Experience the best of Prescott

Prescott stands at about 1,600 metres in the pine and oak uplands of central Arizona, and it served as capital of Arizona Territory in the 1860s and again from 1877 to 1889. Its centre is a green courthouse square surrounded by brick buildings, and Whiskey Row, a strip of old saloons on Montezuma Street, was rebuilt after a fire in 1900. The Sharlot Hall Museum preserves the log governor's mansion of 1864.

North of town, Granite Dells is a landscape of giant rounded boulders and reflective lakes, and Thumb Butte, a volcanic peak west of town, has a trail to its base. Watson, Willow and Lynx lakes are the local boating and fishing spots. The old mining town of Jerome clings to Cleopatra Hill across the mountains to the north-east, and the vineyards of the Verde Valley lie beyond it.

Frontier meals in town mean steaks and burgers in old saloons, Mexican food and green-chile dishes. Prescott's Frontier Days rodeo, which dates to 1888, claims to be the world's oldest. Summers are warm but cooler than Phoenix, and winter brings the occasional snowfall.