If you’re looking for a small town with a charming ambiance, Winslow is where you want to be. The town is tucked away in the northeast corner of Arizona, about an hour and a half from the Grand Canyon. As a tourist attraction, it offers an easily accessible dose of authentic Western scenery and culture.
When you visit Winslow, make sure to check out its downtown area. The energetic hub of the community contains multiple shops offering Native American art and crafts, as well as a number of antique stores and local restaurants. If you’re looking for accommodations, check out La Posada Hotel: it’s classic but cozy aesthetic will remind you that you’re staying in a historic building (it was built in 1930).
Winslow also boasts an excellent museum dedicated to music history—and if that doesn’t pique your interest, there’s also an adjacent railroad museum! For those who love live theater, don’t miss Jazzbo Jim’s Vaudeville Revue & Rockabilly Café: here is where you can experience real-life period entertainment while enjoying local food and drink!
If you’re looking for a unique and off-the-beaten-path experience, look no further than Bisbee. Located in the southeast corner of the state, Bisbee was founded as a mining town in 1880. There are still remnants of that history, but today it is home to artists and art galleries. If you visit Bisbee you can see firsthand what a real artist community looks and feels like. The town has several small theater groups, numerous art galleries, and studios, restaurants, cafes, and bars. The buildings and architecture in this small town are beautiful examples of southwest architecture from the late 1800s through the early 1900s. There are also ghost tours available if you want to experience some of Bisbee’s haunted history!
The small town of Payson is located in the middle of Arizona. It is part of the Mogollon Rim, which is a large cliff that separates the cool and dry deserts of northern Arizona from the hot and humid deserts below. The town’s elevation is pretty high at 5,000 feet, which means cooler weather and a bit more moisture when compared to nearby valleys like Phoenix.
Payson is an outdoor lover’s dream. There are plenty of great trails for hiking and mountain biking, including the famous Tonto Natural Bridge State Park. There are also many opportunities for camping, fishing, and hunting as well! In fact, there are so many things to do outside that you might want to think about staying longer than a day or two!
Tombstone, Arizona is located in Cochise County. It was founded in 1879.
Tombstone is famous for the 1881 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral when Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday had a showdown with three outlaws (the Clanton gang).
When people talk about Tombstone, they often refer to it as “The Town Too Tough To Die.”
For the purposes of this piece, I’ve defined a “great small town” as a walkable city with a population between 1,000 and 25,000 tha
