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Last updated September 23, 2026. Reading time: 6 minutes.
The best things to do in Scottsdale with a group of friends are Old Town's walkable wine trail, a long dinner, a spa morning and a trip into the desert. All of it is best between October and April. From June through September the average high is over 100 degrees, so the same weekend in summer is a very different trip.
Our handbook calls it a Mediterranean paced town: slow food, walkable wine and a pool.
October through April. NOAA's 30 year averages for nearby Phoenix put the average high at 89 degrees in October, 77 in November and 66 in December, then 68 in January, 71 in February, 78 in March and 86 in April. June through September averages 100 to 107.
October is the month the handbook picks: highs in the 80s and nights in the mid 60s, warm enough for the pool and cool enough for a patio dinner.
$175 to $1,000 per person per day. The range is wide because the resorts are: a room in Old Town is a different trip from a bungalow at a wellness resort.
Bespoke Inn is a ten room boutique inn on Marshall Way, in Old Town's Arts District, built around a courtyard with a lap pool. Some rooms have soaking or claw foot tubs.
Hotel Adeline is in Old Town, with retro touches and a big zero edge pool with a bar and cabanas.
Senna House is a Curio Collection by Hilton hotel in Old Town's Entertainment District, with a rooftop pool and CALA, its restaurant.
The Scott Resort and Spa is within walking distance of Old Town, with two pools, one of them with a sandy beach.
Andaz Scottsdale is the wellness resort: bungalows and suites below Camelback Mountain, three pools and a spa.
Where to stay, where to eat, what to do, and a ready made 48 hour plan for every town. Pick one, send it to the group, go.
See the handbookOne time payment. Love it or full refund.FnB cooks seasonal menus from Arizona farms in the historic Craftsman Court. Dinner is Tuesday to Saturday.
The Mission serves modern Latin food, with tortillas made every day, next door to the Old Adobe Mission, a church finished in 1933.
Olive and Ivy is a Mediterranean restaurant at the Scottsdale Waterfront with a sunlit patio.
Citizen Public House serves coffee rubbed short ribs and its Original Chopped Salad.
The Scottsdale Wine Trail is a set of winery tasting rooms in downtown Scottsdale, close enough to walk between.
LDV Winery pours Syrah from its own vineyard, 5,000 feet up in the Chiricahua foothills of southeastern Arizona, at its Old Town tasting room on Stetson Drive.
Carlson Creek pours its wines at a 20 foot copper bar in a former art gallery on Marshall Way.
Fifth Avenue is the boutique district and Marshall Way is the Arts District, and you can walk from one to the other.
Scottsdale Fashion Square has the designer labels, from Hermès to Tiffany.
Cosanti, Paolo Soleri's windbell studio and foundry in Paradise Valley, pours bronze on weekdays at 9:30 and 11:30 in the morning. There are no pours on weekends, so make it your Friday morning.
Papago Park, in Phoenix, has the sandstone Hole in the Rock: a short climb with steps to a window over the valley.
The Madam is a velvet lounge speakeasy inside The Scottsdale Resort and Spa at McCormick Ranch, a different hotel from The Scott. It is open Monday to Saturday from 5pm.
Sanctuary Resort Spa has a meditation garden and a reflection pond.
Joya Spa at the Omni Montelucia runs its autumn menu, Golden Light, from October 11 to November 21, and it is built on citrus.
La Vidorra Spa at The Scott does a warm salt stone massage.
Dates checked on each organizer's own page on September 23, 2026.
in the City Hall lot, 3939 North Drinkwater Boulevard. It is food and farming only, so come for breakfast. Market page
colored glass houses to giant desert flowers, that change after dark. Included with admission. October 13 and November 10 are pay what you can days. Garden page
Waterfront, 6pm to 9pm, and to 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Park in a city garage: they are free, and street parking has a three hour limit. Event page
Italian wines poured on La Strada del Vino. Presale tickets cost less. Festival page
Friday is the bronze pour at Cosanti in the morning, then a three hour food tour through Old Town with Arizona Food Tours, which starts at 11am or 2:30pm. Saturday is the farmers market in the morning, the wine trail and the boutiques in the afternoon, and dinner at FnB or The Mission. Sunday is a spa morning or the Desert Botanical Garden, then a two hour sunset Jeep tour into the Tonto National Forest with Scottsdale Adventure Tours, which says the ride is not for anyone with back or neck problems.
The full plan, with the bookings in order, is in The Girls' Trip Handbook.
This town is one of 80 on the Feels Like Europe Index, all of which pass the same five points.
Small town trip ideas for you and your friends, a few times a month. The kind of places that feel like Europe without the flight.
The Girls' Trip Handbook has the full weekend for this town and 79 more, with the bookings in order.
See the handbookOne time payment. Love it or full refund.