Labor Day and Memorial Day Weekends in Scottsdale

Labor Day weekend in Scottsdale: the last long weekend of summer

Labor Day weekend in Scottsdale is still summer. While the rest of the country pulls out sweaters, the valley is still bringing the heat, and locals treat the weekend as the last big party before fall. That changes how you plan it. Mornings and evenings are for being outside. The middle of the day is for water or air conditioning.

Scottsdale stays one of the most visited places in Arizona all summer for a reason. The resorts throw their biggest pool parties of the year, and the desert after dark is a different place entirely. Here is what we send guests to.

Labor Day pool parties and nights out in Old Town

Every resort in town has a Labor Day pool party, and you do not need a room key to get in. The W Scottsdale is the best known, with DJs and a full bar poolside, and the others publish their own lineups a few weeks out. Beyond the pools there are rooftop barbecue parties and the occasional luau. Pick your locale and commit to it.

Dinner and the night out center on Old Town.

• Cafe Monarch, for a long, quiet dinner downtown.
• Sel, for some of the most refined American cooking in town.
• Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse where the meat is carved at your table.
• Dierks Bentley's Whiskey Row, for a hand-crafted cocktail in a tavern that gets loud by ten.
• Old Town Gringos, where the college crowd goes for Tex-Mex and margaritas.

Family things to do on Labor Day weekend

Wild West Estate sits close to Old Town and sleeps 16, which makes it the house for a group planning that kind of weekend. Families, meanwhile, have more indoor and water options than most people expect.

• OdySea Aquarium. Touch pools where kids can handle rays and anemones, a Deep Ocean escalator that carries you through the Sharks of the Deep tank, more than 300 species, and penguins. OdySea marks the end of summer with a Splash Bash that brings out water slides and a foam party. The ice cream is unlimited.
• McDowell Mountain Ranch Aquatic Center. City-owned, with four diving boards, a water slide, a 600-foot lazy river and a spray pad.
• McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park. Thirty acres, a kid-sized railroad you ride, a railroad museum you walk and a vintage carousel. The playground is misted and shaded, with picnic tables for one last summer picnic.
• Main Event Scottsdale. Its annual Labor Day all-you-can-play deal covers arcade games, laser tag, bowling and billiards. The restaurant handles dinner.
• Desert Botanical Garden flashlight tours. The last one of the season falls on Labor Day weekend. Walk the dark garden paths from 7 to 9:30 p.m. with a flashlight, looking for night-blooming plants and the nocturnal animals that come out once the heat breaks.
• Baseball and football. The Diamondbacks usually host a home series over the weekend, and Arizona State's football season opens in Tempe around the same time.

Hiking and desert tours when it is still hot

You can hike in September. You just cannot hike at noon. Pinnacle Peak Park in North Scottsdale has trails from easy grades kids can manage to routes that turn into rock climbing, and the rule is the same for all of them: go at sunrise or at sunset, and carry more water than you think you need. Our Troon Ranch Casitas are up in North Scottsdale as well, which makes the peak an easy pre-breakfast outing.

If nobody wants to walk, the desert still opens up. Guided ATV tours are the fast way to see the trails and take no fitness at all. Horseback tours run for an hour or a full morning and families love them. Mountain bike rentals are everywhere. Back in town, a walking or Segway tour of Old Town covers the public art and the architecture without a hill in sight.

Golf is a sunrise sport in September. Book the first tee time and be done before eleven.

Memorial Day weekend in Scottsdale

Memorial Day is the other end of summer, the unofficial start rather than the finish. Late May is warm but not yet brutal, and the weekend is cookouts and pool days with a serious purpose underneath. Here is how to honor the day here.

• National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, on North Cave Creek Road in Phoenix. Each Memorial Day weekend, volunteers place a small American flag on every gravesite. Walking through rows of them is sobering. The grounds hold the Eternal Flame and the WWII Submarine Torpedo Monument, and at least five Navajo Code Talkers are buried here. You can volunteer to help place the flags.
• Flags for Our Fallen. More than 200 motorcyclists from around the country line Cave Creek Road at the cemetery entrance with over 500 American flags. The weekend runs with barbecue and festivities, and the Monday ceremony is the heart of it. Attendance is free and you can sponsor a flag in a veteran's name.
• Pioneer and Military Memorial Park, on West Jefferson Street in Phoenix. A Memorial Day ceremony followed by tours of the Smurthwaite House, one of the oldest structures in the city, and the seven historic cemeteries on the block. Veterans of the Civil War and the Spanish-American War rest here.
• A memorial run. A virtual race in Scottsdale with distances from one mile up to 10K sends a share of every registration fee to Operation Gratitude, which supports military and first responder communities. Run it on the trails or the sidewalk at your own pace.
• The National Moment of Remembrance. At 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day, wherever you are, pause for a minute of silence.

Where to stay for a long weekend in Scottsdale

About 35 minutes out, Apache Junction hosts a Memorial Day picnic with performances by the Arizona Academy of the Performing Arts, including its drum and bugle corps. Tickets for the picnic and the show are sold online. It is a good afternoon for a family with a kid in band.

For either weekend, the house matters more than usual because you will spend the hottest hours of the day in it. Our estates were chosen for exactly that. Wild West Estate puts a group of 16 close to Old Town. Casa Palacio gives 20 people a grotto pool and a tennis court. Valley Vista Estate in Paradise Valley handles a reunion of 30. And Troon Ranch Casitas, three of them in North Scottsdale, suit a smaller party that wants Pinnacle Peak nearby.

Holiday weekends carry a minimum stay at all of our estates. Book early, because the resorts and the houses fill at the same time.

Questions we get asked