Downtown Scottsdale

Visitors to Scottsdale, a citrus-growing suburb turned international resort destination and art center, primarily come to stroll, shop, and eat in the city’s bustling downtown area, which includes Old Town, Fifth Avenue, and the Arts District (www.downtownscottsdale.com), among others.

There are dozens of Native American and Western Art galleries and trading posts, boutiques selling Southwestern-style items both authentic and touristy, contemporary art galleries with a flair for the most current styles, restaurants from hamburger huts to highbrow gourmet, and lots of coffeehouses and cool watering holes.

The downtown is roughly defined by Chaparral Road on the north, Osborn Road on the south, Miller Road to the east and 68th Street on the west. Within these general boundaries there are several distinct districts, though they all kind of meld into one another. The attractions here are art-searching, shopping and window-peering, eating and drinking, and general strolling and people-watching.

In the Arts District, between Goldwater Boulevard and Scottsdale Road, you’ll find a collection of art galleries to rival any other artsy block in the Southwest, home to a popular Art Walk every Thursday night.

On scenic Fifth Avenue you’ll find more than 80 boutiques and shops selling mostly Southwestern and Native American items. Here you’ll also find Bob Parks’ Horse Fountain, a collection of dramatic equestrian statues jumping out of a huge fountain.

The nearby Arizona Canal has been the site recently of a revitalization, with several new shopping centers bustling with credit-card carriers.

Between Indian School Road and 2nd Street, just east of Scottsdale Road and west of Brown Avenue is Old Town Scottsdale, where you’ll find some of the older buildings in downtown. Like all of the other districts in downtown Scottsdale, however, unless you are searching for art, shopping, eating, drinking, or just watching other people do so, there’s not much else to do.