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12 Reasons I Love Phoenix
As a native Californian girl who has traveled around the country and lived in several cities in my lifetime including Sacramento, Granite Bay, Tucson, Los Angeles, Albuquerque and currently Phoenix for over 10 years, I feel like I can objectively share pluses about living in Phoenix. CubeSmart Self-Storage recently published a blog post on the ‘12 Reasons to Move to Phoenix’ and encouraged me to share 12 things I love about Phoenix.
One of my girlfriends who visited Phoenix the first time from NC asked me after a few days, “Do you feel like you are on a permanent vacation?” She thought all the restaurants and the fun Phoenix lifestyle was total vacay mode! I rarely think about how lucky I am until I leave to go somewhere else. I can’t wait to share my favorite Phoenix living perks are with you – especially if you haven’t visited before. We love visitors and we certainly love sharing our city with anyone who wants to visit!
1 / Two decent planting seasons for gardening
Of course I’ll start off with that! For gardeners like myself, or those who might be curious enough to start growing their own food, we have such great weather that we have two extensive gardening seasons.
We can plant seeds and starters right after the last frost which is around end of February (if we even get a hard freeze) to get our garden beds ready for summer veggies, and once again in the fall, around end of September that will last us through December. Some veggies will not freeze because our temps aren’t freezing in the winter so we can continue to grow veggies and enjoy our flowers.
2 / The spas (and golf) resorts are plentiful
Because of our comfortable sunshine temps, Phoenix and Scottsdale are packed filled with beautiful spas and resorts, lots of new ones in fact, and golf courses too. So he can go golfing while she gets pampered at the spa – even in the month of February!
My girlfriends love to visit and we head to one of our spas, and there are also specials if we go early and summer rates for locals because it’s a bit slower with tourism so we can indulge with some R&R staycations at discounted rates!
3 / A great place for coffee lovers
You can skip the green and purple straw here, and head to a local coffee shops. Phoenicians love our coffee because we are active and we know how to make it right!
Hava Java, Cartel, LGO Grocery, Luci’s Healthy Marketplace, The Henry, are just a few to name, there are so many great spots that offer the most delicious coffee that you won’t even need to go through a typical chain drive through. Good for coffee lovers, productivity, and mornings.
4 / Excellent restaurant choices
Phoenix boasts some of the tastiest unique food, thanks to entrepreneurs like Sam Fox – have you heard of Flower Child, Blanco, North Italia, Culinary Dropout, or The Henry? It all started in Phoenix! Upward Projects is another company that has created delicious restaurants – if you’ve heard of Postino Wine Cafe, they have several other restaurants here in Phoenix under their umbrella like Federal Pizza, Churn and Windsor.
My point is, all the great restaurants that aren’t the typical chains started in Phoenix because we love to socialize through eating. We drink coffee, we eat, shop, and we work hard. You will crave Phoenix food when you aren’t here, like I do. I always cannot wait to come home because I miss our local restaurants, and how many people can say that?
5 / Health-conscious living
Gardening, biking – lots of hiking trails for those who love to do that sort of active outdoor lifestyle. I recall when I finalized that I would move from Los Angeles to Phoenix, I knew I would lose 10 lbs. and feel great because I knew the lifestyle would make me healthier! There are also many vegan and gluten-free options offered at most of our restaurants for those who need to eat with those dietary restrictions.
6 / Unreal sunsets
Have you heard about our sunsets? I can’t even explain why or how they are so beautiful here in the desert but I hope if you visit you can catch a good one. The first reason I think we have great sunsets is because you can see them – there are not a lot of buildings blocking our ability to catch the sunsets, it’s pretty flat around here (minus the gorgeous mountains around), and second, possibly something with the dust and mix of the particles in the air which cause the colorful, sky on fire sunsets.
If you catch one during the summer after a monsoon hits, you may witness a cotton candy colored sky, or a fiery red and pink sunset. It will leave you in awe.
7 / Low cost of living
Although Phoenix housing market is increasing yet again since Californians (like myself) are moving here, it’s still cheaper in terms of cost of living compared to other large cities.
When I was in my early 20s, I decided to leave Los Angeles after doing some match and decided in order to get ahead to where I wanted, Phoenix was a great place. I bought property right away and been able to save more while having a comfortable living – I can still travel internationally and visit family in friends elsewhere. It’s been a wonderful place to enjoy city living without high living city costs.
8 / Entrepreneur-focused and supported city
There are many small business owners in Phoenix – I feel like there should be a song for Phoenix about living your dreams out here! Entrepreneurs are friendly, wanting to connect and help one another out here. We are always networking, working on ways to promote and help one another and connect each other to other people who can help.
We are such an entrepreneurial friendly city – responding to emails quickly, collaborating, and finding ways to support one another including shopping and eating at small businesses. We love seeing others live out their dreams!
9 / A few hours away from Sedona
Phoenix isn’t far from Sedona. You can take a day trip, about 116 miles north to Sedona and see the red rocks. It’s a little magical spot to view some out of this world scenery, hike and find a vortex (careful, my camera screen cracked while hiking this particular one).
It’s so beautiful by the creek too, it’s where my husband and I got married! You can hike, meditate, reflect, go to a spa, or just take in the unique surroundings.
10 / Nine months of great weather
Normal temps during the fall to winter are anywhere from 70 to 85 (it’s not hot all the time, just during the summer) and we boast over 200 sunny days a year and over 80 partly sunny days. No depression here, when there’s so much you can do outdoors like bike, garden, and hike! Good weather promotes healthier living and some good Vitamin D!
I also think good weather creates great moods and people are happier and healthier!
I also would rather take the heat than extreme coldness where my bones hurt, that’s just me. I like warmer weather and it’s not humid either!
11 / Ease of getting around and finding parking
Phoenix is a big city but it doesn’t feel like it. It’s almost like a lot of suburbia’s crunched together. It’s spread out with lots of room for parking and not feeling overly crowded. I don’t stress about finding parking no matter where I am, not even downtown! Phoenix doesn’t have the incredibly huge skyscraper vibe like NYC or downtown LA – but we do have a downtown and we do have tall buildings but I’d say it’s on a smaller scape – taking up fewer miles than bigger downtown cities. Our downtown is also incredibly clean because we’re so new.
Phoenix is still a large city – media market 11 or 12, that feels spread out. You can get nearly anywhere you need to be within 30 minutes from Central Phoenix.
12 / Safe place from natural disasters
A while ago a list came out and two cites, Mesa and Phoenix were on the list for cities with least risk for natural disasters. The flash floods aren’t really that damaging, perhaps closes down some freeways and roads. Nothing major here that would cause much concern for our homes or loss of life. We have strong winds at times, but that’s about it!
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And that’s my list on the 12 things I love about Phoenix. Thinking about moving here? Check out CubeSmart’s post on 12 reasons why you should move to Phoenix! And if you do, let me know – I’d love to share with you some of my favorite places in town!
In collaboration with CubeSmart Self-Storage.
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