Old Town Scottsdale is the historic core of the wealthy suburb just east of Phoenix and one of the few parts of the metro you can comfortably explore on foot. The eight or so square blocks centred on Scottsdale Road combine boot stores and Native American jewelry shops with high-end art galleries, cocktail lounges, and some of the metro's best-known restaurants. The architecture leans theme-park Western, all wooden boardwalks and false fronts, but the galleries and food are the real reason to come.
Thursday-night ArtWalk has been running since the 1970s — over 100 galleries stay open into the evening, often with the artists present. The bar district along Stetson Drive and Saddlebag Trail gets boisterous after dark, especially during Cactus League spring training in March. Day or night, it's the closest thing the Phoenix metro has to a tourist strip, in good and bad senses.