Best Scottsdale Nightlife by Bus

How a Scottsdale night works with a bus

The bus is not going to pull up at the door of every bar, and you would not want it to. Old Town's busiest blocks are walkable end to end, and on a Saturday you will beat any vehicle on foot.

So the bus does three other jobs. It brings everyone from one house or hotel into the district together, it covers the legs that are too far to walk, and it is parked somewhere you all agreed on when the night ends.

That last one is the real value. At 1:30 a.m. everyone on the street is trying to get a ride at the same moment.

Most groups doing this are around fourteen people, and they split almost evenly between Friday and Saturday. If your crew can do either night, say so when you ask us for a quote. It opens up more buses, and usually a better number.

The Entertainment District

This is what people mean when they say they are going out in Old Town. East of Scottsdale Road, south of Camelback, a few blocks of clubs, big patios and late-night food stacked close together.

Spend most of your hours here if the group wants loud music and a dance floor. A bar crawl by bus often needs nothing more than a drop-off and a pickup in these blocks, with everything in between on foot.

Get there earlier than feels cool. Lines build as the evening goes on, and fourteen people move through a door a lot slower than four.

If there is one specific club the group has its heart set on, call that venue yourself and ask how they handle groups. Their rules change, and you should hear it from them rather than from a blog, this one included.

The quieter side of Old Town

Cross west of Scottsdale Road and the volume drops. The Arts District along Main Street and Marshall Way, the 5th Avenue shops and the Waterfront along the canal are where you can have a conversation without shouting.

It is a good place to start the night. Drinks and dinner over here, then a short ride or walk east for the late hours, and you get two different nights out of one evening.

It is also the whole evening for a 40th birthday, a group of couples, or a girls night out that is more about wine and talking than a dance floor. Rooms on this side are smaller, so book ahead or plan to sit at two tables.

One thing to know: this side winds down earlier. Ending the night here means ending it before midnight.

Scottsdale Quarter and Kierland

Twenty to twenty-five minutes north of Old Town, the Quarter and Kierland Commons sit across Scottsdale Road from each other. Open-air, wide sidewalks, a lot of restaurants and patios, and a slightly older crowd than the club blocks.

Treat this as the first half of a night, not the last. Dinner up here, the ride south to Old Town as the pre-party, then a late pickup. For anyone staying at a north Scottsdale resort it is the obvious place to start.

Loading is easier too. The streets are wide and built around cars, so a full-size bus has room that Old Town will not give it.

Count the driving, though. A north Scottsdale pickup, the run south and the ride home can eat close to an hour of a four-hour night.

When to add Tempe or downtown

You have a vehicle, so you are not stuck in one city. Two add-ons are worth the time.

Mill Avenue in Tempe. Fifteen to twenty minutes south, right next to the university, and the most casual strip of the three. It suits a group that wants beers and bar games before Scottsdale, or a 21st birthday that does not need a club. Our Tempe page covers pickups around campus.

Downtown Phoenix. Roosevelt Row and the blocks around the arena have cocktail bars, breweries, rooftops and live music, and the feel is more local than Old Town. Roughly 25 minutes away. Add it when the night starts at a game or a concert, or when half the group lives in central Phoenix and would rather finish near home.

One city change on a four-hour night. Two at most if you have booked five or six. Every move costs twenty to thirty minutes of riding plus the ten it always takes to get fourteen people to finish a drink and get back on. Lay the order out in the route planner before you commit to it.

Where the bus can actually stop

Nobody plans for this, and it causes more trouble on the night than anything else.

On a weekend the district streets are full of rideshare cars, pedicabs, golf carts and people not watching where they walk. Some blocks restrict traffic at peak hours. A thirty-foot bus cannot sit double-parked while fourteen people find their shoes, so expect to load a block or two off the busiest corners, on a street where it can pull fully to the curb.

Pick that spot with your driver at drop-off and use it all night. They work Old Town every weekend and know which curbs are usable at 9 p.m. and which still work at 1:30. Those are not always the same curb.

• Agree on one loading spot, look at it together, pick a landmark.
• Drop a pin for it in the group chat.
• Set the pickup time before anyone goes inside, ten minutes earlier than you think you need.
• Give the driver two phone numbers. One phone will die.
• Count heads on board before you pull away from every stop.

Size helps here as well. A 14-passenger limo Sprinter fits curb space a full-size bus cannot use, which is a real advantage if you are staying in Old Town all night. More on keeping everyone together is in our party bus safety tips.

Four hours or five?

Four is what most Valley groups book, about two thirds of them, and it works fine in Scottsdale. Just be honest with yourself about what fits inside it.

Last call in Arizona is 2 a.m. A four-hour night that starts at 8 ends at midnight, which is exactly when the Entertainment District hits its stride. If the group wants to stay to the end, either start at 10 or buy the fifth hour up front.

Past four-hour trips here were quoted around $1,230 and five-hour trips around $1,500. Those are records of what other groups were quoted, not a price list, but the gap split fourteen ways comes to about one round of drinks each.

The night you pick is the other lever. Saturday quotes have run a few hundred dollars over Friday, and night-out groups are already split evenly between the two. Old Town is fully alive on both.

Which bus for a group of fourteen

Groups of eleven to fifteen are the biggest band we see, and the choice there is genuinely open. Roughly half get quoted a party bus and half a Sprinter limo.

If dancing on the ride is part of the plan, the 18-passenger party bus leaves fourteen people room to stand. If a few plus-ones could push you to eighteen or twenty, take the 22-passenger party bus so a late yes does not mean leaving someone behind.

Build the playlist longer than your total time on the road, or it starts repeating on the way home. The playlist duration calculator tells you how many songs that takes.

Covers, lines and what to wear

We will not print a cover charge, because anything we wrote would be wrong by next weekend. Here is what holds up year to year.

Weekend covers are common on the club side, and they tend to climb later in the night. February and March are the busiest stretch of the Valley's year, with the Phoenix Open and spring training bringing visitors in, so everything is harder then. Bring a card and some cash.

Arriving on a bus does not move you up a line. Entry is the door staff's call, not ours. Getting there before the rush, staying together and having every ID out in advance all help, and one person without a valid ID can sink the plan, so say that out loud before pickup.

The club side is the dressy side. Athletic wear, flip-flops and hats are the usual reasons people get turned away, and men tend to be held to a stricter line. The Arts District, Kierland and Mill Avenue are all easier. Dress for the strictest door on your route, and in summer wear something light, because it can still be over 100 degrees at 10 p.m.

Then give the ride home a minute of thought. Water on the bus, a decision made in advance about whether there is a food stop, and every drop-off address handed to the driver before the last pickup instead of during it. Our Scottsdale page covers how pickups work around the city, and you can send us your night whenever you are ready.