Arizona Staycation Ideas – Things to do around Phoenix!

It’s that time again for talking about options of summer fun things to do! For the past cou­ple of years a large group of blog­gers have teamed up to bring you great budget-friendly, fam­ily fun ideas for things to do around cities across the nation! I’ve cov­ered both Ari­zona & Omaha in the Stay­ca­tion series for the past two years & am thrilled to do it again!

Indoor Play- Stores/Museums/Restaurants

Stuffington Bear Factory

How fun to go see how teddy bears are made! You can drop-in and tour the fac­tory for FREE every day (Monday – Saturday at 1pm)! There are addi­tional touring/field-trip options, includ­ing the addi­tion of stuff­ing your own bear (for a fee). Get all info on the Stuff­in­g­ton Bear Fac­tory tours here.

Playgrounds Fun Zone

This is our absolute favorite play place! They often run deals & specials, so be sure to check out their website. For more info & pictures, you can read our full Playgrounds Fun Zone review here.

Harkins Summer Movie Fun – Kids can enjoy a movie a week for 10 weeks, for less than $1 per film! Talk about a great way to enjoy a few hours in a nicely air-conditioned area for little cost! Harkins theaters are our favorite! This year is going to be our first year doing this!

Cer­reta Candy Com­pany– This long-time, family-owned busi­ness in His­toric down­town Glen­dale offers FREE tours Monday-Friday at 10am and 1pm! I remem­ber tak­ing tours there as a kid, see­ing how the fab­u­lous candy is made, enjoy­ing some del­ish sam­ples, and then some­times get­ting to make a Choco­late Pizza at the end (for an addi­tional fee). Grandma & Grandpa took the boys here after Baby Brother was born and they had a great time! Edu­ca­tional and yummy! A win-win!

– Peter Piper Pizza 

 

We call the Cabela’s here (at West­gate) “the indoor zoo”. There are hun­dreds of ani­mals on dis­play in dif­fer­ent loca­tions of the store (albeit no longer living)–very much like a museum and store all in one! We enjoy hav­ing a piece of fudge and walk­ing around the store check­ing out all the ani­mals. You can check for special events–there are often educational presentations!

Arizona Museum of Natural History – My boys call this the dinosaur museum, but there is much more to it than just dinos! It’s great fun!  Organ Stop Pizza – This awesome restaurant is very close to the Museum of Natural History, so we always plan to have dinner there if we’re making a trip to the museum. The original Organ Stop used to be in the heart of Phoenix and my mom actually worked there in the 70s! It’s SUCH a fun place! You can check out a fun video from there over on Disney Mentor Moms!

Musical Instrument Museum – It’s only been open a few years and has much acclaim! We had the pleasure of checking it out for the first time a few months ago and absolutely loved it! You can see our review of the MIM here. Our favorite spot was the Experience Gallery where the kids could play a variety of instruments. They loved this!

*New*- Butterfly Wonderland – I am SO excited to check this out this summer! It’s opening May 25th and is slated to be America’s largest butterfly atrium!! How fun to be able to go to an indoor rainforest in the middle of the Arizona desert!

Chase Field – Base­ball is the sport of the sum­mer and Chase Field, home of the Dia­mond­backs, offers some rel­a­tively inex­pen­sive fam­ily fun. Single-game tick­ets can be pur­chased for less than $10 each and each year there are var­i­ous fam­ily pack­age deals that include food & drinks and/or other spe­cial pro­mos. Many night games also include a fire­works show fol­low­ing the game.Chase Field is very fam­ily friendly, espe­cially with the St. Joseph’s Sand­lot. Fea­tures include a kids’ play­ground, tod­dlers’ play­ground, bat­ting cage, future field, Baxter’s Den and more! For some extra fun for the baseball fans in your life, then take a take a tour of Chase Field!

University of Phoenix Stadium – if base­ball isn’t your thing, maybe a tour of the Uni­ver­sity of Phoenix Sta­dium, home of the AZ Cardinals, would be fun for football enthusiasts.

Outdoor Water Play

Splashpads:

• Splash Playground at Tempe Beach Park
• The fountains at the Scottsdale Quarter
• Kidsplash Fountain at Desert Ridge Marketplace
• Splash Zone at Enchanted Island Amusement Park
• Yakulla Caverns Splash Pad at the Phoenix Zoo
• Splash Pad at Rio Vista Community Park
• Interactive fountain/splash pad at Westgate

Wet ‘n Wild Phoenix – Located in the North Phoenix area, this is a fun place to cool off over the summer. Last year, they opened a whole Wet ‘n Wild Jr. area. This is perfect for younger kids! The boys had a blast playing here!

Resorts:

Keep in mind that the sum­mer is “off-season” for hotels & resorts here. So, you can often score great deals of $149 or less per night at some really high-class places (plus some­times resort cred­its & other bonuses too). Here’s a short list of some that are known for having some great family activities and water play fun:

• The Westin Kierland (we stayed there this spring and it’s wonderful! You can see our full Westin Kierland review here)
• Ari­zona Grand Resort (for­merly known as the Pointe at South Mountain)
•  The Pointe Hilton at Squaw Peak
• JW Mar­riott Resort at Desert Ridge

Want to do a little exploring of other parts of Arizona? Then, be sure to click over to last year’s list of great places to visit all over the great state of Arizona!