If you are at all interested in architecture, I recommend visiting Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home.

https://franklloydwright.org/taliesi...tickets-tours/

I visit OTP regularly for work reasons.

A few personal tips:

- The Crowne Plaza has recently been completely refurbished and is located in a quiet spot. It’s also easy to get to the airport as you don’t have to fight through traffic.
- Located a 11 minute walk from the Crowne Plaza is a place called Beraria which apparently is Europe’s largest beerhouse. It’s stunning and has great food and live entertainment. It’s also next to a very nice lake.
- There is a thermal spa called “Therme” located a 5 minute drive from the airport. It’s only s few years old an absolutely stunning - you should check it out. The staff are usually happy to store any luggage you have while you visit. The cocktails at the bar are very very nice.
- The airport is not very good and the lounge is very poor. I usually spend as much time at Therme as possible and jump in an Uber to the airport - there are always Uber’s and Taxis around Therme.

I have done it off the late flight and there are bits that are a little dark and not for the feignt hearted... that being said I have seen people player chicken with the highway which didn’t look like a lot of fun either... I have a roller case and there are bits that are uneven to say the least!

I have avoided the late flight on to the early flight this time round so heading into Bucharest for the night this time.

Ah, I thought I had 1 spare message left in my inbox capacity- I’ll have to sort that out!

It’s 4AM on my first morning at Phoenix so the jet lag isn’t great, but as I’m only here for 2 full days I won’t bother trying to get completely in the right time zone.

B2B at OTP was fine (despite a post to the contrary) - see the guy at the transfer desk on the ground floor, he’ll send you upstairs to have your passport checked and then you’re let through - less than 10 minutes from plane door to departure gate.

I did the HEL shuffle too and stayed overnight to get the A350 both ways. That was good, and got to go into Helsinki for a couple of hours.

There was a 1 hour connection upon arriving at LHR to get the JFK flight, but our stand was occupied so that became 35 minutes - I was certain I wouldn’t make it but got on board 10 minutes before departure. In future with connections that short I’ll prepare contingency plans of what flights I’d like to get instead.

JFK was fine except for a scrum at Global Entry - must have taken 20 minutes to get through. Picked up my bag and dropped it off round the corner then flagship lounge, which I hadn’t been in since the refurb.

The real killer was the JFK - PHX flight as they don’t have beds, and that is when I could have done with a sleep the most! If I didn’t need the TPs I probably would have done JFK LAX PHX instead of the HEL shuffle.

I’m staying downtown and the Light Rail from the airport was easy - $2 and 20 minutes.

In terms of what to do - I’m not a huge sports fan but the Arizona Rattlesnakes are playing indoor American Football this afternoon, so I’ll go to that. The Museum of Musical Instruments has been highly recommended, and the Heard Museum may be good for a bit of culture.

Dylanks, a Phoenix based FTer said best pizza in the world at Pizzeria Bianco... the location at 20th and Camelback has more seating and less of a queue.

Hope that helps!