Tulsa's Largest Suburb Is A Trendy, Underrated Gem That Brims With An Award-Winning Downtown

Like most generational Tulsans, I love living in a cosmopolitan, mid-sized Oklahoma city with a beautiful waterfront wonderland, a vibrant arts and music culture, and a community-minded spirit, all while being surrounded by some of the most adorable suburbs in this part of the country. And as a resident living in Tulsa's Global District, I count myself lucky to be just a few minutes away from Broken Arrow — often referred to by locals as simply "B.A." — a beautiful and welcoming Oklahoma community with a fairly steady stream of cultural events and festivals throughout the year.

Broken Arrow is the closest neighbor to (and the largest suburb of) the wildly underrated music and arts city of Tulsa. Almost without exception, Tulsa's suburbs tend to have pretty, charming downtown communities. But B.A.'s downtown, known as the Rose District, is more than just a main drag. It's a trendy, pedestrian-friendly arts, entertainment, and shopping district with plenty of Okie-grown shops, spas, and restaurants in a community that actively works to create a communal gathering space where there's almost always something happening. The design, which won the city numerous awards through the years including a spot on USA Today's top "charming main streets" in 2019, is just one of many things that make Broken Arrow an underrated suburb worth spending time in. 

If you're planning to visit Oklahoma, you can't go wrong booking a vacation rental within walking distance of the Rose District, less than a 20-minute drive from Downtown Tulsa or the Tulsa International Airport. And the best part? The rates tend to be pretty affordable in the city. In fact, MoveBuddha ranked Broken Arrow the United States' most cost-friendly town in 2024.

If you've been dreaming of a Hallmark movie Christmas, B.A. is your chance to live it. Broken Arrow is one of the best destinations in Tulsa's metro area for holiday happenings, chief of which is the Rhema Bible Church holiday lights display located on Kenosha Street. The massive holiday display features millions of lights spread across the church's sprawling 110-acre campus and runs nightly from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. The completely free Christmas light show is a holiday tradition for many locals, with around 500,000 guests coming to drive or walk through the display each holiday season. The suburb's Rose District also comes alive for the holiday season, kicking off the festivities mid-November with a huge celebration that begins with a Main Street tree-lighting ceremony. Local musicians, Victorian carolers, a craft show, horse-drawn carriage rides, and Santa himself also help to usher in the fun. 

But the city's festive spirit doesn't quit with the holidays. Each year for nearly a century now, Broken Arrow has been putting on Oklahoma's oldest festival, Rooster Days. The annual event, which dates back to 1931, has evolved from a market for selling excess roosters to a celebratory carnival, fun run, parade, and shopping festival. There's also Chalk It Up! An Art Festival, a two-day event that sees the wide Rose District sidewalks transform into a colorful art show as food trucks, vendors, musicians, and street performers line the streets. Meanwhile, rose kites fly overhead as part of the Broken Arrow Rose Festival.

If you've spent much time in Green Country, the lush, rolling northeastern corner of our state at the edge of the Ozark Mountains, you can likely appreciate our mild climate. Although we get snow a couple of times each year and the late summer months tend to get pretty sweltering during peak sunlight hours, the Tulsa area enjoys many moderate weather days during the winter months, and our fall, spring, and midsummer evenings often beckon outdoor adventures. It's something the Rose District's architects clearly had in mind when they redesigned the pedestrian-friendly neighborhood with wide sidewalks that offer more than enough room for outdoor patio dining, outfitting them with benches for taking a mid-shopping trip breather.

There's plenty of quality dining and shopping here in this rare refuge from big box stores and corporate dining. Two of my favorites are Andolini's Pizzeria, a local staple specializing in authentic New York and Italian pizzas, and In the Raw Sushi, an unassuming sushi joint that offers both traditional and nouveau sushi. When you're finished dining, spend some time checking out all of the cool, locally owned shops the Rose District has to offer, like 1907 Oklahoma Mercantile, where you can pick up artisan-crafted soaps, tees, and jewelry, or get lost in time at the Family Treasures Antique Mall. There's also an abundance of entertainment to check out in B.A. from ax throwing and roller skating spots to the Museum Broken Arrow or art classes at Arts@302, an art education center that's home to Kristin Chenoweth's Artists of Promise (K@P) program for kids.