Wilbur

Things to do if you have a five hour or more layover at Sky Harbor would include the following.

- The Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix (outdoor, right next to the Phoenix Zoo)
- Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale (indoor, next to Old Town)
- Old Town Scottsdale Art Galleries (outdoor/indoor)
- Octane Raceway go-karts at Scottsdale Pavilions (indoor)
- Butterfly Wonderland just outside Scottsdale in the Salt River Indian Community (indoor)
- Spa treatments at every good hotel in Paradise Valley and Scottsdale (indoor/outdoor)
- Phoenix Art Museum right downtown on Central Avenue (indoor)
- The Children's Museum of Phoenix downtown Phoenix (indoor)
- Hike Camelback Mountain in Paradise Valley (outdoor, sweaty)
- Lose your shirt at the Talking Stick Casinos on the Salt River Maricopa Indian Community (indoor)
- Golf (outdoor, everywhere)
- Spring Training games in Spring, obviously (outdoor)
- Arizona Museum of Natural History in Mesa (indoor/outdoor)

I have served as the personal guide and taxi driver for friends stopping over for several hours, and if you have at least five hours flight-to-flight, a middling taxi ride will take you to all of these activities.

CMK10

PHX is connected to the Valley Metro Light Rail and you can go east into Tempe and walk around there. You can get off at Mill Avenue and go to Tempe Town Lake Park at one end (very nice place to walk around on the Salt River) or walk Arizona State's campus (gorgeous, especially Palm Walk AND the women have to be seen to believed). Mill itself is good too, you can hike A Mountain (an easy hike) and enjoy the views, or take in some of the restaurants and bars. I'd definitely kill my time here.

Alternatively, you can take the Light Rail to Downtown Phoenix but frankly, there's very little there.

BeckhamsTears

I'll be doing this on Saturday. In town for ASU-Wisc Blackout, thanks to MR! ^

CMK10

A-S-U! A-S-U! Fork em Devils!!!!!!!!!!

BeckhamsTears

Heckuva game, and how about that finish! Was crazy to be there in person.

Mill Street had plenty of places to grab food and drink. Palm Walk was very nice, the entire campus is great. I did the "A" Mountain hike. It wasn't hard, but it wasn't a cake walk. Mostly paved or wooden stairs. But I was out of breath at the top in 100 deg heat (a dry heat, as they say).

Be sure and allow adequate time from airport to metro station. If you're in Terminal 2 or 3, you have to ride a airport shuttle bus to Terminal 4, then walk to Sky Train, and the time adds up. I thought it would be 35 min, but I think it was closer to an hour.

CMK10

Yeah that game was nuts, I'm jealous you were there! Sounds like you did a lot during your MR, well done ^

LAXlocal

is there any free wifi inside the terminal ?
or Airline clubs where Wifi "leaks" out to the public area ?

I have a couple hour layover on a US air MR tomorrow

thanks

SWCPHX

Free Wifi in all terminals.

http://skyharbor.com/customerservice/freeWifi.html

safra1

Hi all, I have a 4 hour connection in Phoenix coming up in a few months (returning from Mexico so will need time to clear customs). Is there anything quick/fun/exciting to do near the airport?

CMK10

You can take the Light Rail to Downtown Tempe fairly quickly. It's connected to the airport via a monorail. Once you're there you can have a pleasant stroll on Mill Avenue which is right by Arizona State's campus. Alternatively, you could go the opposite direction to Downtown Phoenix but that area is pretty much dead.

If you were running short on time from either location, it's a fairly cheap (and quick) cab ride back to PHX.

SWCPHX

Depending on the day of the week and time of day, downtown PHX and the CityScape area can be a lot more active than Mill Ave. in Tempe.

CMK10

This time of year with ASU back in session? I'd agree more in the summer.

aztimm

Depending what safra1 means by, "a few months," I'd err toward recommending downtown Phoenix rather than Tempe.
From mid-May to mid-August, Mill Ave is nearly a ghost town, while downtown Phoenix has a work crowd every day, and evening events many days too.

4 Hours would be my threshold for leaving the airport. Given that safra1 is coming from Mexico, they'd have to re-clear security anyway.

Even if not flying on US, you may want to check out this thread in the US forum:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...x-airport.html

chunky649

I have an upcoming flight (returning home from vacation in AZ) leaving PHX airport at 11pm. The flight is on Delta (terminal 3)

I would really like to hike camel back mountain during the day. With the exercise in the AZ heat, I'm sure to get sweaty and grimy. So, I'm looking for a shower before my redeye flight home...

I did some research and found that PHX has showers in Terminal 4. There is also a sentence in the official PHX website that say "all their family bathrooms have showers, but are for emergencies only, not for normal use". I don't know what that mean. If I bring my own towel and tolietries, do I have access to a shower in Terminal 3? How difficult/troublesome would it be to go to T4, take a shower, then go back to T3?

Can someone point me to a place where I can pay a small amount of $$ for a shower? (i.e. any truck stops near Camel Back or PHX?)

CMK10

Good call on hiking Camelback Mountain ^ The last time I did that, I got a room at one of the motels in Tempe by the University (a Rodeway Inn) for $35 and just showered and cleaned up there. They're often pretty cheap, not sure if that would be an option for you.