New Year's Eve

The first is waiting. Most groups call us about a month before their event, and a quarter of them call inside two weeks. For an ordinary Friday that is fine. New Year's Eve is a single night every group in the Valley wants at once, so a mid-December request is picking from what is left. Start in October.

The second is the four-hour block. Two thirds of the trips we quote are four hours, and a real New Year's Eve is five or six. An 8:00 pickup, a midnight venue and drop-offs in three neighborhoods does not fit in four.

That extra hour costs a few hundred dollars more when you plan it, and rather more when you run into it at 12:45 a.m. Book it up front.

On size, groups of eleven to fifteen are the most common thing we see, which is the 12-passenger limo Sprinter or the 16-passenger party bus. New Year's groups merge, though. Two friend circles become one, and suddenly you are looking at the 22-passenger party bus.

Every other choice follows from this one. Groups that skip it end up watching the countdown on somebody's phone in traffic on Scottsdale Road.

• One ticketed event. Hotel ballrooms, resort galas and club parties sell tickets in advance. The bus takes you, waits or returns, and brings you home. Simplest plan there is, and the easiest to price.
• A bar district. Old Town, Mill Avenue or downtown. Be inside your midnight venue by 11:00. Lines at 11:30 are brutal, and many bars charge a cover or require a wristband that night even when they never otherwise would.
• Midnight on the bus. Some groups want to be rolling at twelve with a toast on board. Ask us about that when you call, and pick something with standing room like the 30-passenger party bus.
• A house party with a real ride home. The bus collects people from two or three neighborhoods and returns them after 1:00. Underrated, and nobody is hunting for a car at the end.

Whichever you pick, put it in the event countdown timer and send the link to the group.

New Year's Eve redraws the map. Old Town Scottsdale is at its most crowded of the winter, and the curbs where a bus normally loads are taken early in the evening.

Downtown Phoenix and Tempe both host large public celebrations in some years, with street closures around them. Your driver uses the closest legal loading point, which may be a block or two from the door. Wear shoes you can walk a block in.

Drive times stretch too. Old Town to Mill Avenue is normally 15 to 20 minutes, and Old Town to downtown about 25. After 10:00 that night, add half again. This is exactly why the two-district plan that works on a normal Saturday falls apart here.

Pick one district and stay in it. Lay out your pickups and that single destination in the route planner before you ask us for a quote, and you will see the problem yourself if there is one.

Between 12:15 and 2:00 on January 1, the whole Valley tries to get home at once. Waits are long, fares climb, and the driver you reserved is already parked and waiting.

Plan the drop-offs as carefully as the pickups. If the group is spread across three cities, agree on the order in advance, usually farthest first so nobody sleeps through their own exit and rides around for an hour. A Chandler, Arcadia and North Phoenix sequence can take 75 minutes after the last stop, and that time belongs in the hours you reserve.

Better still, end at one house and let people stay over.

Out-of-town guests pack for Arizona and then stand on a patio shivering. Late December nights in the Valley drop into the low 40s, and a rooftop party feels colder than the number suggests after six hours of dark.

Tell everyone to bring a real jacket. The bus is heated, and it doubles as a coat check between stops so nobody carries a parka around a crowded bar.

A few more things specific to this night:

• Dinner at 7:00 or 7:30 is the hardest reservation to get. A 6:00 seating is easier and gives the night a calmer start.
• Resort parties in North Scottsdale and Paradise Valley are 20 to 30 minutes from Old Town. Lovely, and not a quick hop.
• Bring a charger. Midnight photos drain batteries, and you need a working phone to find the bus.

West Valley groups have a closer option. Westgate in Glendale puts restaurants and bars in one walkable block and saves a Peoria or Goodyear group 40 minutes each way.

Everything costs more on December 31, from dinner to cover charges, so be blunt about money early.

Get the written quote first. Divide it with the split cost calculator and send each person one number that already includes the driver's gratuity, since our quotes do not. Asking for cash at 1:30 in the morning is nobody's favorite part of the night.

Collect before you reserve. This night attracts maybes, and a maybe who drops out on December 29 raises everyone else's share. Couples usually pay as two riders. If one household is hosting the pre-party and feeding everybody, it is fair to reduce their share, and it is better to say so openly than to let people do the math in their heads all night.

If the plan runs on past the bars, our Scottsdale nightlife page covers late-night routing in more detail.