but I enjoy all the hiking. Them, not as much. I want to do Sedona with them next time.
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