The state capital and largest city in Arizona,
PHOENIX
holds only minimal appeal for tourists. When it began life in the 1860s, it must have seemed like a good idea. The sweltering little farming town stood in the heart of the large Salt River Valley, with a ready-made irrigation system left by ancient Indians (the name Phoenix honors the fact that the city rose from the ashes of a long-vanished
Hohokam
community). Within a century, however, Phoenix had turned into what writer Edward Abbey called "the blob that is eating Arizona," acquiring as it did so the money and political clout to defy the self-evident absurdity of building a huge city in a virtually waterless desert. Now the sixth largest city in the US, it has filled the entire valley, engulfing the neighboring towns of
Scottsdale, Mesa
and
Tempe
in the process, with over a million people within the city boundaries and more than two million in the metropolitan area. Arizona's financial and industrial epicenter may just be getting into its stride; boosters claim the megalopolis will one day stretch 150 miles, from Wickenburg to Tucson.
Arrival And Information : Sky Harbor International Airport
(tel 602/273-3321), three miles east of downtown, is connected by Valley Metro
buses
(tel 602/253-5000) with down town, Tempe and Mesa, but it's easier to take a door-to-door shuttle bus, at $14 for downtown destinations or around $20 for Scottsdale, with a company such as SuperShuttle (tel 602/244-9000 or 1-800/BLUEVAN, ). Arizona Shuttle Services (tel 928/795-6671 or 1-800/888-2749, ) runs an hourly service south to Tucson, costing $24. More Phoenix information...
NORTH OF SCOTTSDALE / CAREFREE The Boulders Resort is an exclusive five diamond resort shaped into the dramatic 12-million-year-old boulder piles in the Sonoran desert foothills located 15 minutes north of Scottsdale.
JEWEL OF THE DESERT / PHOENIX The Arizona Biltmore has been an Arizona landmark since it's opening on February 23rd, 1929 when it was crowned "The Jewel of the Desert.
Call toll free..
US and Canada: 1-800-780-5733
Europe: 00-800-11-20-11-40
Use discount code: 89865
