City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Address: 5000 S. Arizona Mills Circle
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Address: 2000 E. Rio Salado Pkwy.
3. Changing Hands Bookstore
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (480) 730-0205
Address: 6428 S. McClintock Dr.
Insider Pick:
Description: This independent bookstore has a noteworthy selection of new and used books for dedicated readers. The atmosphere here is warm and friendly. Changing Hands offers a number of educational activities for kids and features readings several times a month by local authors. The store hosts book clubs for everyone from science-fiction fans to existentialists. Valley newcomers can keep up to date on activities and new releases through the store’s comprehensive website. The adjacent Wildflower Bread Company makes for a good meeting point for clubs, writing groups, and other literature lovers. Changing Hands is open daily.
4. Cookies From Home
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (480) 894-1944
Address: 1605 W. University Dr.
Description: This cookie bakery got its start in 1981 on Mill Avenue in downtown Tempe, then—thanks to a burgeoning mail-order business that has since shifted online—moved to larger quarters in a nearby industrial park. Most agree that these cookies and brownies are as good as homemade. They come in 8 different varieties, and customer favorites include Hunka Chunka, Sugar Momma, and Menage et Trois (white, milk, and dark chocolate chips in a chocolate cookie). The retail store is a great place to buy cookies by the pound or as gift packages, such as the Heartache Repair Kit for your friend who just got dumped. The store is open Monday to Friday.
5. Rei
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (480) 967-5494
Address: 1405 W. Southern Ave.
Description: Recreational Equipment Inc. is the top stop for anyone preparing to explore Arizona’s outdoors. The store carries equipment and related clothing for camping, cycling, climbing, hiking, and more. Staff members at the Tempe location are particularly helpful about Valley hikes, mountain biking hotspots, or day-drips to more rugged areas an hour or two out of town. If you want to try out a sport, you can rent equipment ranging from climbing shoes to kayaks. If you join the Seattle-based cooperative, you also get dividends at the end of the year. The store has another location in Paradise Valley, at 12634 N. Paradise Village Pkwy. (602-996-5400). Open daily.
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Address: 105 W. University Dr.
7. Gammage Auditorium
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (480) 965-3434
Address: 1200 S. Forest Ave.
Description: One of the Valley’s architectural jewels, Gammage was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and completed in 1964. A redesigned adaptation of Wright’s never-built Baghdad Opera House, the auditorium has 50 concrete columns supporting the round roof, which has a pattern of interlocking circles. The 3,000-seat auditorium had an extensive renovation and continues to be known for its acoustic excellence as well as its beauty. This is the place to see touring Broadway shows; Gammage has hosted Wicked, The Color Purple, and Sweeney Todd. It also books smaller theatrical performances and pop and classical music concerts. The stage accommodates a full symphony orchestra and a massive pipe organ.
8. Tempe Center For The Arts
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (480) 350-2822 (box office)
Address: 700 W. Rio Salado Pkwy.
Description: The $63 million performing arts center is located on Tempe Town Lake, just blocks from Mill Avenue and the city’s core. Its 88,000 square feet feature a 600-seat 4-tiered theater that accommodates dance and drama. A more intimate studio seats 200. The center also houses a gallery and meeting rooms. The center is home to the Actors’ Renaissance Theater, the Arizona Academy of the Performing Arts, Childsplay, the Desert Dance Theater, and the Tempe Little Theater, among others.
9. Arizona State University Art Museum
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (480) 965-2787
Address: 51 E. 10th St.
Description: The campus art museum is linked with the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at the Nelson Fine Arts Center. The light rail connection to Tempe and ASU provides easy access to the museum’s contemporary art exhibitions, which include touring national works. Programs encourage free expression of social issues through a variety of media, including new media. Free admission.
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Address: 5000 S. Arizona Mills Circle
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Address: 2000 E. Rio Salado Pkwy.
12. Changing Hands Bookstore
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (480) 730-0205
Address: 6428 S. McClintock Dr.
Insider Pick:
Description: This independent bookstore has a noteworthy selection of new and used books for dedicated readers. The atmosphere here is warm and friendly. Changing Hands offers a number of educational activities for kids and features readings several times a month by local authors. The store hosts book clubs for everyone from science-fiction fans to existentialists. Valley newcomers can keep up to date on activities and new releases through the store’s comprehensive website. The adjacent Wildflower Bread Company makes for a good meeting point for clubs, writing groups, and other literature lovers. Changing Hands is open daily.
13. Cookies From Home
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (480) 894-1944
Address: 1605 W. University Dr.
Description: This cookie bakery got its start in 1981 on Mill Avenue in downtown Tempe, then—thanks to a burgeoning mail-order business that has since shifted online—moved to larger quarters in a nearby industrial park. Most agree that these cookies and brownies are as good as homemade. They come in 8 different varieties, and customer favorites include Hunka Chunka, Sugar Momma, and Menage et Trois (white, milk, and dark chocolate chips in a chocolate cookie). The retail store is a great place to buy cookies by the pound or as gift packages, such as the Heartache Repair Kit for your friend who just got dumped. The store is open Monday to Friday.
14. Rei
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (480) 967-5494
Address: 1405 W. Southern Ave.
Description: Recreational Equipment Inc. is the top stop for anyone preparing to explore Arizona’s outdoors. The store carries equipment and related clothing for camping, cycling, climbing, hiking, and more. Staff members at the Tempe location are particularly helpful about Valley hikes, mountain biking hotspots, or day-drips to more rugged areas an hour or two out of town. If you want to try out a sport, you can rent equipment ranging from climbing shoes to kayaks. If you join the Seattle-based cooperative, you also get dividends at the end of the year. The store has another location in Paradise Valley, at 12634 N. Paradise Village Pkwy. (602-996-5400). Open daily.
City: Tempe, AZ
Category: Shopping
Address: 105 W. University Dr.