Best Haunted House 2009 | Fear Farm | Arts & Entertainment | Phoenix
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Best Haunted House

Fear Farm

As Halloween season gears up, you're going to hear a lot of boasting by haunted attractions around town. Last year, we pretty much hit them all, and Fear Farm was truly the best. Sure, it's likely a haul from your own unhaunted house, but this massive indoor/outdoor experience is well worth it. Spread over a dozen or so buildings of various sizes and 25 acres of cornfield, this attraction will give you a full night of entertainment. Offering up some of the best pretend monsters in town, this old-school haunt is light on animatronics and chock-full of hair-raising scenes that are well constructed and realistic enough to make suspending disbelief easy — even for adults. Thanks to chainsaw-wielding clowns on stilts, mobile homes that are every bit as scary as you imagine a mobile home in Glendale to be, and a terrifying blood-spattered asylum, this house is first-class all the way.

Best Holiday Event for Kids

Holiday Harmony

The holidays can be downright depressing in this cactus garden of a city. But one of our absolute gems is this annual seasonal bash, held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Part of the charm is its location, on Scottsdale Civic Center Mall, which looks the part with its well-groomed greenery. And despite the fact that it's choked with hundreds of children simultaneously trying to frolic in the real snow, get their pics snapped with Santa, make Christmas crafts, and snag the best view of the official tree-lighting, the event goes off like clockwork, year after year. (P.S.: Admission is free, and you don't have to live in Scottsdale to attend.)

Best Bowling

Glenfair Lanes

Remember the good old days, when dads would spend two nights a week bowling with their buddies, clad in Pepto-Bismol-pink bowling shirts embroidered with their names on the front? No, we don't either. But we've seen them on TV, which is why the seriously old-school Glenfair Lanes was a beat-up, patchwork, bowling shoo-in for this category.

The large alley is a throwback, from the '50s script sign to the large wooden bar with a pass-thru window to the lanes. Prices are equally retro, with $1 beers on Thursdays and dollar games from 9 p.m. to close on Sunday through Thursday nights, including neon bowling on Wednesdays. The updated video arcade/billiard room is great for a quick break — or to check on your kids as you pound a couple of those dollar beers.

Best Bingo

Reflections Bingo

We went through a phase in which we were bingo-ing like mad, all over town. But after visiting a certain number of high-tech, 21st-century bingo halls (you know the type — replete with clever cafes, electronic number callers, and kid-pleasing video arcades grafted on), we began to yearn for the more intimate bingo parlors of our granny's dotage. We found a simpler bingo experience at this cozy, super-popular west-side locale, where we got a free book of bingo cards, and where we gave our daubers a real workout. Reflections has old-time callers and super prize nights like California Bingo Night, usually featured each month, with a $2,000 bonus game and guaranteed $4,000 checkerboard win. We left with a little less cash than we arrived with, but we'd had so much fun that we still felt like a big winner.

Best Miniature Golf

Castles N' Coasters

If you've ever wanted to feel like the giant in Gulliver's Travels, Castles N' Coasters' mini-golf courses will make you feel super-size. That's because the four courses are decorated with small structures and mini-monuments, from mermaid fountains and mysterious caves to a teeny Taj Mahal and old Western saloon. The price isn't big, either, with an 18-hole game running $7.63 plus tax per person — and the park provides clubs and balls. The only drawback to putting on these kooky courses is that they get pretty packed on weekends, so arrive early if you don't want to wait for folks in front of you to move along.

Best Arcade

GameWorks

Hadouken! Flying fireballs launched from your fists knock your opponent on his ass. Just another button-smashing affair at GameWorks. Whether you're a fighter, driver, or gun-toting maniac, there's a cabinet here to sate your sadistic desires. GameWorks has great taste in games. Street Fighter IV was not only sitting upstairs in the arcade months before the home console release, it was the Japanese cabinet version. The only thing missing was a Japanese businessman named Kenji who works as an accountant by day and hurricane-kicks your ass at night. Fight!

Best Indoor Playground

Smaland at Ikea

Jackie Mercandetti

Sure, there are places with more stuff, but in our wanderings with offspring, we've run across no place quite as pleasing to both adult and youth palates. Partially, it's the Smaland space itself, which is minimal in the classic Swedish tradition but also exploding with primary colors. Located just inside the Ikea main entrance, the playland features a craft area, a movie area, and a ginormous pit of plastic balls. That's about it. But kids — ours, at least — adore the extras they don't get elsewhere: the high-tech buzzer that Mom and Dad get to let 'em know when the allotted 1.5 hours of play time are up, the kinder-friendly Ikea cafeteria and food, and — most of all — the shopping they get to tag along on 'cause 1.5 hours is never enough time for Mom and Dad at Ikea.

Mom and Dad think Swedish people are really, really, really smart. Tack så mycket!

Best Outdoor Playground

Playtopia at Tumbleweed Park

Looking for a unique play experience for your kids? Then head to Playtopia, the newest addition to Tumbleweed Park in Chandler. Based on the region's history, Playtopia is a collection of three themed playgrounds. Your junior 4-Hers will enjoy Farmland, a huge agri-inspired play structure housed under a giant barn roof. Cityland has an urban theme and includes tot-sized streets, buses, fire trucks and playhouses. In Critterland, your kids can romp on a giant Gila monster or dig for dinosaur bones. If you're a traditionalist, don't worry: Playtopia's still got the basics, like swings, slides, picnic ramadas, and BBQs. So it's not the real thing, but it's the closest you'll get without the cow poop, road rash, or venomous biting creatures.

Best Dog Park, East Valley

Chaparral Park's Off Leash Area

Valley dog parks are a grab bag, but Chaparral Park's four-acre off-leash area is a winner every time. Dogs are separated into two enormous play sections — one for "passive" pups and another for "active" ones. What this really means is that the large pit bulls and Dobermans are on one side of a fence, while teeny dachshunds and Chihuahuas are on the other. Extra details — water fountains, a double-gated entry, and shade structures — make the place canine-classy. And amazingly, even in the desert, the grass is always green. The park opens at 5:30 a.m. and closes at 10 p.m. If you and your dog need a social hour, this park is one of the best.

Best Dog Park, West Valley

PetSmart Dog Park at Washington Park

It may not be the most chichi dog park in town, but we're still stunned at how far people will drive just to get their pooches to this pretty northwest Phoenix park. Regulars tell us they like how well PetSmart keeps the place up, how many dogs are usually on the scene, and how the nice little amenities (drinking fountains, a separate park for little dogs, an endless supply of tennis balls) kick things up a notch. Best of all, the dog owners are a gracious little community. Even though they all seem to know each other, they are happy to welcome newcomers. While we're not about to call the place a singles hang-out, we will admit to knowing at least one woman who met her husband while watching a friend's pooch. It can happen.

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