Love Shopping and Fine Dining? Me, too!
The home of the Grand Canyon and the Sonoran desert, Arizona is best known for its many recreational opportunities. What a lot of people don’t realize is that there locations all over the state which appeal to those who prefer a way of life that is focused more towards the indoors than the outdoors. With three metropolises in the state, including the nation’s fifth largest, there are ample opportunities for those who enjoy spending the day shopping and afterwards retiring to a fine dining restaurant for a high end dinner.
Shopping
As mentioned above, the cities are really where it’s at when it comes to shopping in Arizona. Smaller cities such as Glendale have populations around the 250,000 mark, and that means that there are plenty of opportunities to go shopping at stores which would not be located in smaller locations. However, it’s the big cities where you want to go if you are looking for a shopping experience that includes every store and every brand name you could possibly want. Phoenix, of course, is the state’s largest city, but for really high end stores the city of Scottsdale, one of the richest in the nation, is a shopper’s dream destination.
One of the biggest shopping malls in the United States, and the very biggest in the Southwest, can be found in the city of Scottsdale. Scottsdale Fashion Square is an incredible two million square feet and houses over 40 highly exclusive stores, such as Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Barneys New York, which is slated to open in the fall of 2009.
Fine Dining
Another attraction for those that like to spend the day, well, spending, in Arizona is the abundance of fine dining experience. Here again, Scottsdale takes precedence over other cities, with many fine dining restaurants including several very exclusive restaurants located in the Scottsdale Fashion Square (which is great if you need to recharge a bit after a morning of shopping before going on to shop the other million square feet).
The fine dining in Arizona is certainly not limited to Scottsdale alone, however. Remember, Arizona is a state that is highly conscious of the copious amounts of money that tourists are willing to spend, so virtually every community offers at least one fine dining restaurant. Some of the very finest and most exclusive can be found in the golf clubs and golf communities found throughout the state.
Arizona is known as a place where the old West meets the new modern life, the perfect combination of rugged outdoors and the cutting edge of chic. There are opportunities for lovers of both lifestyles in this state, and if you prefer a nice mix of both, it’s a dream come true.
 |
