Start from 31 curated places around Tempe, AZ, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Caffe Boa
A Mill Avenue mainstay in the historic Casa Loma building with original exposed brick, handmade pasta, and one of the stronger wine programs on the strip. The grown-up dinner option in the middle of the college bustle, with a long track record and an award-winning wine list.
Casey Moore's Oyster House
A 1910s house in the Maple-Ash neighborhood with an enormous tree-shaded patio, fresh oysters, and a decades-deep reputation as Tempe's most beloved hangout (it's also reputedly haunted). Equal parts oyster bar, comfort-food kitchen, and porch where the whole town seems to know each other.
Trails & outdoors
Hayden Butte ("A" Mountain) Summit Trail
A short, steep scramble up the butte that rises right behind Mill Avenue, topped by the giant ASU 'A' and a 360-degree view over downtown, Town Lake, and the stadium. Under a mile but it gains fast, and it's the best in-town vista.
Papago Park Double Butte Loop
An easy-to-moderate loop through the red sandstone buttes of Papago Park on the Tempe-Phoenix border, flat enough for most but with optional scrambles up to lookout notches. Passes the iconic eroded formations that define the park.
Things to do
ASU Gammage
Frank Lloyd Wright's last major public commission, a circular 1964 auditorium of pink-and-beige curves that's now the Valley's main stop for touring Broadway. Architecturally significant enough to visit on a tour even without a show.
Tempe Center for the Arts
A striking angular performing-arts complex on the south shore of Town Lake, with a theater, gallery, and lakeside lawn that mirrors in an infinity pool out front. Hosts concerts, dance, and theater plus free art exhibitions.
Landmarks & sights
Tempe Town Lake
A 220-acre reservoir created in 1999 on a normally-dry stretch of the Salt River, now the city's recreational centerpiece with kayaking, paddleboarding, and miles of shoreline path. It anchors the north end of downtown and is busiest at dusk when the heat breaks.
Mill Avenue District
Tempe's walkable downtown spine, a few blocks of early-1900s brick storefronts now packed with bars, restaurants, and shops that buzz from the lunch rush through last call thanks to the ASU crowd. The closest thing the East Valley has to a true pedestrian main street.