Hi everyone! Long freaking time no see. I am so sorry. I have drafted 4 or 5 blog posts in the last few months but never ended up posting any of them. I would finish 95% of it and then never go back to complete the graphic or upload photos. The wix updates with storage limits kill me and things have just been CRAZY lately.
I graduated from Bucknell after the fall semester. AKA I am now a full-time working gal as of January of this year. I am definitely in the swing of things now and time is flying by. This year has been really great already. I made a 2024 vision board with Eva and Gemma back on New Year’s Day, and I can proudly say that I have accomplished a huge portion of the things on my vision board already... and I am only getting started with my plans for the year.
That’s it for the recap. Maybe I can do a full recap sometime soon? But as far as this post goes, I am sooooo excited to finally get a Scottsdale Travel Guide up on my blog! I used to love doing travel guides and I finally feel confident enough to put one together for Scottsdale.
As most of you know, Andrew went to the University of Arizona in Tucson. During our college years, I would visit him there. He got a job with Wells Fargo in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, which is a huge upgrade. Tucson was a cute place at the time, but it absolutely does not compare to Scottsdale!
I have visited Andrew there 3 times now in the last two years (once during his initial summer internship and twice now that he is there full time) and we have done a handful of different things every time I have visited. I tell Andrew each trip that I am truly the Yelp guru because I always love finding new places for us to try out. I can’t give myself too much credit though, pretty much everywhere in Scottsdale is a hit!
Without further ado, let’s get into my Scottsdale travel guide!!
TRAVEL
As far as travel goes, I usually fly straight from the Pittsburgh airport to the Phoenix airport. This is a HUGE upgrade because there were never direct flights to Tucson. Now, I refuse to have layovers to Phoenix if I can avoid it (which I almost always can).
The flight is usually anywhere from 3-4.5 hours depending on the direction and all of that. Yesterday it was almost exactly 3 hours and I read a book on my Kindle the entire time. I used to dread the long direct flight after only ever doing two 2 hour flights with the layover, but it truly goes by very quickly.
RESTAURANTS
Andrew and I discovered JoJo almost a year and a half ago now after searching for a brunch place with mimosas. JoJo has their iconic mimosa flights as well as coffee/latte flights. The place is so adorable with both indoor and outside seating right in downtown Scottsdale. Andrew gets the breakfast burrito and I get the avocado toast sans egg. Their breakfast greens are really great and I usually swap out the potatoes as my side for those. However we have split the breakfast potatoes before and they’re great too.
The mimosa flavors are all so much fun. I definitely want to get back to try the coffee flight next time. The flights are cute and labeled with each flavor. The whole place is very “instagram-worthy” and full of potential photo ops. I definitely recommend trying JoJo’s out if you are looking for a cute brunch stop in the downtown area.
DIEGO POPS!! Andrew and I are literally obsessed with this Mexican restaurant. I randomly found it online before one of my trips out and told Andrew about it because the name was funny and the drinks looked good. I never seriously considered going, but when we needed a last minute place to eat I had remembered the name and the menu.
We went the past two trips, Andrew even specially requested it to be his birthday dinner! The chips and guac/salsa are a staple and the drinks are super yummy. They have frozen margs to regular mags to other specialty cocktails. I get the house burrito without chicken and it’s all vegan (although not the healthiest, lol) with beans, potatoes, rice, and avocado!
Canal Club was a Yelp find but actually a prior Tiktok/Instagram find. I saw someone I follow on Instagram go here a few months ago with a big group of girls and I also saw people talking about it on Tiktok. Fast forward a few months, I was scrolling on Friday afternoon for a last minute dinner reservation for us and found it on Yelp. It sounded familiar and the menu looked good so I booked it!
The restaurant itself is in the lobby of a beautiful hotel. There is gorgeous outdoor dining, a bar, DJ, and regular indoor seating. We ate inside and checked out the cute bar area for a quick pic. When I was looking at the “Canal Club” logo, I knew I had seen it on Instagram. I checked a few days later in my photos and I had screenshotted the place months ago! I am so glad I found it again and we got our butts there for dinner.
I had an avocado salad and Andrew had some sort of Cuban sandwich. The vibe was good and there were lots of girls there for birthday parties and bachelorette parties. I am pretty sure it is a Scottsdale bachelorette party staple spot.
Unfortunately, I can’t take credit for this being a “Scottsdale find” because this is my favorite Italian restaurant at the King of Prussia mall… LOL. Brenna and I go to this restaurant every time we take a shopping trip to KOP. We are obsessed with the arugula salad. I have tried many different entrees over the years, but the spicy rigatoni vodka pasta or the pesto pasta are my favorites.
Andrew and I tested out the Phoenix location on my first trip out this year and we both loved it. We sat outside at a cute little table under lights and near a fireplace. It was too cute and the food is always amazing. I know it’s a chain…but I still 10000% recommend this place for some good ol’ Italian food.
We didn’t eat at The Montauk, but we stopped by for drinks while waiting for our table at Diego Pops. I had heard about it a ton, and based on the crowd we saw, it is another major bachelorette destination. They have espresso martini towers!!?!?!?! How fun. It was a cute spot for sure and we grabbed a drink at the bar and sat outside to wait. I’m glad we checked this place out!
SHOPPING
Scottsdale is home to Fashion Square, a huge mall with all of the major stores. I think Andrew and I make a stop here every time I visit. But next time we should hold back before I do any more damage to my bank account!
The mall has all of the luxury spots like Dior, Bottega, YSL, Cartier, and other shops like Alo, Abercrombie, and Zara that Ross Park doesn’t have. It is always nice to be at a mall that literally has it all.
I have been saving for a few months now for a Bottega bag this trip, and I finally pulled the trigger. I am completely and utterly obsessed with it, even though I swore I would never allow myself to buy a Jodie bag… here we are! Definitely going to do a full post reviewing the bag once I get more use out of it!
I had seen TBJ on Tiktok years ago. When I realized it was in Phoenix, I made a mental note in case I ever ended up in the area with Andrew. Of course, I eventually did for the first time back in the summer of 2022! TBJ was one of the first permanent jewelry places I had seen back when they weren’t as common yet. I booked us an appointment as SOON as I knew I would be in town.
Andrew and I got our matching permanent bracelets back then and they still are holding up strong! They are very kind and always zap Andrew’s back on for him when he has to cut it off for his MRI every winter. I’ve gotten 3 permanent bracelets from there and my other one is from someone local in Pittsburgh.
TBJ does permanent bracelets, necklaces, rings, and more. I think they even have little permanent chains for Stanley cups. They have all sorts of regular jewelry available as well. I just recently saw that they started doing engraving as well, so you better believe I am dragging Andrew there again soon.
ACTIVITIES
This may be my favorite find on this entire list. The Lylo Swim Club was everything Andrew and I were hoping for and more. It was absolutely unreal. We were trying to decide what to do for Andrew’s birthday, and we decided to look for a hotel pool with a day pass and food instead of just laying by Andrew’s apartment pool. I found Lylo on Tiktok and it looked great. I ran to the website and booked the last two pool chairs!! I was hesitant to spend $65 each on a chair/day pass, but it was sooo worth it. They opened for the day at 11am and we could stay until 5pm.
We arrived at the cutest little hotel ever. The outdoor hangout areas were so adorable. They had giant daybeds, pink foosball tables, coffee bars, and a popsicle stand at hotel check in. It was full of mostly couples but some large groups (bachelorettes I assume) who reserved big daybeds for larger parties. We were taken to our poolside bed and immediately served by their poolside servers. We ordered drinks and the guacamole trio. We took some pics, hung out, dozed off, and enjoyed the most amazing pool day ever. I told Andrew that we have to go there for Memorial Day weekend!!
I definitely can’t take credit for this find. Andrew took me to Tiger Woods’ mini golf place back in January! It gives major Top Golf vibes but is a mini golf course.There are black and red courses with TVs throughout playing all of the sports channels. You can scan QR codes and order drinks and food from whatever hole you’re on and someone will run it out to you. It was so much fun!
There was also a huge bar area with all sorts of fun games like cornhole. Andrew and I golfed earlier in the year here and then hung around for a decent bit. It has such a good environment and is a great activity for a fun and chill date night. It’s also great for families!
One of Andrew’s birthday requests was to go to the Talking Stick casino with me and his friends. It ended up being a double date situation which was great for a place like this. The casino was so much cleaner and legit than the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, that’s for sure!! It is also no smoking which makes such a huge difference in comparison. It was obviously huge and had a ton of space to move around even though it was packed. Andrew won a few hundred dollars playing roulette, bday king!!
I didn’t take any photos here sadly so enjoy the hotel photo. :)
And that wraps up my Scottsdale travel guide! I am so happy to have put this together for the memories alone. I love visiting Andrew in Scottsdale and I can't wait until my next trip to go through this entire list again!!
I hope you all enjoyed hearing from me via blog. I'm alive!!
Talk soon!
Xo
Bella
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