7 hour layover in Phoenix

What to do with a layover this long? It goes 8 AM to about 3 PM. Any must do restaurants in the area??

What to do with a layover this long? It goes 8 AM to about 3 PM. Any must do restaurants in the area??

PHX might be one of the least enviable places to spend a long layover. The airport itself isn't special. The area around it isn't special. You can rent a car, but it can take 20 minutes to get to/from the rental center, which seems to be halfway to Tucson. You can take public transport to Tempe, which is a nice area to walk around...that can take an hour each way (despite not being too far), but is only $6. A taxi to Tempe would be about $20 + tip, downtown Phoenix (which isn't anything too special in my book) would be about time same. Scottsdale would be about $25-$35 + tip.

A lot of this is considering that your bag is through checked and you don't have to worry about it.

What to do with a layover this long? It goes 8 AM to about 3 PM. Any must do restaurants in the area??

Just a couple of ideas:

The Light Rail to Tempe as Zach suggested. http://www.valleymetro.org/planning_your_trip/sky_train They FINALLY got a link from the airport to the light rail but you have to take the airport shuttle bus to get to terminal 4 to catch the light rail if you land at any other terminal.

Tempe is the home of ASU. Lots of places to eat, drink around Mill Ave. Not a lot to see but you can walk around the university campus. They have some fairly good exhibits in some of the halls but they change from time to time so you will have to check the ASU schedule.

Going to downtown which can also be accessed by the light rail also offers some pretty good opportunities. The public library (Burton Barr) at Central and McDowell has some pretty darn good exhibits, all free. This place is HUGE. The floor with all the Indian artifacts can take a couple of hours to explore. The Phoenix Art museum, which is directly North of the Library about 4 long blocks has some very nice exhibits, as does the Heard Museum which is about another 8 blocks North of the Library. All can be accessed by the light rail as it runs up Central Ave.

If you are into Japanese food, Ichi Ban has great sushi. And all in the same neighborhood as the above. Open for lunch from 11-2. NOT as highly priced as a lot of Japanese sushi bars in both Arizona and other parts of the USA. http://www.yelp.com/biz/ichi-ban-japanese-restaurant-and-sushi-phoenix. And they are part of Restaurant.com which has some pretty good coupons that don't expire. Some are only good for dinner but some include lunch. If you don't like sushi, there are plenty of places in downtown to eat from high dollar hotels, businessmen lunch places and even street food which is pretty darn good. They just put a new "gourmet" food truck over by the Courthouse.

Enjoy!!!

PS-there's always the casinos. There are about 8 in and around the Phoenix area. Some have free buses from various points, some have $3.00 buses from various points. Talking Stick in Scottsdale is VERY, VERY nice and the buffet is great. And if you don't have any casino cards and want to go to the casinos, make sure you sign up for a "players card" You usually get a free buffet on the first visit and $20.00 in play.