Things to do in Scottsdale

Scottsdale is known for its many athletic opportunities. The city has dozens of blue-chip golf courses; there are miles of trails for running, biking, and horseback riding; and during high season, baseball fans swarm to spring training games. Of course, there are many visitors who are content to spend their days poolside, and why not? With its mountain panoramas, towering palms, and saguaro cacti, the rugged beauty of the Sonoran Desert landscape looks just as good from a chaise longue as it does on a hike through the McDowell Sonoran Preserve or the Desert Botanical Garden. Scottsdale is also an oasis of culture, with theaters, galleries, a museum devoted to the arts and crafts of cowboy and Native American life, and a world-class collection at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. Be sure to also explore the city’s landmark architecture. Taliesin West, the 1937 winter home of Frank Lloyd Wright, is a marvel of Modernism. Additionally, Wright’s best-known protégé, Piero Soleri, crafted his own vision of an organic and futuristic style at Cosanti, an artists’ compound that is said to have inspired George Lucas’s Star Wars worlds.