Welcome to the Travel in the United States Series. This series will explore family friendly vacation options in each of the 50 states (and as a bonus, I will include our Nation’s capital, The District of Columbia). An index to all the 50 States posts can be found here.
Before I visited Arizona, I thought it was just one big desert! This is certainly not the case. Arizona can be divided into five distinct districts:
- Northern Arizona – Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Monument Valley, Page. Not only can you experience the majestic beauty of the canyons, but also explore evergreen forests.
- Arizona’s West Coast – Kingman, Lake Havasu, Parker, Yuma. Water skiing is at its finest in Lake Havasu and is a popular destination for Californians. Why not try rafting on the Colorado River?
- North Central Arizona – Globe-Miami, Prescott, Jerome, Payson, Sedona. You won’t want to miss the red rocks in Sedona!
- Phoenix & Central Arizona – Glendale, Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale. Phoenix is home to some of the best resorts in the country. Golf is a popular pastime in this district.
- Tucson & Southern Arizona – Bisbee, Tombstone, Sierra Vista, Tuscon. Experience Arizona’s rich history and maybe visit a vineyard of two!
For a personal look at Arizona, Leila from Life as Leels shares her thoughts on some of the great places to visit in Arizona:
I have lived in Arizona for 10 years now and have several places I have enjoyed spending time at or places that are still on my list to attend.
You may have seen or heard of the movie Tombstone? Well, we have Tombstone, Arizona. Tombstone is in southern Arizona and is a large tourist attraction. I personally have yet to explore Tombstone, but friends have enjoyed their trip down there. Founded in 1877, this is the home of the famous gunfight at the OK Corral. Experience the Old west with saloons, candy shops and gift stores, plus great kid activities.
Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch is one of my favorite places to visit when we travel down to Tucson. It is located off the I-10 freeway between Phoenix and Tucson at the base of Picacho Peak Mountain. They have live deer, ostrich, burros, goats and lorikeets that you can feed (the lorikeets are my favorite part!) They also provide monster truck tours on the ranch!
Rawhide Western Town and Steakhouse: They call it an 1880’s western town with cowboy gun fights with delicious food and good music. Rawhide also has a train ride, stagecoach ride, burro rides for the kids, panning for gold and a petting zoo too! Rawhide is located in south of the Phoenix metro area.
The Phoenix Zoo is a day of fun located in Phoenix. It is home to more of the desert animals than some states can home and is a day of enjoyable fun.
The Desert Botanical Garden is in the same area as the Phoenix Zoo and is a beautiful desert landscape. If you are a photographer, I highly recommend getting some natural photos of the beauty that is Arizona. You may also stumble across some desert wildlife of hummingbirds, butterflies, and lizards!
The Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium is an outdoor zoo located north of the Phoenix metro area. It is a large outdoor zoo that offers different animals than our typical zoo including white tigers.
The Out of Africa Park is also located north of the Phoenix metro area. While it is on the pricier side, I highly recommend going. If I had the choice, I would love there! Out of Africa has a wide variety of large cats on display, but our favorite part was the tiger water show where the trainers and the tigers played inside an enclosure with a water pool. It is a large park that takes majority of the day to visit, but is definitely worth going to.
They also have an “open bus” ride through a part of the park where the animals are free to roam straight up to you, including giraffes who will eat carrots straight from your hand (or mouth if you want them that close!)
You can’t miss out visiting the Grand Canyon. It is a national park that I think everyone should see at least once in their lives as it is a breathtakingly beautiful, “large hole” in the world. I visited when I was a kid and can’t wait to take my kids one day!
The Grand Canyon is located in Northwest Arizona. In addition, you can find further information regarding lodging, hiking, guided tours, mule trips and river trips on their website to enhance your visit to the Grand Canyon.
In addition to the attractions that are among my favorites, we do have lakes! You can fish (with a license) or my favorite – boating. On our lakes, not only do you have the beautifully scenery of the mountains, but you might come across mountain goats or bald eagles. Some of the lakes even have boat “tours” that you can take.
Arizona may be the desert, but we have some fun things to do and beautiful scenery to take advantage of!
About the Contributor: Leila blogs at Life as Leels and MN Girl Livin’ in an AZ World. She is a mother of three who was born and raised in Minnesota before moving to Wisconsin and then on to Arizona! Leela keeps busy with her children, her part time job as an office manager and studying to complete her Master’s degree in mental health counseling.
I’ve heard Arizona is beautiful! One of the few states I’ve never visited. I was actually just telling the husband I want to move there because of my allergies.
Krystyn @ Really, Are You Serious? recently posted..Baby thug life
So many people love the dry weather in Arizona, Nevada and Utah. I know a lot of allergy sufferers that have moved West.
Yet another place to add to my list of places to see!
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Love your post on Arizona. I haven’t been there since I was a teenager. Went to see the Grand Canyon of course, but we ended up visiting a lot of places that were very memorable and beautiful. Arizona is definitely more than a desert. Your post ahs me wanting to visit again this time with my children.
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The Grand Canyon is such an awesome site to see. Next time I visit I want to take the Mule ride down to the bottom.
I have never been to Arizona unless visiting the Four Corners counts! Part of my body was in Arizona (and three other states) for a little bit! Looks gorgeous though!
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I love Four Corners! Not much there but it is so cool to be in four States at once.
I’d love to visit Arizona! Especially right now. I could use some warm climate vacation time! I’d love to see Tombstone! That place looks amazing!
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I would love to visit Arizona. It looks like a great place to vacation.
Arizona looks like a place I could get used to! Especially the parts with very little snow 🙂
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I hear you! I am not a snow person either having grown up in Southern California.
It looks beautiful! I would love to visit Arizona!
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My dad visited AZ and he said if he ever left West Virginia, he would go to AZ. I have driven through parts of it, but did not get to see any of the attractions, as I was in a semi. Vicki
It is a beautiful and diverse place. Very hot in the summers though!
A great post. I have many relatives in Arizona but have yet to visit. There are so many things and places to check out. The Red Rocks are so beautiful and I’d love to see them. Thanks for sharing.
carol L
My mom lives in Arizona – her photos are breathtaking!
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I love taking vacation to AZ, love the landscapes and the weather. My favorite thing to do is go to the Desert Botanical Garden and I also had fun at a diamondback game.
i wanna go next time… lol
I want to go to Tombstone! That looks like so much fun!
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Me too! Such a part of the American West history. I love anything historical.
What a beautiful state! I’d love to visit there one day….. but definitely not in the summer time!!
Yes it is a little hot in the summer. I think Spring and Fall are the best.
I love Arizona. I had a really great time at the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon is amazing, right? It is definitely a must see.
Arizona looks so gorgeous! My Mom & I are the only ones in the family that hasn’t been – my Dad was there on business and my brothers flew there to a Diamondbacks baseball game as part of their hope to see all the ballparks. I think I’ll have to visit soon!
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You must go! The scenery is just amazing!
havnt been out there since I was a kid visiting family. a friend just moved to Mesa though, so now I have an excuse to visit!
I’ve been to Arizona a few times when I was younger and it was really nice there. I would love to go there again now that i’m older.
I was born in Phoenix, AZ but I moved when I was only a few months old so I’d like to go there again to see what my home state is like. I’ve always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon. Everything else you mentioned I’ll have to put on my list. Some parts of AZ are very gorgeous!