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Best Spa

The Spa at Camelback Inn

Between Camelback and Mummy mountains is our favorite retreat. The Spa at Camelback Inn is the perfect place to spend a day unwinding solo. It's quiet. It's tucked away. There's no traffic. No TV. No phone. You'll just hear the sounds of flowing water and gentle, gentle music in the background. With the purchase of a one-hour service (which could be a massage, facial, or body treatment), you'll receive a one-day spa pass that grants access to pools, saunas, private cabanas (you can reserve one), and fitness facilities. Our advice? Block out a whole day to spend at the supremely relaxing facilities, and walk the tranquil grounds of its resort once your time's up.

Best Vintage Boutique

Vintage by Misty

Misty Guerriero is a daring dresser. Pattern, color, texture, and shape are all to be played with. And if you take a trip to her Phoenix storefront, that's all you'll want to do. Guerriero dares her shoppers to push their style boundaries. Try a bold print. Give a powerful silhouette a shot. Put 'em together and you'll have something aligned with her globetrotting fashion sense; she likes to call it gypset style, a movement associated with boldly dressed world roamers (Gypsy plus jet-set equals gypset). If the head-to-toe anything isn't for you, don't fret. Guerriero has an unparalleled eye for color and pattern, and she'll share her tips and tricks for wearing her worldly goods well.

Best Pet Groomer

Wag 'N Wash

Does Fluffy need a scrub? Scared to cut her nails? Don't feel like expressing your best friend's anal glands (yeah, we didn't think so)? Then load her in the car and take her over to Wag 'N Wash, where the friendly staff will gladly give her a spray-down and tune-up. The Melrose district dog groomer offers a full-service pet spa as well as a do-it-yourself option. Prices range from about $13 to $36 depending on the size of your pet and the service you want. Hint: A full-grown husky with all that hair will be more than a 20-pound Boston terrier. While you're there, grab some of the fresh-baked doggy treats and a new play toy. Your dog will be in heaven — and smell good, too — when you get home.

Best Place for Your Kid to Learn How to be a Vet

Arizona Animal Welfare League & SPCA

The recently refurbished AAWL is a terrific place to adopt a cat or dog — and we're equally fond of their educational programs. If you have a scout troop, you can arrange for a tour of the exotic animal room (complete with resident hedgehog — they won't let you pet her, but still, cool, huh?) and if you have a free week in the summer, for a fee (warning: it's not the cheapest summer camp in town) Junior can even learn how to be a vet. Well, not quite — but close.

Kids 12 and up will dissect a cow eyeball, give a kitten an examination, watch operations and observe a few things we are too squeamish to describe here, but which are sure to thrill your not-easily-grossed-out kid. Ours emerged ready to apply to medical school. Just try to end the week without adopting (yet another) puppy. We dare you.

Best Place to Buy a Dangerous Animal

Reptile Mogul Exotics

Ever seen a yellow anaconda? How about a green anaconda? What about a false water cobra? The water cobra is six feet long, can flatten its neck to look similar to the Indian cobra (the snakes that dance in baskets to flute music), is slightly venomous, and is for sale in Tempe at Reptile Mogul Exotics. Owner Jared Ohsman has 20 years' experience handling reptiles and other animals normally reserved for nightmares and that scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Reptile Mogul Exotics has plenty of pythons, boas, lizards, scorpions, and tarantulas as well as docile reptiles like chameleons, geckos, and turtles for sale. For those of us who enjoy the idea of falling asleep next to an animal that could potentially escape from its cage and attack us, Reptile Mogul Exotics is where we shop to keep on our toes.

Best Place to Buy High-End Antiques

Sweet Salvage

While the Melrose Curve is a reputable source of repurposed relics and midcentury marvels, there's one Seventh Avenue store in particular that has people literally lining up out the door. Every Third Thursday through Sunday of each month, Sweet Salvage opens its warehouse (now with A/C) to a swarm of trendy thrifters and antique addicts looking for the good stuff. The store's sweet selection of vintage treasures and industrial gems is always tied together by a monthly theme ("summer loving," "salvage secrets," and "let them eat cake," to name a few) and compiled by a team of experienced dealers, handpicked by Sweet Salvage's chief junk queens, Kim Rawlins and Katie Hibbs. From antique signs and kitchenware to vintage soda crates and card catalogs, Sweet Salvage's diverse selection of distressed goods goes quickly in the height of the industrial home trend, which is why we recommend showing up early to this three-day-only sale or, better yet, purchasing a preview ticket so you can beeline it to your favorite flea market finds in the morning.

Best Place to Relive Your Childhood

Arizona Collectors Marketplace

Children of the '80s are guaranteed to dig the Arizona Collectors Marketplace. Ditto for anyone who grew up playing with Stretch Armstrong, the Six Million Dollar Man, or the original 12-inch G.I. Joe dolls. That's because toys, games, comic books, and other remnants of the era occupy practically every inch of this 7,000-square-foot bazaar of brightly colored plastic. Childhood memories of watching cartoons show like Thundercats and M.A.S.K. while playing with the respective action figures are certain to surface once you step inside.

More than 15 vendors operate tiny bodegas and closet-size stalls throughout the marketplace, some specifically focused on a particular fandom or franchise. To wit: Grey Rogers' shop G.I. Joe vs. Transformers contains stuff from Hasbro's two biggest product lines, while Game Over Games offers stacks of cartridges for classic consoles (ranging from the Atari 2600 and NES to the Nintendo 64) as well as vintage versions of the systems. Other shops have a bit of everything, like Phoenix Comics and Toys' impressive selection of bagged and boarded back issues, a surfeit of Marvel Universe figures, and even original stills from Star Trek: The Animated Series.

There's also a bit of a museum feel to the marketplace, as multiple floor-to-ceiling glass cases contain such relics as Dukes of Hazzard lunchboxes, Evel Knievel race cars, or Shogun Warriors imported from Japan. Everything's for sale, including the items on the extra tables setup for the twice-weekly swap meet on Saturday afternoons and Wednesday evenings by other local dealers and geeks hawking their wares. Just don't exhaust all of your allowance, okay?

Best Vintage T-Shirts

Cellar Door Vintage

Yeah, that's a coffin inside Cellar Door Vintage. And, yes, there's a skeleton inside it. You could say shopkeepers Jake and Eyndia Ooley have a thing for bizarre buys. It seems to stem from the married couple's shared love of punk and goth rock — The Misfits, in particular. The pair also has a good grip on cool T-shirts of the vintage variety, which probably make up the majority of Cellar Door's stock. Shuffle through the racks and you'll find well-worn shirts adorned with team championship bragging, Disney iconography, and the Coors Light logo. Not only do they look cool, they have pretty punk origin stories.

  • 906 N. 6th St., Phoenix, 85004 Map

Best Place to Buy a Live Chicken

Pratt's Pets & Pet Supplies

Walking into Pratt's pet shop for the first time might catch your nostrils off guard. Well, there is no "might" about it — the smell of farm animals is not bad so much as it's foreign to the nose of a suburbanite. But get past that, because this shop is amazing — like a little zoo, but you can take these animals home with you. If you're looking to save money on eggs, Pratt's will sell you a laying hen for $20. A young hen will set you back only $12. But why stop at the chicken? Pratt's is stocked with other feathered and furry animals, including lovebirds, finches, a Blue Fronted Amazon, noisy doves and pigeons, puppies, a goat, gerbils, ferrets, bunnies, and pot-bellied pigs. They also have, by the way, a 10- to 12-foot Burmese python that — should you regret any of your other pet purchases — will gladly feast on small furry or feathered animals. Or you can just pick up some of the high-end and organic food and great pet treats the store sells for way less than you'd pay at the big-box pet stores.

Best Nursery

Baker Nursery

It's not easy being green — especially in Phoenix. Luckily, the garden gurus at Baker Nursery in Arcadia are here to help. For more than 40 years, Baker has been bringing some much-needed TLC to the backyard landscape. Offering a vibrant array of seasoned and desert-suitable plant life, from citrus trees and cacti to herbs and hibiscus, Baker Nursery is as much a pleasure to walk through as its knowledgable staff is to talk to. Knowing that not all of us have the greatest track record with Mother Nature, the staff will set out to find just the right plant to fit your yard, and more importantly your maintenance level. Whether its frostbitten fauna or suffering succulents, Baker Nursery will give you the tools and tips to recover your pathetic-looking plants or, at the very least, replace them with something better.

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