A short drive from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Scottsdale vacation rentals provide Sonoran Desert luxury, spas, abundant restaurants, golf courses and high-end shopping in a desert valley bordered by the petroglyph-laden rock outcroppings and biking and hiking trails of the McDowell Mountains. Long an architectural Mecca, thanks to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West, Scottsdale and nearby Carefree and Paradise Valley are high-end Snow Bird resort havens.

While there is nothing wrong with springing for a few thousand dollars for a night or two at a top-notch desert resort, a Scottsdale vacation rental leaves a lot more money in your pocket for shopping, museums, restaurants, golf, horseback riding or even far-flung sightseeing excursions to Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Painted Desert or Petrified Forest. Your money-saving Scottsdale vacation rental home, condo or apartment can also be a base for exploring nearby Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale, Goodyear, Superstition Springs, Cave Creek, Tempe, Tucson, Wickenburg and Casa Grande Ruins National Monument.

Your vacation rental will also save money for the whole family to attend Cardinals football games, Suns basketball games, Major League Baseball spring training and Cactus League, Diamondbacks baseball, or college teams like the Arizona State Sun Devils. Scottsdale condos, apartments and rental homes are also wonderful bases for driving the Apache Trail for hikes to the Tonto National Monument cliff-dwelling ruins; or to leisurely fish and boat at Theodore Roosevelt Lake.

Be on the lookout for javelina, porcupines, coyotes, desert cottontails and jackrabbits, to name but a few species you will likely encounter when you venture out of your Scottsdale vacation rental and into the wild. Quail are easy to recognize scurrying among the cacti in your rental home’s yard. With hundreds of species, birding is a popular pastime. Giant saguaro cacti growing along Arizona roadsides are easy to recognize without a field guide. Prickly pear and yucca commonly grow alongside agave in apartment and condo gardens. Distinguishing hedgehog and barrel cacti around rental homes from cholla, palo verde and ocotillo is easier after a visit to Phoenix’s nearby Desert Botanical Garden. Scottsdale and environs are also far from treeless, with ample mesquite, sycamore, hackberry and black walnuts, particularly along waterways.

Hats, sunscreen and plenty of water are always advisable, along with good shoes or hiking boots when you leave your Scottsdale vacation rental to commune with nature in the desert. Though you may wish to dress a little more stylishly for the best restaurants, clubs and nightlife that your money-saving Scottsdale vacation rental makes more affordable.