Destination:
Phoenix

Arizona's capital city, Phoenix, has risen from the mythical ashes of an ancient agricultural Indian village to become a sprawling modern metropolis, the sixth largest city in the USA. Its rapid urban growth has filled what is known as the 'Valley of the Sun', encompassing the neighbouring towns of Scottsdale, Mesa and Tempe as suburbs and is America's fastest-growing urban centre, claiming to have more five-star hotels than any other city in the USA.

With luxurious resorts and spas, glitzy shopping plazas, upmarket restaurants and superb golf courses, together with over 300 days of sunshine a year, the area has become a popular winter getaway for the rest of the country. However while some may know it as a retirement community, it is home to both the University of Phoenix and the University of Arizona as well as over a dozen other colleges, ensuring a huge student population of roughly 200,000.

Phoenix has a number of interesting museums, including the Heard Museum of Native American culture and the Phoenix Art Museum. A scattering of parks, a wide variety of restaurants, and a well-developed arts community makes a vacation in Phoenix an attractive prospect for travellers of all ages.

Phoenix's greatest attraction however, is its location: surrounded by a vast cactus-studded desert and the magnificent scenery of the Red Rock Country around nearby Sedona, whose landscape of canyons, pinnacles and red cliffs have been the setting for numerous 'Wild West' films and novels. The Apache Trail is a winding scenic drive that passes through some of the beautiful rugged terrain of central Arizona, passing ghost towns, ancient ruins and the Superstitious Mountains.