Best of Phoenix

Heritage and Science Park [1]: Get a glimpse of Phoenix’s original Victorian-era townsite. Heritage Square’s eight historic homes now house small museums and popular restaurants and bars, and its futuristic Arizona Science Center is the perfect spot to escape the summer heat.

Heard Museum [2]: Perhaps the finest collection of Native American art in the world, the Heard Museum is one of Arizona’s great treasures. Learn about the incredibly rich culture of the state’s original inhabitants.

Phoenix Art Museum [3]: A $50 million expansion has helped transform the museum into a sleek, stylish cultural institution. The museum’s galleries feature a diverse selection of American, European, and Latin American artists, as well as Asian art and fashion design.

Burton Barr Central Library [4]: This iconic building’s rectangular, rusted-steel facade has come to define the region’s Desert Modernism architecture movement. Be sure to peek inside and check out the views.

Hole-in-the-Rock [5]: Join Phoenicians who gather in Papago Park to hike this rounded, red-rock formation that was once used by the ancient Hohokam civilization for astronomy.

Desert Botanical Garden [6]: Get a taste of the Sonoran Desert without leaving the city. The garden easily claims the world’s largest collection of desert plants, with some 21,000 cacti, shrubs, trees, and colorful wildflowers.

Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park [7]: Discover Phoenix’s ancient roots. The site of a Hohokam village that stood here from about A.D. 100 to 1400, Pueblo Grande offers a fascinating into the city’s past.

Arizona Museum of Natural History [8]: Pan for gold, visit a territorial jail, and scope out the mammoth dinosaur fossils. This fun, interactive museum explores Arizona’s natural and cultural history.