Arizona's 5 Best Free Tourist Attractions In Phoenix, According To Visitors

Visitors can easily spend multiple days in Phoenix, exploring city offerings like the hot restaurant scene in the lush green neighborhood of Arcadia or spending time outdoors in the Sonoran Desert. This exciting mix of city life and open desert is precisely what makes Phoenix unique — and it also means there's plenty to do without having to spend a penny. That might be part of the reason why a study from GOBankingRates found that Phoenix is the second-most budget-friendly travel destination in the U.S.

Many of the city's most iconic sights are naturally free: public parks, trails through desert landscapes, and sunset views from red-rock buttes. But Phoenix also has a strong creative and cultural side, which has grown in recent years thanks to an arts-boosting initiative from the Greater Phoenix Economic Council (GPEC). Launched in 2024, numerous museums across the city have select donation-based or free days, which means visitors can explore major cultural institutions at little to no cost. Additionally, visitors can spend time walking through Phoenix's most art-forward districts, where they'll no doubt see some of its more than 770 documented public artworks.

With many no-cost things to do in Phoenix, we identified the attractions visitors consistently rate highest and picked out the top five. Scouring through reviews from travel platforms and blogs, these attractions showcase the best of Phoenix's culture, character, and wide-open desert skies for zero dollars.

Located right in the city is a richly scenic, towering mountain with several trails and sweeping views over Phoenix. Camelback Mountain is named and famed for its gargantuan rock formations that resemble a camel's humps. It's one of the top-rated free attractions in Phoenix on Tripadvisor, with 4.6 stars. One reviewer described hiking Camelback Mountain as "a perfect tourist activity in Phoenix as it is a relatively short jaunt with pleasurable views," but noted that the trails are not for beginners.

Two trails take hikers up to Camelback's summit. The Cholla Trail is the slightly less demanding of the two, according to RV travel bloggers Class C Broads, though it's still far from leisurely. The trail is a 3-mile out-and-back hike that involves some scrambling up uneven, rocky inclines. Coming up the opposite side of the mountain is the Echo Canyon Trail. It's marginally shorter — 2.6 miles out and back — but features challenging, steep sections, and parts of the route can become difficult to follow toward the top. The hikes are made even more difficult in the heat due to the lack of shade, so it's essential to bring water and sun protection. If you're lucky enough to catch the cooling relief of an Arizona shower, the trails are stunning to hike after a rainstorm.

For less experienced hikers, there's one trail that's much less taxing. Bobby's Rock Trail makes a 1.2-mile loop around the lower slopes of the mountain and is even suitable for kids. While the trail doesn't go up to the summit, you still get some great up-close views of the rock formations and Echo Canyon.

If Camelback Mountain is the proving ground of hikers who like a challenge, then Papago Park is its more relaxed counterpart. The park is also a stunning piece of desert landscape plopped into the middle of the city. It covers 1,500 acres — that's almost twice the size of Central Park — and it's home to several eye-catching natural features, including some of the best attractions in Arizona. A few areas, like the Desert Botanical Garden within the park, are barred by an entrance fee, but the park itself is free to enter and has some iconic hikes that are also free.

One of the park's biggest draws for visitors is the Hole in the Rock Trail. Consistently ranked as an easy option, the hike is a short 0.2-mile loop that takes you to Hole in the Rock, a local landmark of ancient rock where you can sit and watch the sunset over the city skyline. The geological site has even earned a Traveler's Choice award from Tripadvisor.

A caveat to note about the Hole in the Rock is that it will undoubtedly be busy during peak times, especially at sunset. "[T]he hole PACKS with tourists at sunset, when theres like 10 other hills/buttes right by it with the same/better view," a Reddit user wrote. If you're looking for a quieter and equally scenic hike, try the Double Butte Loop Trail. It's longer than the Hole in the Rock hike at 2.3 miles, but it showcases the park's special butte scenery, with giant red rock towers rising from the desert floor.

The urban side of Phoenix has some museums that offer a budget-friendly cultural activity, and the Phoenix Art Museum is one of its best. CBS News has described it as the largest visual art museum in the Southwest, and it holds an average 4.4-star rating from Tripadvisor reviews. Though most of the time it requires a paid ticket, there are regular free admission days happening every Wednesday after 3 p.m. ("Pay-What-You-Wish Wednesdays"), the first Friday of each month after 5 p.m., and during the first full weekend of each month for Bank of America cardholders.

Getting a free admission ticket is a simple process with the museum's online reservation system. "We went for the pay what you wish Wednesday[.] The reservation of tickets online was super easy and this is definitely a fun activity to do in order to beat the heat," a Google reviewer said. The free admission tickets don't cover special exhibitions, however.

The museum has over 20,000 art objects in its collection, including paintings, photographs, and textiles. Among some of the most notable works in its galleries are Gilbert Stuart's "George Washington" portrait, Claude Monet's "Flowering Arches, Giverny," and Yayoi Kusama's installation "Fireflies Infinity Mirror Room." The museum also hosts a Family Funday twice a year, which is another free-admission opportunity featuring special kid-friendly programming that's worth checking out if it overlaps with your trip.

While the Phoenix Art Museum offers a formal space for viewing art, a more local and casual art experience is located in Phoenix's Roosevelt Row, also called the Roosevelt Row Arts District. The district is a strip of Roosevelt Street that The Arizona Republic marks as bookended between Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street, though it doesn't have any strict boundaries. From end to end you could walk the strip in about 20 to 30 minutes, during which you'll have the chance to see an abundance of street murals and galleries without spending any money. 

"The artwork is truly amazing and the artists so incredibly talented. Worth a stop to immerse yourself in the neighbourhood," a Tripadvisor reviewer wrote. Beyond that, the district gets overall positive reviews from visitors on the platform, too, with a 4.3-star average rating.

You can walk around Roosevelt Row at any time, though if your Phoenix trip happens to fall during the first weekend of the month, consider stopping by for the First Friday Art Walk. It's essentially a self-guided art tour and street fair that spills into the city's multiple art districts. Travel blogger WanderBlog calls it the "best time to get the full Roosevelt Row experience... The galleries are all free, the area is bustling with people, and the nightlife shows off its colors." Aside from touring the street art, the event also brings live music and food vendors to the strip.

The restored Arizona Capitol Museum, housed in the state's original capitol building, features a free-to-visit collection showcasing the state's history. On a tour of different states' capitol buildings, travel blogger No Home Just Roam wrote that "none have been quite as interesting as the Arizona Capitol Museum... there's tons to fill an afternoon. I did a flying visit in just over an hour, but I left with so much great information."

Among some of the highlights within the museum are a giant Arizona flag made from Lego bricks, remnants of the USS Arizona sunk at Pearl Harbor, and an old voting machine. The building itself is an interesting piece of local history, too. First built in 1901 in a grand, Beaux-Arts style, it remains intact with some additions over the years. And because the state government has since moved to other buildings, you can even walk around the original chambers and governor's office.

According to its website, the Arizona Capitol Museum is open every day in the mornings and afternoons, and visitors can join a free guided tour every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 2 p.m. You might also want to set aside some time to walk around the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza. Facing the Capitol building, it features an arrangement of gardens, fountains, and statues, and some visitors have praised it just as highly as the museum itself. "Well worth a walk around. Very well tended area. We easily spent an hour looking around," a Tripadvisor reviewer said.

We selected these five free attractions in Phoenix based on a wide-reaching assessment of places that visitors have said they enjoyed the most. To do so, we compiled a list of the most-raved about attractions in the city by looking for key phrases like "must-see" and "favorite spot" in visitor reviews across Tripadvisor, Google Reviews, and independent travel blogs. Then, we filtered attractions for those that have true free access (not just low-cost) using official websites and city resources. The final five listed here were determined to have something substantial to offer visitors, backed up by real travelers' experiences.