7 Coolest Towns In Arizona For A Summer Vacation
Wild burros own the main street in Oatman, and the shopkeepers just work around them. Tombstone restages the O.K. Corral gunfight every single afternoon. Bisbee loads visitors onto mine cars and sends them 1,500 feet into a mountain that produced copper for a century. Arizona's small towns treat summer like a performance, and the seven ahead put on the best shows in the state. Each one works as a day trip. String a few together and you have a road trip worth bragging about.
Williams
Williams calls itself the Gateway to the Grand Canyon, and it backs the claim up. The Grand Canyon Railway, the historic passenger train that first reached the South Rim in 1901, still rolls out of the downtown depot every morning. Bearizona Wildlife Park puts bears, bison, and wolves on the other side of your windshield along a three-mile drive-through route, and helicopter tours lift off nearby for anyone who wants the canyon from above. Prefer dirt under the tires? Book a UTV run through the surrounding Kaibab National Forest.
The thrills keep stacking up in town. Canyon Coaster Adventure Park sends riders down a mountain coaster, the Route 66 Zipline launches over the old alignment, and go-kart tracks handle the rest. Hungry, there is no shortage of options: Cruisers Café 66 anchors the Route 66 strip downtown, barbecue joints and steakhouses line Bill Williams Avenue, and Grand Canyon Brewing and Historic Brewing pour for the over-21 crowd.
The oddest overnight sits 30 minutes north at Valle, where Raptor Ranch runs a birds-of-prey park and campground on the grounds of the old Flintstones Bedrock City. Time the trip right and Williams adds rodeos in summer and a Route 66 classic car weekend as the season winds down. Outdoor types get the last word: trails climb Bill Williams Mountain, a half-dozen trout-stocked lakes including Kaibab and Cataract sit minutes away, and the cascades and sandstone bluffs of Sycamore Canyon Wilderness wait 30 miles south.
Bisbee
Bisbee got rich on copper and stayed interesting on everything else. The Queen Mine Tour is the headline act: hard hat on, headlamp lit, riding a mine car 1,500 feet into a mountain that produced ore from 1877 to 1975. The Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum, a Smithsonian Institution affiliate, fills in the story above ground. Prefer your history with a chill? Ghost tours and haunted pub crawls work the old-town streets after dark.
The art scene earns its eccentric reputation. A dozen-some galleries cluster downtown, including 55 Main, and painted staircases climb the hillsides between them. Shop Main Street and Brewery Gulch for antiques, books, and vintage clothing, then grab a bag of beans at Old Bisbee Roasters. Jeep tours head into the surrounding Mule Mountains when the streets get hot.
Sleep at the Copper Queen Hotel, open since 1902 and host to Theodore Roosevelt, John Wayne, and more than a century of guests since. Mornings belong to the Bisbee Breakfast Club or High Desert Market and Café. For lunch, find Dot's Diner, a vintage Valentine diner trailer parked behind the Shady Dell trailer court, then close the loop with gelato at Pussycat Gelato and a comedy or burlesque show at Chuckleheads.
Evenings come easy here. The Copper Queen Saloon wins on atmosphere, while Old Bisbee Brewing Company and Electric Brewing cover the craft side. Summer brings Alice in Bisbeeland, an Alice-in-Wonderland-themed weekend, plus Pirate Weekend, when the town's pirate-friendly residents take over the streets. Fall answers with Taste of Bisbee, the local food and drink festival.
Holbrook
Holbrook guards the western door to Petrified Forest National Park, more than 220,000 acres of high desert holding one of the world's largest concentrations of petrified wood. The fossilized logs date to a Late Triassic forest that stood here 225 million years ago. The Painted Desert runs along the park's northern edge in bands of red, orange, pink, and purple badlands, and the 28-mile park road covers it all in a day, with stops at the Crystal Forest Trail, the Painted Desert Inn, and the Ancestral Puebloan site at Puerco Pueblo. Want to go deeper? Guided trips head into the park's wilderness area on foot or on horseback.
Holbrook also works as a launch pad. Antelope Canyon and Monument Valley, both run by the Navajo Nation, and Lake Powell all sit within a two-to-three-hour drive north. Back in town, count the roadside dinosaur statues, a Holbrook signature that kids treat like a scavenger hunt, then grab dinner at one of the diners or Mexican restaurants along the Route 66 alignment downtown. The Wigwam Motel seals the deal: guests sleep in restored teepee-shaped concrete units that defined Route 66 motor-court design and helped inspire the Cozy Cone Motel in the 2006 Pixar film Cars.
Seligman
Seligman saved Route 66. When Interstate 40 bypassed the town in 1978, local barber Angel Delgadillo rallied business owners to fight for the old road's preservation, and the Historic Route 66 movement was born here. The town sits about 40 minutes west of Williams, and its preserved stretch of the Mother Road still earns the pilgrimage. Pixar noticed too: Seligman helped inspire Radiator Springs in the 2006 film Cars, with Angel's family barbershop a key reference for the filmmakers.
The surrounding stretch of Route 66 delivers the big adventures. Grand Canyon Caverns, about 25 minutes west, drops visitors 210 feet underground into one of the largest dry caverns in the country. Keepers of the Wild Nature Park shelters dozens of rescued exotic animals, lions and tigers included, right along the highway. Push farther west and Grand Canyon West runs the Skywalk, the glass-floored horseshoe extending 70 feet over the canyon rim. The famous turquoise water of Havasu Falls hides on the Havasupai Reservation north of the old road, a 10-mile trek that demands an overnight permit, and those sell out months ahead.
Back in town, the eating is pure Route 66. Delgadillo's Snow Cap Drive-In, built by Angel's brother Juan in 1953 and still run by the family, serves the famous burgers with a side of pranks. The Roadkill Cafe O.K. Saloon leans into its tongue-in-cheek menu, the Black Cat Bar pours for the cowboy crowd, and the Historic Route 66 Motel handles the overnight. Pick up a souvenir at the Route 66 General Store before the road pulls you onward.
Tombstone
Tombstone might be the coolest stop in southern Arizona, and it knows it. The O.K. Corral restages the famous October 26, 1881 shootout between the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Clantons and McLaurys every day, steps from where it happened. Old Tombstone Western Theme Park piles on with its own gunfights, gold panning, a shooting gallery, and mini golf. Stagecoaches still clatter down Allen Street, and the Good Enough Mine Tour drops visitors into the silver workings that started it all.
The history runs deeper than the gunsmoke. The Birdcage Theatre has stood since 1881, the Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park occupies the original 1882 Cochise County courthouse, and Boothill Graveyard holds the cowboys who lost the O.K. Corral fight. The Rose Tree Museum shelters the world's largest rose tree, a Lady Banks rose planted in 1885 that now spreads across some 9,000 square feet of trellis. The calendar stays loud all year, with bull riding, Helldorado Days every October, and Wyatt Earp Days each Memorial Day weekend.
Eating and drinking are half the show. Grab dinner at the Crystal Palace Saloon or the Longhorn Restaurant, a tap pour at Tombstone Brewing Co, and dessert at the Fallen Angel Sweet Sin parlor. After dark, the saloon crawl writes itself: Big Nose Kate's, Doc Holliday's, the Four Deuces, Johnny Ringo's. Staying sober? Nightly ghost tours work the town's most haunted buildings, the Birdcage included.
Mornings start at the O.K. Café or one of the espresso stands, and afternoons disappear along Allen Street. Old-time photo studios will put you in a corset or a duster, Arlene's stocks Native American handcrafted goods, and the shops in between sell western wear, rocks and gems, jerky, and craft sodas. A tasting room pouring Cochise County wines makes the last souvenir an easy call.
Benson
Benson grew up as a Southern Pacific Railroad stop in 1880, and the 15-plus murals across the historic downtown still tell that story. Walk the self-guided mural tour, then trade trains for birds at the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, where the river corridor ranks among the most important migratory flyways in the American Southwest.
The underground is where Benson shows off. Kartchner Caverns State Park protects one of the most undisturbed living limestone caves in the country, discovered in 1974 and kept secret until 1988, with two guided tour routes and a Bat Cave Café between them. Colossal Cave Mountain Park adds a second cavern full of crystalline formations plus the historic La Posta Quemada Ranch. Above ground, Coronado National Forest trails climb toward Apache Peak for some of the best views in southeastern Arizona.
The quirks keep coming. Forever Home Donkey Rescue and Sanctuary in Cascabel, an hour northeast, lets visitors meet the rescued residents face to face. The San Pedro Golf Course slows the pace, and the Horseshoe Café, a 1937 highway diner with hand-painted murals across its dining room, handles the milkshake-and-pie portion of the day. Mexican kitchens and steakhouses fill out the old highway strip.
Benson also makes the easiest overnight in this corner of the state. Triangle T Guest Ranch puts guests among the boulders near Texas Canyon, motels like the Quarter Horse line the old road, and RV travelers get more than a dozen parks, including Butterfield RV Resort, which runs its own astronomical observatory for guests.
Oatman
Oatman's main attraction has four legs and zero manners. The town's wild burros, descendants of pack animals turned loose by early-1900s gold miners, wander the streets as a protected herd, walk up to visitors, and stick their heads into shop doorways like they pay rent. They share the stage with the Oatman Ghost Rider Gunfighters, who stage daily shootouts down Main Street with blank rounds, and with the occasional tour bus that gets mock-robbed by costumed outlaws.
The Oatman Hotel carries the town's best story. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon night here in March 1939 after marrying in nearby Kingman, and the walls and ceiling now wear a thick skin of dollar bills that visitors keep adding. The building no longer rents rooms, but the main-floor restaurant and bar and the small upstairs museum keep it busy. The old jail museum sits nearby, and mine ruins and Black Mountains trails wait just outside town.
Shopping fills the gaps between gunfights. Old-time photo studios, rock and gem shops, trading posts, and boutiques selling Native American art line the boardwalks, with the Gold Rush Candy Shoppe covering the sugar emergency. When the light goes gold, grab a drink at Judy's Saloon and walk the town at dusk. Oatman keeps almost no overnight rooms, but Kingman and Bullhead City sit close by with campgrounds and chain hotels.
Seven Towns, One Loud Summer
The pattern across these seven towns is simple: none of them waits politely for visitors to find something to do. Tombstone and Oatman act out their history in the street. Bisbee and Benson send people underground. Williams, Seligman, and Holbrook keep Route 66 running like the interstate never happened. Pick the version of summer that fits, whether that means a mine car, a mountain coaster, or a burro demanding a snack, and let the town do the entertaining.
