By Yes, Phoenix has more than resorts, golf courses, and the Desert Botanical Garden. A hand-built desert castle you can only enter by reservation, an experimental town 70 miles north of the city, and a flood tunnel that fills the sky with bats every summer evening are all within a short drive of downtown. Here are seven of the most unusual things to do in Phoenix, and what to know before you go.
Unusual Phoenix Attractions at a Glance
- Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) – a global instrument collection in Desert Ridge
- Tovrea Castle at Carraro Heights – a reservation-only “wedding cake” castle in Camelback East
- Papago Park’s Hole-in-the-Rock – a free, wind-carved formation near downtown
- Arcosanti – an experimental arcology town near Cordes Junction
- Cosanti – Paolo Soleri’s original studio in Paradise Valley
- The Phoenix Bat Cave – a summer bat emergence on the Arizona Canal
- Curious Nature – a taxidermy and natural-history oddities shop
1. Musical Instrument Museum (MIM)
MIM sits in the Desert Ridge neighborhood of north Phoenix, just off Loop 101 near Tatum and Mayo boulevards. The museum displays more than 6,800 musical instruments and objects from around the world, arranged by country and region, with headsets that play the actual sound of each instrument as you walk past its display. The Experience Gallery lets you try instruments yourself, from a gong to a theremin, and the artist gallery holds stage pieces from musicians including Elvis Presley and Carlos Santana.
What makes MIM unusual is not the size of the collection so much as the format. You are not just looking at objects behind glass. You are hearing the music each instrument was built to make, in the culture it came from. Plan on two to three hours if you want to see all five geographic galleries.
2. Tovrea Castle at Carraro Heights
Locals call it the “wedding cake house,” and once you see the tiered white structure on its cactus-covered hill near the Loop 202 and 52nd Street, the nickname makes sense. The City of Phoenix owns the property, and the nonprofit Tovrea Carraro Society operates docent-led tours by reservation, with guests touring the cactus gardens and outbuildings by tram before reaching the castle’s main floor and basement. Alessio Carraro built the site in 1928 as a planned resort hotel, but the Great Depression forced him to sell, and cattle baron Edward Tovrea’s family later took ownership.
Tours sell out months in advance, often within 24 hours of tickets going on sale, so this is not a spot you can add to a same-day itinerary. Reserve through the official Tovrea Castle Tours site well ahead of your trip.
3. Papago Park’s Hole-in-the-Rock
If Tovrea Castle requires planning, this one requires almost none. The Hole-in-the-Rock Trail is a short natural dirt and step path that wraps around a red sandstone butte to a large wind-eroded opening near the top, and the park is open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. From inside the opening, you get a free view over the Phoenix Zoo and the eastern part of the Valley. The formation sits inside Papago Park, a couple of minutes from the zoo and the Desert Botanical Garden, so it pairs easily with a bigger day of sightseeing.
Go at sunrise or just before sunset if you can. It gets crowded and hot in the middle of the day, and the short path has some scrambling near the top that is easier to manage in cooler temperatures and daylight.
For a quick look at what the wider Papago Park area offers around Hole-in-the-Rock, this walking video from a local hiking channel is a good preview before you go:
4. Arcosanti
North of Phoenix, near Cordes Junction off Interstate 17, sits one of the more genuinely strange things you can visit in Arizona. Arcosanti is a project of the Cosanti Foundation, founded in 1970 to pursue “arcology,” a combination of architecture and ecology meant as an alternative to urban sprawl. Built by more than 7,000 volunteers since the project began, Arcosanti now welcomes over 50,000 visitors a year who come to see its poured-concrete apses, amphitheater, and bronze foundry.
Resident-led guided tours run Thursday through Sunday, and day visitors need to be on a tour to explore most of the grounds. The drive from central Phoenix takes a little over an hour, which makes this a half-day trip rather than a quick stop. Tour times and holiday closures change, so check arcosanti.org before you drive up.
5. Cosanti
Before Arcosanti, there was Cosanti. Paolo Soleri’s original studio sits closer to town, in Paradise Valley, and it is where the bronze and ceramic windbells that fund the Cosanti Foundation’s work are still cast by hand. Guided tours are priced at $30 for adults, $15 for students with ID, and $10 for teens and children 18 and under, with specialty tours on select Sundays. Weekday visitors can watch the foundry and ceramics studio in action as part of the tour.
If Arcosanti is the finished experiment, Cosanti is the workshop where the idea started. Visiting both on the same trip, if your schedule allows, gives a clearer picture of Soleri’s work than seeing either alone.
6. The Phoenix Bat Cave
This is not a natural cave at all. It is a Maricopa County flood control tunnel near 40th Street and Camelback Road, and every summer it becomes a maternity colony for thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats. The Arizona Game and Fish Department has known about the colony since the 1990s, and the department’s bat specialists describe it as a maternity colony, meaning most of the bats present are mothers and their young. The colony grows through July and August as the young bats begin to fly, and visitors can typically watch the bats emerge from March through October, with June through August as the peak season.
Access is along the Arizona Canal Trail, and there is no admission fee. Arrive 20 to 30 minutes before sunset, bring a chair or blanket since there are no benches, and stay quiet so you do not disturb the colony as it takes flight.
7. Curious Nature
For something entirely different, Central Phoenix’s Curious Nature stocks ethically sourced taxidermy, skulls, bones, and preserved specimens alongside plants and collectibles. Visit Phoenix itself lists it among the city’s more unexpected attractions, describing a shop full of taxidermy you won’t be able to look away from. It is a short, offbeat browse rather than a half-day outing, and it pairs well with a walk through the nearby Roosevelt Row arts district.
What About Mystery Castle?
If you have researched unusual Phoenix attractions before, you likely came across Mystery Castle, the 18-room stone home Boyce Luther Gulley built for his daughter in the foothills of South Mountain Park. It is a genuinely remarkable story, but it is important to know before you plan a visit: the castle has been closed to public tours since 2022. After vandalism and a demolition threat that placed it on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2025 list of Most Endangered Historic Places, the property changed ownership in 2026, and a preservation effort is underway. Check the National Trust’s Mystery Castle page or local Phoenix news for updates before including it in any trip plan, since it is not currently open to visitors.
Best Time to Visit These Unusual Phoenix Spots
Timing depends on the spot. Papago Park and Curious Nature work any time of year, though early morning or evening is more comfortable outdoors from May through September. The Phoenix Bat Cave is a summer-specific experience, best from June through August. Arcosanti and Cosanti are open most of the year but run on limited weekly tour schedules, so build your trip around their posted tour days rather than the other way around. Tovrea Castle tours run seasonally with a summer break, so reserve as far ahead as the ticket system allows.
Practical Tips Before You Go
- Reserve Tovrea Castle and Arcosanti tours well in advance; both sell out.
- Bring water for any outdoor stop, especially Papago Park and the bat cave viewing area.
- The Phoenix Bat Cave has no restrooms, benches, or lighting after dark. Bring a flashlight for the walk back.
- Confirm current hours and admission for every stop above before you go. Small nonprofits and seasonal attractions change their schedules, and this list reflects information gathered at the time of writing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some unusual things to do in Phoenix besides the typical tourist attractions?
Beyond the Desert Botanical Garden and Phoenix Zoo, Phoenix has a reservation-only desert castle (Tovrea Castle), an experimental architecture town (Arcosanti), a free rock formation with city views (Hole-in-the-Rock), and a summer bat colony along the Arizona Canal.
Is Mystery Castle still open to visitors?
No. Mystery Castle has been closed to public tours since 2022 following vandalism concerns and a demolition threat. The property was sold to a new owner in 2026, and a preservation effort is in progress, but there is no public tour schedule at this time.
Where can I see bats in Phoenix?
The Phoenix Bat Cave, a flood control tunnel near 40th Street and Camelback Road along the Arizona Canal Trail, hosts thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats each summer. They emerge around sunset, most reliably from June through August, and viewing is free.
How far is Arcosanti from Phoenix?
Arcosanti sits near Cordes Junction off Interstate 17, about 70 miles north of downtown Phoenix. The drive takes a little over an hour, making it a half-day trip rather than a quick stop.
Do I need reservations for Tovrea Castle?
Yes. Tours are docent-led and reservation-only through the Tovrea Castle Tours website, and they routinely sell out months in advance, so book as early as the ticketing system allows.
Final Thoughts
None of these seven spots require a full vacation day, and most fit easily between the bigger stops on a typical Phoenix itinerary. The two that need real planning, Tovrea Castle and Arcosanti, reward that planning with something you genuinely will not see anywhere else. For everything else, from the bat tunnel to Hole-in-the-Rock, all you need is a little daylight or a little dusk and a willingness to look past the resorts. For more ideas on exploring the city beyond the obvious, see our guide to Things to Do in Phoenix, and learn more about how we research and verify local guides like this one on our editorial policy page.