Matthew: Welcome to The Travel Podcast. And on this episode we'll take you to experience Scottsdale, Arizona. I'm Matthew from The Travel Podcast and I'll be your host on this episode and I'm joined by Jules from The Travel Podcast and Emily from Experience Scottsdale, who is joining us live from Scottsdale, where it's a balmy 20 degrees celsius at 9:00 AM in the morning. Jules and I are here in the UK and it's five o'clock and it's sunny but it's definitely not 20 degrees Celsius. It may be pushing eight or 10 and it's five o'clock in the afternoon so 20 degrees in the morning. What's this all going to get to in the afternoon there today, Emily.

Emily: Oh, honestly, probably I'm not going to be as good at Celsius, but it'll probably hit about 80 Fahrenheit, which, what's that? 25-26 for you guys? I know it's that perfect, beautiful temperature.

Matthew: Yeah, that's like a normal summer day for us.

Emily: [crosstalk]. It's just another average day.

Matthew: Yeah. People would definitely be in their swimwear when it's 20 degrees at 9:00 AM, let alone 26. Just to start off this episode, it'd be great if you just give us an explanation of yourself, introduce yourself, what you do out in Scottsdale, and then go into an overview of Scottsdale as a quick five minute overview, roughly.

Emily: Yeah, absolutely. My name's Emily. I live in Scottsdale, Arizona. I work for Experience Scottsdale, which is the tourism board so my only job is to convince people to come to beautiful, sunny Arizona all the time. Not a hard gig when you love where you live. I always joke and say that Scottsdale is the perfect place because it's built by locals for locals first and tourists second. Everything that I'm going to tell you to do, I do, I recommend for others. Scottsdale, we are a city, a independent city. Some people get us confused with Phoenix because we're part of the greater Phoenix metropolitan, but we are our own city. We're located in Arizona, which is in the Southwest of the US. We're about five and a half hours from Vegas by car, about four hours to the Grand Canyon, and about six hours to the beach in either San Diego or California. Really not a bad location to gateway into the greater South West.

Emily: Over the years, we have evolved as a destination known for its resorts and our Gulf and our spas. We have over 70 hotels and resorts in Scottsdale. Anything from a quaint little eight room bed and breakfast style all the way up to a 700 plus mega luxury resort with multiple pools and dining and shops. The weather, as we talked about, is stunning year round. We get about 330 days of sunshine and even though it can get up to, let's say, 40 degrees celsius in the summer, the other nine months, it stays at about 20 to 25 so we're pretty lucky.

Emily: I went to university not far from Scottsdale and I didn't even own a winter coat because it never gets that cold here. It's pretty lovely, I'm not going to lie. Outside of our resorts, I mentioned we've got great golf courses, we have 51 premier golf courses. They're known for desert golf, which is really challenging. It takes like four and a half hours because of its target style. We've got really great spa products that you can waste many days in, just relaxing and using nature's botanicals. A lot of people really like coming to Scottsdale for our old town, which is like our city centre. That's where I live. It's very quaint and very charming and it looks like it's fake, but it's very real and genuine and still very cosmopolitan even though it looks like a little old west town. In addition to that, we've got great arts and culture, we've got award-winning public art, hundreds of galleries, world-class museums, shopping, and probably my favourite part, which is food, we have over 800 restaurants in Scottsdale. I have not been able to eat through them all but it is a dream. It is a dream. Let's see, is there anything else that you want me to touch on in my little snapshot of Scottsdale?

Matthew: No, I think that's ... I know Jules always got very excited when you mentioned food there. She, well, we both have our food. There's a nice little street food place around where, from our office, we're in the office, we're both working from home at the moment, that's our little guilty pleasure. Yeah, we all have a great time but I suppose a lot of people may think of it, like you said, as part of Phoenix, Arizona rather than its own little town and you touched on the fact of the nature and it's interesting how, I didn't realize, that it's like 43% of Scottsdale's land areas is dedicated to open spaces so you're always surrounded by nature and being able to get out. Although you've got, like you said, so many restaurants and the large hotels, you'll feel like you're still in nature so I can assume that's where a lot of these spas and where people came to get away to try and relax as well.

Emily: Yeah. It's actually kind of funny because Scottsdale started as a farming town so we were known for growing citrus because our weather is obviously so beautiful and the Hohokam Indians had these great canal systems for irrigation. We actually still kind of use those today. They're crazy canals, one of those straight down old town. Now we have art festivals on it but it is what it is. But, as you mentioned, we are so fortunate. We're in the Sonoran Desert, which is by far the most beautiful, stunning desert in the world. It's so lush and so green year round, which is shocking to people.

Emily: The swirl cactus, the big ones with the arms, we are the only desert that those grow in. If you see them outside of the Sonoran desert, they've actually been transported, they may not survive long. They definitely don't grow in Texas, despite what wild West sometimes makes you think. But it is pretty fascinating because they get to be like six times the height of me. They're very mysterious, no one really knows how old they are because the arms take between like 50 and 75 years to grow, they can sprout twins. People used to think you can count the arms, roughly it gives you the age, but we also have [inaudible] and Teddy-bear cholla and Jojoba bushes and all of these wonderful, wonderful desert plants that surrounds you with nature.

Emily: In addition to that, as you mentioned, most of our land is open space. As a city, a while back, we decided that we needed to have a preserve, we needed to preserve this stunning desert. Actually, a third of our city limits will never be built on. It's called the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. It's definitely, we're local still. We're always hiking or bicycling through it, sometimes you'll see a horseback, but there is no motorized vehicles allowed. It's hundreds and hundreds of trails that are interconnected in the Sonoran Desert through the McDowell Mountains and it's just absolutely stunning. When you actually add it up, it's the largest urban preserve in the United States, which is incredible. Like I said, I live in old town and despite us being a bigger city part of Phoenix, which is like the fifth largest in the US, you always can see stars no matter where you are. Maybe it's like three or four in old town but you go out into the preserve and it's just hundreds of them everywhere.

Emily: We're very fortunate. A lot of our buildings, it's funny because you work in tourism and you see these iconic skylines. You see the New York skyline, the San Francisco bridge, the Vegas strip, you see all these beautiful images, and for us, we don't really have that. Our city is very sprawley and very built low to the ground. There's actually regulations for buildings that you cannot build over four stories unless you get special permitting or you're an apartment complex because they're really trying to preserve the nature of the land. Old town is one story tall. It's very cute but it's very hard to photograph. Desert, same thing. You have dozens and dozens of green cacti everywhere, impossible to photograph but it's stunning. It's one of those places that you go and you get this energy and this beautiful feeling of relaxation but excitement and revitalization. We're pretty lucky over here.

Matthew: I was just thinking about relaxation there, thinking of some of those hikes, Jules, and we did a charity trek in Columbia and it's already invoked a lot of our spirits to walk out in the wilderness. Doing that and getting out into the nature reserve will be absolutely stunning. I know we've been doing some research on the area so I know Jules has got a great question for you.

Emily: Yeah, definitely.

Jules: Yeah, Emily, I wanted to ask, I'd read about the flashlight tour at the desert botanical gardens.

Emily: Yeah, absolutely. The desert botanical garden is definitely a unique place to visit. It's one of my personal favourites. My grandparents have been, I've been, all kinds of people. It's kind of located in Southern Scottsdale right on the border between us and Phoenix. We're literally next door to each other so we kind of share the garden, but it's stunning because in the summer months, when it gets a little warmer, they actually do their flashlight tour series, which desert plants are really smart. They know it can get hot, they know it can get warm during the day, and so they're like, "Why am I going to bloom and die? I'm going to bloom at night when it's beautiful." Most animals here are also nocturnal because they know that you kind of skew your days out of the sun in the summer. And so, sure enough, in the summer months, they do a flashlight tour series. You get to see these beautiful cactus blooms that you never honestly get to see unless you're out at night. I always recommend going right at golden hour. You get the beautiful sunset, you get these beautiful golden colours and then you're there through the night and so you can kind of go back and do it again and that time you can actually see those flowers start opening up and the nocturnal critters kind of coming out.

Emily: It's definitely a unique thing to experience and one of my personal favourites.

Jules: Yeah, and another thing we loved doing along the Dorset Coast is kayaking. I had a really great experience along the salt river.

Emily: Yeah, no, definitely. No matter where you are in Scottsdale, in about 45 minutes, you can get out into the Sonoran Desert and be completely surrounded by it. What people don't realize is we're also between a lot of rivers and lake systems so people can go boating and, as you mentioned, you can go kayaking. They actually changed the river flow so the salt river's open kind of late spring, summer and really you go out early in the morning, there's this beautiful misty overlay of the water. I was fortunate enough to see an otter one morning, which is a very rare sighting but it's by no means hard to kayak. It's definitely not white waters, it's very mellow. You go with the flow of the river but you can see up to two dozen horses with their foals and it's so peaceful and so relaxing to get out in the desert and then you forget you're in a desert and you're like, "Holy cow, there's a cactus. Wait a minute." And then it reminds you that you're in this beautiful lush desert. It's honestly one of the best things to do when you come to Scottsdale is kayaking.

Matthew: I was just going to say, I know you mentioned earlier about in the McDowell preserve that you can't do ATV or anything. I know that from, like you said, there's lots of activities and I did have a little bit of a look as well so I know there's some great ATV or UTV tours and sunset [inaudible 00:12:02], like you said, it's going into that golden hour. Is there one of your favorites that you could highlight?

Emily: Yeah. Kind of a two part question there. Obviously the preserve being a preserve, it's just the non-motorized vehicles but, outside of that, we've got other parts of the Sonoran Desert, We've got Tonto National Forest and a lot of other areas that you can do recreation. We're very lucky that we get hot air balloon rides, you get sunrise and sunset. Sunset's more of a spring, winter thing but it's absolutely stunning to get up above the clouds in a hot air balloon. Very peaceful, even if you're scared of heights, apparently. And then we also have, as you mentioned, ATVs, UTVs, Hummer tours. It's crazy because the different levels change dramatically how your experience is so there's a company that's really great, they're called Stellar Adventures. We partner with them frequently and they're able to do all the different tiers. I've been fortunate enough to do all of their different programming with the exception of their new beer tour, which I need to get on. But they actually do a Hummer tour where you go through the desert really slowly and you get to really learn about the desert plants. I think I've learned more about the desert in that two hour tour than I've ever learned outside of it.

Emily: The UTV is pretty incredible, it's a side by side car so it has a steering wheel but it's still a little bit of that adrenaline. You can fit four people in it so it's really good for families. And then the final piece of that is the ATV, which is my favourite. I'm an adrenaline junkie. I want to go fast. I want to go all over the rocks, do what I can. But what's really fortunate about having partners like Stellar and others that we work with is that they can kind of customize things. Say you're coming to Scottsdale and me and my dad are adrenaline junkies, my mom is absolutely not. Me and my dad can go on ATVs, her and my sister can go in the UTV, and we can still have the same experience together, which is pretty incredible. They also do a stargazing program, which is pretty fantastic. I have a picture on my phone that I took through the telescope that you can count the craters on the moon because it was that clear and that bright and that beautiful and I learned about all kinds of constellations. The only one I remember is Debden and Albireo because I love the names and I'm going to name future pets after it.

Matthew: What kind of pets are you going to have for those names?

Emily: You know, it's tricky. I was thinking like little French Bulldogs because I think like, "Oh, what are their names?" "Debden and Albireo." I don't know, it just kinda seems like it works, but we'll see.

Matthew: Some very cool dogs, French Bulldogs, love that. And moving on there, from obviously the great outdoors right on the doorstep, to you mentioned old town Scottsdale earlier and being the heart of it where you live and I know you mentioned the art district and the shopping. Is that all based in the old town area?

Emily: Yes, it is. Old town, it's our city centre. It's actually pretty walkable and small, all things considered, it's about 1.6 kilometers. For instance, I live on the south end, my favourite bar is on the north end and it takes a solid 17 minutes to walk there at a leisurely pace, hitting every red light on the way. Very easy to get around, there's different districts. We have free parking, which is kind of incredible because that includes parking garages, which is definitely a hot commodity when you have sunshine all the time, and then we also have a trolley that'll take you around. Really, really nice to kind of pop in the different areas. The arts district is extremely popular. It's in the southern bit. We have a free art walk every Thursday, year round. We have hundreds and hundreds of galleries. We've got contemporary galleries that feature works from, say, Banksy actually, all the way down to like Western Native American art, digital art, pottery, sculptures, bronze work, anything you would want, and we have it. On the Thursdays, which is pretty special, we have Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art does free admission so you can make a night of it.

Emily: Outside of that we have the historic district. I always recommend that's where you're going to get your postcards, your little [inaudible] like, "I hugged a cactus souvenir," and things like that. It's the historic buildings. Even though they aren't what they used to be there, there's lots of little neat ones. The little red school house, it's been a jail, it's been a schoolhouse and now it's a free museum. You've got Rusty Spur Saloon, which is a very popular destination in and of itself. They have live country music seven days a week. They actually are the original bank of Scottsdale so they don't have beer on draft. They actually store all beer in the old vault so I always joke around and say, "Now you can just get liquid gold at the old bank." And then our old post office is actually now a bar as well called Porter's. Really unique how they've taken these original historic buildings and transformed them into something else.

Emily: Fifth Avenue is another great little area that I love. It's all the little shops so I'd say that's more of your clothing, your houseware, little trinkets. I discovered my favourite artists there at one of the stores, and then, outside of that, you also have Western Spirit, which is Scottsdale's Museum of the West. One of the debut exhibits that they had was this huge collection of old west movie posters. They rotate out their exhibit about three times a year so you're always going to see something new. Even though you can't see that, you can see the other lovely Western heritage that they have.

Emily: It's a Smithsonian affiliate. The building was designed to actually look like a cactus and it shades itself throughout the day as part of that lead certification. And then we also have got Scottsdale fashion square, which is where you're going to find your Gucci's, your Cartier's, your Lulu Lemon's, which is obviously popular because everyone wants to go shopping. And then kind of sprinkled throughout all of old town, you've got restaurants, bars, we've got six Arizona wine tasting rooms. Yes, we grow wine in Arizona, not necessarily in Scottsdale, but you can drink the wine here. We've got local breweries. And then, in addition to that, we have the entertainments district. Now, that's where you go out out. I know that's what you guys say over there and that is the place that you go if you are going to have a nightclub experience with DJs, bottle service and it is like a little horseshoe of just bar after night club after bar after nightclub. It's really fun. It can get you in trouble but all of that, that I just mentioned, is in this tiny little 1.6 kilometer space, which is pretty incredible.

Jules: Yeah, no getting those sore feet from them heels then.

Emily: Yeah. To make your feet not hurt, we actually have little golf carts that you can take around and they serve as taxi cab so you actually have two options.

Jules: Emily, let's talk about food.

Emily: Yes. Oh, I love food. What would you like to know about the food?

Jules: Okay, we've heard about this weird delicacy that you need to explain to [inaudible] In the UK, brussels sprouts are the worst thing ever. But you turn them into something amazing.

Matthew: Hold on, I love brussels sprouts at Christmas.

Jules: Yeah. Only because your mom makes you, Matthew.

Matthew: [inaudible 00:19:46].

Emily: You are alluding to a very foreign delicacy that we have. Brussels sprout nachos. If you haven't, pull out your phone and look them up because they are one of the most photogenic foods that you will ever see in your life. It's at a little local restaurant called Diego Pops. It's right across the street from my office, which is very dangerous, mind you, but it is basically a plate full of tortilla chips. You've got queso, like a white queso, and then you've got shaved brussels sprouts, pickled onion, beat crema drizzled atop, and then just to make it even more beautiful, they put a sunny side egg right on top of it that you just kinda mix the yolk all together. Oh, it's so delicious. I'm going to have to go pick one up today, I think.

Jules: Can you get one of those after your night out out?

Emily: I know that they do have late night options available so I'm not sure. It depends on how out out you go but I do know they have late offerings that you can go pick it up and then they have some other options on their menu that are delicious, like their tacos, and then if you start your night there, you can also have a snow cone margarita if you're up to it.

Matthew: I'm definitely up for snow come margarita. That sounds like my time along with the wine tasting rooms, and I know there's also a gin tasting that you can do and, obviously, you mentioned so many restaurants. Do you do have foodie tours?

Emily: We do. What I honestly would recommend for anyone who is like me and you really can't decide on a single restaurant to go to is to take advantage of our food tour. They do take place in old town because they are walking food tours so you're going to stay in that concentrated area but as a bonus you kind of get to learn about the history about Porters or the Rusty Spur, even if you don't actually go into those buildings, and why I love those tours is they only focus on local restaurants. To be included in the tour, it has to be a local eatery. Even though we do have really, really great Hispanic, Mexican and Southwest inspired cuisine, we also have really good Italian inspired and other delicacies around the world because so many chefs from San Francisco, Chicago, New York, they've come to the desert because the weather's beautiful. And so, they kind of take all of these experiences, whether it be their family recipe or whether it's from when they were learning how to be a chef and they kind of incorporate it together and they fuse these elements from the Southwest. It's always really unique and local but it's delicious.

Emily: Another staple restaurant that I always recommend, another Mexican one, you know what my favourite type of food is, is called The Mission. There's two locations now. We have one in old town Scottsdale and we have one in what's called the [inaudible] commons, which is like an outdoor shopping, dining, entertainment space in the north part of Scottsdale and their guacamole is out of this world. I mean, I still have people that have visited and they're like, "Can I get some of that guacamole mailed to me?" They use like pipitas and chilies and they make it next to your table so they mix all of it together, you can customize it to whatever your preferences and then, outside of that, they've got really good tacos. Whether you're vegetarian, vegan or not, their vegetarian butternut squash, black bean tacos are one of the most flavourful things I've ever had.

Matthew: You're making me hungry. Thankfully, it's almost dinner time so once we finish this recording, I'll definitely be heading to the kitchen.

Emily: I'm making myself hungry, if I'm honest.

Matthew: You've got the whole day to go to these lovely restaurants, whereas myself, I'll be dreaming about these later. And I noticed that there's a new exhibition or exhibit, which is called Wonder Spaces and I know a lot of people have been putting pictures up on Instagram. Can you just delve a bit more into Wonder Spaces?

Emily: Yeah. Wonder Spaces is a new installation. It's located in fashion square, which is in the north part of old town. It's, honestly, one of my personal favourites. I like contemporary art and that's kind of what I'm drawn to when I am going to go to an exhibit and so, for them, they do about 12 or 13 exhibits. It changes every, I want to say, like four or five months. They're on their second exhibit now and what makes it so special is it's very interactive so the artists incorporate lights, sound, and you can actually walk within the exhibit. Right now, they have a really interesting one called The Sewing Machine Orchestra, I think. I might have butchered that name, but essentially, it's old sewing machines that are timed to light and sound and they make music together, which is pretty incredible. And then they always have a very interactive piece. The current exhibit, what they have is called The Confession Wall. They actually have little confession booths that you go in and they have these wooden placards and you write what your confession is. Sometimes they're uplifting, sometimes they're kind of sad, sometimes they're kind of funny, and then they display them all on the wall. And so, when you go through the exhibit, you can browse through them. Of course, it's all anonymous because you did it through the confession booth.

Emily: And then, obviously, you can tell what I like to do here, but at the end, they have a lovely bar that you can have a sangria and whoever you went with, you can talk about how wonderful the exhibit was.

Matthew: It sounds good to me. Anywhere in [inaudible] a nice bar and a nice drink or a nice cocktail or a gin, margarita, wine. Like you're saying, you're getting the culture and the art along with a nice conversation at the end over a drink or a glass of water or a fruit juice, depending on what your tickle is.

Emily: Exactly.

Matthew: And getting onto that, I know there's also [inaudible] world heritage sites. Talk about the art and culture in the area. And I believe it's ... Is it the Frank Lloyd Wright's-

Emily: Taliesin West, Yes.

Matthew: Thank you very much. Thank you for that.

Emily: We are very fortunate and I know that Franklin Wright is a famous artist architect, especially in the US, kind of globally. He is actually who designed the Guggenheim so very, very important dude. He actually had two homes in the US, he had one in the mid west and then he had one in Scottsdale. He's kind of the official Scottsdale snowbird. Taliesin West was his winter home and his whole design standpoint was using the landscape and the materials you have to build a structure within it. Taliesin West is a guided tour only, UNESCO World Heritage site that's located in North Scottsdale. It's fabulous because it's all run by different guides who have different history pieces that they love about Frank Lloyd Wright. Anytime you go, you kind of learn their personal perspective of Frank Lloyd Wright as you're walking through the museum. Well, it's not really a museum. It's a living ... It's hard to classify it because it's not a museum because you walk through it. It was an architectural school too so very, very challenging, small architectural school. But one of my favourite design concepts, just in terms of all the shapes and lines and colours, and then what's kind of special about that is that he inspired lots of places around the area too, whether it was his students or his own work.

Emily: We have art and architectural tours as well that you can take if you really want to learn more about Franklin Lloyd Wright. Another kind of Frank Lloyd Wright inspired building we have as a hotel in old town called Hotel Valley Ho, which is a historic hotel of America, even though it was only built in like the fifties or sixties. Pretty incredible, very modern and chic. There are rumours of certain celebrities meeting in secret there but they can't guarantee it because there are no pictures of them ever going. But it's pretty special but Taliesin West, I highly recommend to visit, especially to get that taste of American architecture.

Matthew: Wow, perfect. And like you says, it's getting the architecture and the history. I know you mentioned earlier about the native Americans built the canal system, which you still use, and I know that some of the hotels and, locally, you can go and see some native American shows to really get into that culture. And there was something else I was reading that I saw when I was looking up. I know you mentioned obviously sometimes the summertime is the most popular time to go but it's actually a year round destination because of the weather and the festive season, I know that one of the hotels ... Is it a Fairmont Hotel that does a massive Christmas for families?

Emily: Oh, yeah.

Matthew: Which I think is amazing, especially seeing as you got [inaudible 00:28:36]. Can you explaining for a family to visit, especially at Christmas time, although it's the desert, you can still get that Christmassy feeling.

Emily: Yeah. One of probably the most well known exhibitions during the holiday season in Scottsdale is called Christmas at the Princess. It is a massive almost amusement park feeling event. It takes over their entire hotel, every space is pretty much activated and so you can go as a guest, you can go if you're not staying at the hotel. Really, really great for families because they have kind of like a winter wonderland area where they have what's called Smoreland and so kids can make smores on open fire pits, they have an ice slide, they have a ferris wheel, build-a-bear workshop, an ice skating ring, which is pretty awesome because you're in the desert. And then my favorite new edition, being without children, is that this most recent year, they created another space where they have these little igloos that have seats built in it. They have live music, live Christmas, beautiful music every night, and then you can get bottle service into these little igloos for the night and then they had these crazy peppermint schnapps, delicious drinks that you could have, but they also have stores that are activated so that you can buy all your Christmas gifts, get some discounts on some spa products, which is always nice around the holidays.

Emily: Really just completely activated with Christmas trees, lights, there's a train that actually can take people around the resort and then they have a walking Christmas light display too around their lakes by the golf course, which is pretty fantastic. And then outside of that, I know we've talked about it, Scottsdale being a year round destination, we also have incredible annual events that take place every year. Also near Fairmont, but not at it, we have the Waste Management Phoenix open every January. It leads into the week of Super Bowl Sunday in America but it is by far one of the craziest golf tournaments that the world has ever known.

Emily: To put it in perspective, about 260,000 people live in Scottsdale, give or take, and in one year alone, almost 800,000 people went to a single golf course to watch golf. And, me personally, I'm not a golfer, I'm terrible. I hit myself with my own ball when I tee off but I love that tournament because it is welcoming for anyone and you get to get really close to the golfers. There is the 16th hole, which has become kind of famous. There's lines to get in on like a Saturday or Sunday now because they build a donut five level stadium stand around this one hole on the golf course and then you go in and even though they have ushers to quiet the people who are watching this tournament, people heckle. They heckle all day. I will admit I've heckled. If you do not get it on the green, it's bad for you as a golfer. But it is one of the most incredible annual experiences that we have. It kind of kicks off our annual event season.

Emily: And then another one, for people who are into sports, is Cactus League Spring Training. Towards the end of February through March, we actually are home to American baseball spring training, the Cactus League. We're home to the San Francisco Giants. We also have the Rockies and the Diamondbacks play and, similar to the PGA tournament, you're right up next to those baseball players that you love in an intimate environment. You can lay out on the grass with some beer or some popcorn or some hot dogs. For us, you can actually get [inaudible] tacos too so it kinda works out. But spring training's another really big annual draw. You're out in the sun, it's beautiful and who doesn't like a good sporting event?

Matthew: I definitely do enjoy that kind of sporting event where you can lay in the sun and eat and drink him and watch a sport, a bit like watching cricket? You can just enjoy the day in nice weather. But I know, obviously you're outside of Phoenix, but there's also basketball and the American football. The Arizona Cardinals and Phoenix somebody, forgotten their name, sorry.

Emily: The Suns.

Matthew: The South Phoenix Suns, yes. If people were still wanted to go see, like you mentioned, you've got so much to do in Scottsdale and you're on the doorstep of nature and relaxation and the spas but some may also want to go to watch a basketball game or watch the American football game. Is the transport links quite easy to get around?

Emily: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Similar to most places in the US, definitely highly recommend having a car, mainly because we are kind of sprawley. I didn't mention it but Scottsdale from the southern most border to the northern most border is about 50 kilometers so it's pretty lengthy but we're also really narrow. While it kind of sounds intimidating, the Phoenix Suns, for instance, they play with the Diamond Backs in downtown Phoenix, which is about five, 10 minutes away from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, which is about 10 minutes away from old town Scottsdale. It's all very, very relative. Our website has really great maps and resources for you to look at and map out your journey but in the Northern part of Phoenix area, that's where the Cardinals play and so that's going to be a little bit more of a drive, about 30 to 45 minutes, just because you have to take the 101 loop, which is one of our big highway systems but all really easy to get around to kind of everywhere.

Emily: And the other reason that we always recommend people have cars is that, for you to get out in the desert and for you to see everything that we have, you really do want that car. What we always recommend, especially to people who haven't been to this area, is come to Scottsdale, unpack your suitcase for a few days, take advantage of these beautiful resorts, whether it's more of an urban one or one of them more like full service luxury based one, and then unpack your suitcase and maybe tomorrow you're going to go into the Superstition Mountains on the Apache Trail, and maybe the next day you're going to drive up to Sedona to do a hike for the day, and maybe the next day you go up to the Grand Canyon and then you come back. But we really do lend ourselves so well for a place that you can kind of relax, unwind, and hub and spoke out to these beautiful places in the southwest but, as you mentioned, we've got a lot right in our backyard too so it makes you want to stay a little longer, which we're very fortunate for.

Jules: Have you lived there for a long time, Emily?

Emily: It's funny, I have and I haven't. My dad was in the army so I'm, what we call, a military brat. I've lived in 10 different states and then my grandparents live in Tennessee and I spent every summer with them so that's unofficial 11. I went to university in Tempe, which is just south of Scottsdale, about 15 minutes. I was there for four years and then I've been in this role for about three, so seven total years in this area but it's crazy because I feel like I've been here a lot longer just because it is so welcoming and people are so friendly and there's such a sense of community. Right now, it's home. I'm sure it'll be here for a while. I don't know if I can not have this weather again because I'm spoiled rotten.

Matthew: That's amazing and I can hear Jules giggling away in the background there. She likes the hot weather as well. And you mentioned obviously unpacking your bags, staying in Scottsdale for a while, and also you can use it as a hub. Would you be able to say, how long would you say potentially someone to stay in Scottsdale? Obviously there's so much to do to really experience it and then also, if people were looking at it, because we say it's a great gateway to the southwest, what sort of itineraries would you look at doing with including Scottsdale either at the start, the middle or the end?

Emily: Yeah. What I would say as a first time kind of visitor, to really get a sense of what you want to do in Scottsdale, I would always recommend five days, four nights. That really gets you to be able to out in the desert, go shopping, go to a museum, maybe do a spa treatment, lay by the pool all day, we didn't even talk about pools. But, really, it kind of does allow you to explore on your own, it does give some flexibility if you did want to take a day trip somewhere else. For me, my personal favourite connection from Scottsdale is either going up to the northern part of Arizona, whether it's going to Las Vegas or whether it's going to the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff. We're very fortunate in Arizona that our topography is so different. In the Northern part, you've got Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon, Lake [inaudible 00:37:31], Grand Canyon, these huge, beautiful, iconic Western views. You drive a little south here in Flagstaff, there's hiking, there's snowboarding, there's skiing, you're in a mountain town.

Emily: You go a little further and you open into this Valley of Sedona with its stunning red rocks, then you go an hour more south and then you're surrounded. First it's one, then it's two, then it's dozens of swirl cactus everywhere and that's all within a four hour drive, which is just crazy when you think about it. That's one of my favourite ways to see the state and then when you go on the South, you have Tucson, which is with its beautiful history, and then if you're going to San Diego, you get these stunning sand dunes that you can do all kinds of stuff on and then you hit the mountains outside of San Diego and then you're in the ocean within six hours. We're very lucky no matter how you kind of loop into us. There are certain times of the year, actually, that in the spring particularly, you can snowboard in Flagstaff and lay by the pool in Scottsdale all in the same day.

Matthew: That sounds like my cup of tea.

Jules: Wow.

Matthew: Well, I'd [inaudible] snowboard. I'm a skier so I wouldn't be snowboarding but it sounds very good. And there's also, ... Sorry, I know you were mentioning coming in from even the likes of Colorado down and through New Mexico and coming in and doing that sort of area, which is another great little fly drive route to really see, again, Native American sites, the mountains and lots of stunning views, if anyone really likes to get out and explore the nature.

Emily: Yeah. Obviously having ... I lived in Colorado actually, so when I went to university, I would drive home during our long winter break. I would have to drive from Arizona up to Colorado. I learned that the most beautiful quick route is actually to take the highway through the Tonto National Forest through Payson and then you go up and you connect to the interstate that connects at Gallop and then it goes over to Albuquerque and then you go through [inaudible] and all of that, and then you're up in Colorado within like 12 hours. But obviously there's lots of routing around the way that you can mix and match because there's tons of sites. The Southwest, it's hard to pick one.

Emily: That's why I'm not selfish and I say give Scottsdale five days, four nights, get out in our desert. When I'm building itineraries, that's usually what I'm trying to get but, that said, if you don't have as much time, and this is probably the most important thing that I stress when I'm doing my job is that if you only have a night, just make sure you maximize it in whatever way it is. Get here before the sun sets, leave a little bit in the morning and you can get really clever and creative with how you do it but take advantage of all the wonderful things we have because it gives you a good little taste and then you're going to want to come back and maybe the next time, you stay a little longer.

Emily: We have heard from our hotels that sometimes people come from the UK for like 14 days. I totally get it. I live here and I still can't do it all and depending on what you personally prefer to do, you can make a trip as it's art related, history related, outdoor related or a hodgepodge of at all, which is what I always recommend.

Jules: Fantastic. It seems such a diverse place. You've lived that for seven years, you still haven't done it all. What are your top five tips for us?

Emily: Oh, let's see. Okay, top five tips. Oh, okay, that's hard. Let me see what I can come up with. Tip number one would definitely be make sure you look at the collection of hotels that we have if you're not fortunate enough to live here and really pick a hotel based on what you like. Not a lot of places in the world have as many diverse hotels that we have. It's not even just the number. If we only had 70 hotels that look the same, that would be one thing, but every single one of our hotels has its own unique personality. Really, number one, do your research, figure out what you want. Do you want to stay in a bungalow style resort? Do you want a three story water slide or do you want a lazy river? Because all of those are questions you can ask yourself and all three are going to be located in different areas. Part number two, no matter what, get into the desert. If you have time, explore the Sonoran Desert, go on a hike, work with one of our fabulous partners that can guide you and teach you about the desert, or if hiking's not your thing, go to the desert botanical garden. Just get outside and explore this nature that we're so fortunate to have.

Emily: Part number three, definitely eat local cuisine. No matter what you do, make sure you go to a local restaurant or five or 10 because you will not be disappointed. Number four, I would say, definitely immerse yourself in the art in some capacity, whether it's going to a place like Wonder Spaces, whether it's going on an art walk, whether you're here when the canal convergence is taking place and you can see a live art installation event, get outside. And then the fifth, let's see. Oh, it's so tough. This is such a hard decision. I would say, as number five, take your time, don't rush it. I think that we're fortunate enough that we have so much to do that it's not a check mark destination. We do have iconic places you can take a beautiful selfie. Everyone has a surreal hugging picture. But really make sure you give yourself enough time to really explore the destination and see what all it has to offer.

Jules: They're fantastic tips. Thank you, Emily.

Emily: You're welcome.

Matthew: Yeah, some great insight there, especially about, like you said, really think about what you're wanting to do there because it is so diverse and if your time is limited, planning on where you're staying will potentially optimize your time, especially if you're only going to be there for a few days. I can definitely see why people from the UK will stay there for two weeks. It has everything, predominantly the sunshine, but also the relaxation, you can get out and explore, you've got sports, you're close to other destinations for a day trip or potentially pop off to Vegas for a few nights and then come back and relax before your time home and enjoy the spas. I'm really enthralled by ... I've been fortunate enough to go to Arizona previously and I know what a great destination it is but I never really knew, even though I was in Tempe, so I wasn't far from Scottsdale, but I didn't realize, even I've learned so much about the area on this episode. I just thought it wasn't so diverse and knowing how diverse now Scottsdale is, it's definitely a destination that I want to go back to. Arizona, in general, but really to explore the great outdoors is something that I love doing and I just want to say thank you very much for joining us on this episode.

Emily: Thanks for having me.

Matthew: No, no. If you want to go and explore any of the cool little tips that Emily has mentioned today, we'll have that on the travelpodcast.com so go to travelpodcast.com, find our Scottsdale, Arizona episode and, on that page, you'll have links to everything we've talked about and we've also got a cool little video that Emily has sent over to us on that. Again, a nice little brief intro to Arizona and also the link to Experiencescottsdale.com which is obviously who Emily works for and also has great itinerary building, great videos on there, and you can really get involved in what Scottsdale has to offer before your trip so do make sure you check out on that website. Again, thank you, Emily. Thank you, Jules, for joining us today and we'll hopefully, if you enjoyed listening to us, please go and rate us five stars and we'll forward to you listening again soon.