Getting there

Overview: Sky Harbor, located only three miles from downtown Phoenix, is the eighth busiest airport in the country, with nearly 1,500 planes arriving and departing each day. Its three terminals—2, 3 and 4—are laid out in a row. (Terminal 1 was razed.) Terminals 3 and 4 are close enough together to reach by foot, though buses between terminals are available.

Waiting around: Each terminal has food and shopping, but Terminal 4 has the most variety, including Pueblo Spirit (one-of-a-kind Native American arts and crafts), a Borders bookstore and InMotion Entertainment, which rents DVDs and players for your flight. Sky Harbor also has one of the largest art collections of any American airport, with more than 400 works. Changing exhibits are on display throughout the terminals, as well as in a dedicated gallery (located on Level 3 in Terminal 4).

Security and customs: The wait time to clear security ranges from 2 to 23 minutes, according to the Transportation Security Administration. Access a daily log of current wait times at airports.com/PHX.

Internet access: Free Wi-Fi is available in all terminals.

Transportation: The minimum taxi fare is $16, which will get you to downtown
Phoenix. A taxi to central Scottsdale costs about $28. Taxi stands are located outside each terminal. All rental car companies (including Hertz, Budget and Enterprise) are located at the Rental Car Center, accessible via the shuttle that stops at each terminal.

Getting around

There’s no whitewashing it: The Valley is a classic example of urban sprawl.

It’s roughly an hour’s drive from one end of the metro area to the other. Phoenix doesn’t have much of a public transportation to speak of yet. A light-rail system is under construction and will eventually link the city’s most populated nodes. But until it opens in 2008, cars are by far the most efficient—if not the only—way to get around. The major car-rental companies have a multitude of local outposts, including at Sky Harbor Airport (see sidebar).

The Phoenix streets are a simple grid, easy to navigate once you have a basic orientation: “Street” addresses are east and “Avenues” west of Central Avenue. “North” and “South” in an address refer to the direction in relation to downtown’s Washington Street. The ever growing freeway system is the speediest way to the major suburbs, but the transportation department can’t build freeways big enough to keep up with the population growth, so expect slow-moving rush hours. Parking is generally copious and free outside of downtown proper. Within downtown, plenty of labeled parking garages exist, as well as metered parking.

Taxis are an option, of course, but it’s virtually impossible to hail one, so plan ahead and call for pickup (Yellow Cab, 602-252-5252).