Cactus League spring training game under the Arizona sun

PHOENIX

Every city gets a best month, and Phoenix’s is March. Fifteen baseball teams are in town, the desert is in bloom, the trails are at their prime, and the average afternoon is 79 degrees. This is the March layer of our year-round ranking (things to do in Phoenix, the 25 best), cut down to what this one month does better than any other.

If you can only come once, come in March. March gives you three things at once: Cactus League spring training (15 MLB teams in 10 ballparks, all within about an hour of each other), layered over peak desert season, when the wildflowers are out, the hiking is as good as it gets, and winter visitors and spring-breakers haven’t yet been chased off by the heat. The numbers help: at Sky Harbor, March averages run a high of about 78–79°F and a low around 54°F, with less than an inch of rain in a typical month. Mornings are sweatshirt weather; first pitch is short-sleeve weather. The one thing March is not is undiscovered. It’s the busiest, priciest month of the Phoenix year, and the last section of this guide is the honest warning about that.

March at a glance

Weather: highs in the upper 70s, lows in the mid-50s, sun nearly every day, so bring layers, not coats. Spring training: the Cactus League is expected to open Friday, February 19, 2027 (the league’s official site already lists a Feb 19 Opening Day) and run about five weeks into late March; the full schedule confirms in winter. See the caveat in the spring training section below. Also on: the Arizona Renaissance Festival every March weekend (Sat–Sun, Feb 6–Apr 4, 2027), Scottsdale Art Week March 18–21 at WestWorld, and peak wildflower season across the preserves. Hotels: annual peak pricing. Book as soon as your dates are set.

Spring training: the main event

Nothing else in American sports works like this. Florida’s Grapefruit League spreads its teams across a state; the Cactus League puts 15 teams in 10 ballparks inside one metro, so a visitor can see a different park every day, two games in a day if they’re ambitious, and never drive more than about an hour. The parks are small, the seats are close, the players sign along the fences, and most games start around 1 p.m., which leaves the morning free for a hike and the evening free for dinner. It is a relaxed way to watch major leaguers play baseball.

The 10 ballparks, and who plays there

  • Scottsdale Stadium (Old Town Scottsdale), San Francisco Giants. The best location in the league: walk to dinner after the game.
  • Salt River Fields at Talking Stick (Scottsdale), Arizona Diamondbacks & Colorado Rockies. The league’s showcase facility, mountain views included.
  • Sloan Park (Mesa), Chicago Cubs. The biggest park and the biggest crowds in the Cactus League.
  • Hohokam Stadium (Mesa), the Athletics.
  • Tempe Diablo Stadium (Tempe), Los Angeles Angels, tucked under the Tempe Buttes.
  • Camelback Ranch (Glendale), Los Angeles Dodgers & Chicago White Sox, in a desert-park setting on the west side.
  • Peoria Sports Complex (Peoria), San Diego Padres & Seattle Mariners, ringed by restaurants.
  • Surprise Stadium (Surprise), Kansas City Royals & Texas Rangers.
  • Goodyear Ballpark (Goodyear), Cleveland Guardians & Cincinnati Reds.
  • American Family Fields of Phoenix (Phoenix), Milwaukee Brewers, the one park inside Phoenix itself.

How to do it like a regular

Take the lawn. Most Cactus League parks ring the outfield with a grass berm, and a lawn ticket is what regulars go for: cheapest way in, room to spread a blanket, kids free to roam. Arrive when gates open for the best spots and the shade line. Mornings are free. Before afternoon games, teams work out on the back fields from mid-morning, no ticket needed, and it’s the best autograph and up-close viewing of the trip; the fence lines are where players sign. Buy in winter. Tickets go on sale during the winter months, and the games that sell out (weekends, and Cubs, Dodgers and Giants home dates) go first. Weekday games at the smaller parks are the flexible ones. Build the day around 1 p.m. Hike at dawn, game at one, pool by five: that’s the March rhythm.

One caveat on 2027: the dates above are expected. The game-by-game schedule is confirmed in winter, and the MLB collective bargaining agreement expires December 1, 2026. Until a new agreement and the official schedule are in place, treat the February 19 opening as the plan, not a guarantee, and favor refundable hotel and flight bookings for a 2027 trip. Our Scottsdale spring training guide has the park-by-park depth (where to sit, where to stay, and how to work the mornings) once your team’s schedule is set.

[AFFILIATE: spring training tickets] · [AFFILIATE: hotels in Phoenix in March]

Beyond the ballpark

Saguaro cactus silhouetted on Camelback Mountain above Phoenix at sunset
March light on Camelback. Photo: Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0

Baseball anchors March, but it doesn’t fill it. Four other things peak this month too: two festivals, the wildflowers, and hiking weather.

Festival · Weekends

Arizona Renaissance Festival

Every Saturday and Sunday from February 6 through April 4, 2027 (10 a.m.–6 p.m.), a 16th-century village rises in Gold Canyon, about seven miles east of Apache Junction on US-60 under the Superstition Mountains: jousting knights, falconry, artisan markets, turkey legs and roughly two thousand costumed performers. It’s a full day, not a drop-in. Go early, because the US-60 drive backs up on peak Saturdays, and pair it with the Superstitions trails the next morning. Verdict: March’s best non-baseball day out, especially with kids.

Art · Mar 18–21

Scottsdale Art Week & the art season

March is when Scottsdale’s winter art season peaks. Scottsdale Art Week brings 100+ galleries from around the world to WestWorld of Scottsdale, March 18–21, 2027 (public days from the 19th), and the Celebration of Fine Art (a hundred artists working in open studios under the big tents in north Scottsdale) runs daily through March 28. Add Old Town’s gallery district on a Thursday art walk and March makes a real claim as the art month, too. Verdict: a good break from a week of ballparks.

Season · The bloom

Wildflower season

In a decent rain year, March is when the Sonoran Desert flowers: brittlebush turning whole hillsides yellow, Mexican gold poppies along the trails, lupine and globemallow in the washes, and the saguaros budding toward their own late-spring show. The reliable places to walk through it are the Desert Botanical Garden in Papago Park (the curated version, every plant labeled, in bloom on schedule), the trails of South Mountain, and the desert east of the city under the Superstitions. Bloom strength varies with winter rain (in a dry year it’s a scattering, in a wet year it’s a superbloom people fly in for), but March is always the month to look. Verdict: the Garden for certainty, the preserves for the wild version.

Outdoors · Peak season

The best hiking month of the year

Summer Phoenix hikes at dawn or not at all; March Phoenix hikes whenever you like. This is the month for the big ones from our Phoenix ranking: Camelback Mountain at a civilized hour (still go early: the Echo Canyon lot fills on March weekends), Piestewa Peak for the local’s summit, and long desert miles in the Phoenix Mountains Preserve and South Mountain while the wildflowers hold. The heat rules haven’t vanished: carry real water and respect a warm afternoon. But March is as forgiving as this desert gets. Verdict: if a summit is on your list, this is the month to climb it.

A March weekend, planned

Friday: Land, check in, and take the late afternoon up Camelback or to Dobbins Lookout on South Mountain for sunset, then dinner on Roosevelt Row or in Old Town. Saturday: Trailhead by 8 a.m. while it’s cool (Piestewa or the Garden by 9 if you’d rather walk than climb), morning workouts at your team’s back fields late morning, first pitch at 1, lawn seats and sunshine. Evening: Old Town galleries or a patio dinner. Sunday: Your call: a Renaissance Festival day in Gold Canyon (leave by 9 to beat the US-60 line) or a second ballpark across the Valley, since every park is a different team and a different neighborhood. Sunset at Hole-in-the-Rock, and you’ve done March properly. Stretch it to four days and add the Musical Instrument Museum. It earns the half-day in any month.

The honest warnings

Hotels: March is the most expensive month of the Phoenix year. Spring training stacks 15 fan bases on top of spring break, resorts sell out, and Old Town Scottsdale goes first. Book as soon as your dates are set; Tempe and Mesa run noticeably cheaper and sit 15–25 minutes from the Scottsdale parks. Crowds: weekend games, the Cubs at Sloan Park and the Giants at Scottsdale Stadium are the hot tickets. Buy those in winter, not at the gate. Trailheads fill by mid-morning on weekends all month. Sun: 79° and dry feels gentle and burns fast; the lawn at a ballpark is a four-hour sun exposure. Sunscreen and a hat are equipment, not accessories. And the 2027 caveat, once more: spring training dates are expected, with the schedule confirmed in winter and a league labor agreement to settle first. Keep 2027 bookings refundable until both land.

Keep planning

[AFFILIATE: hotels in Phoenix in March]

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