If you are visiting Gilbert on a Saturday morning, the Gilbert Farmers Market is one of the best places to start your day.
More than 150 vendors sell everything from fresh produce and artisan bread to homemade salsa, coffee, pastries, flowers, handmade gifts, and global street food. It works equally well for locals shopping for fresh ingredients and visitors looking for a relaxed weekend activity that feels connected to the community.
I always love visiting local farmers markets when I travel because they are one of the easiest ways to experience a community.
Instead of spending the morning at chain restaurants or souvenir shops, you can meet local farmers, bakers, artists, and small business owners while trying foods you probably would not find anywhere else.
When I found out Gilbert had one of the largest farmers markets in Arizona, it immediately went on my itinerary.
If food is also a major part of your Arizona trips, my Best Restaurants in Phoenix: Where to Eat for Every Craving includes more local places to add while you are in the area.
The Gilbert Farmers Market first opened in 2010 with fewer than 30 vendors. It has since grown to include more than 150 vendors throughout the year.
It is nicknamed The Foodie Market, and after visiting, it is easy to see why. Food is a major part of the experience, whether you want breakfast, coffee, pastries, produce, pantry items, or something to take home.
The market is open every Saturday year-round, although the schedule changes between summer and winter.
The Gilbert Farmers Market includes a mix of farmers, food producers, bakers, ranchers, artists, and other Arizona small businesses.
Depending on the week, you may find:
Every week feels a little different depending on which vendors are attending and what is currently available.
The market feels more like a community event than a place to complete your weekly grocery shopping.
People walk around with coffee, listen to live music, try breakfast, and talk with local vendors. Some shoppers arrive with reusable grocery bags ready to stock up for the week, while others come mainly to eat and browse.
Plan on arriving hungry because there are far too many good food options to only eat once.
The large selection also makes the market easy to enjoy even when you are traveling and cannot take home bags of produce. You can still have breakfast, buy coffee or pastries, browse the handmade items, and try products from local businesses.
A lightweight Nano Bag is useful if you plan to buy bread, packaged foods, gifts, or several smaller items but do not want a bulky reusable bag taking up room in your luggage.
What I liked most was how many of the vendors were actually local. Most of the farmers are Certified Naturally Grown, and all growers are chemical- and pesticide-free.
You are buying directly from Arizona farmers, bakers, ranchers, and artisans rather than from a large distributor. It also gives you a chance to talk with the people who made or grew what you are buying, which made the market feel much more personal than a regular grocery trip.
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The Gilbert Farmers Market is open every Saturday throughout the year.
May through September
7:00 AM to 11:00 AM
October through April
8:00 AM to noon
The market closes for one Saturday each year during the Christmas holiday.
I recommend checking the current schedule before your visit, especially when traveling near the holidays.
The Gilbert Farmers Market is currently located at:
Chandler-Gilbert Community College
2626 E. Pecos Road
Chandler, Arizona
Although it is still called the Gilbert Farmers Market, the current location is technically in Chandler.
The market spent its first 15 years near the Gilbert Water Tower in Downtown Gilbert before moving to Chandler-Gilbert Community College in 2025. The relocation was necessary because of the Heritage District redevelopment project.
The address changed, but the market continues to feature the local vendors that made it popular.
If you are visiting from outside Arizona, my Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Guide: Everything You Need to Know (PHX) explains the terminals, transportation, and what to expect when flying into the Phoenix area.
A rental car is the easiest way to reach Gilbert and explore other East Valley attractions during the same trip. You can compare rates through Discover Cars.
Parking was much easier than I expected.
The college has dedicated customer parking lots as well as overflow parking. Entering from Pecos Road and Norman Way is recommended.
I would still arrive shortly after opening. You will have a better chance of parking close to the market, popular vendors will have their best selection, and the temperature will be more comfortable.
This is especially important during the summer, when the market opens at 7:00 AM and Arizona temperatures rise quickly. Some vendors may also sell out of popular items before the market closes.
A refillable Brita Water Bottle is useful during warmer months, especially if you plan to continue sightseeing afterward.
Even if you have no intention of buying produce, the Gilbert Farmers Market is worth visiting for the food alone. Between the breakfast vendors, locally roasted coffee, artisan bakeries, fresh flowers, handmade gifts, and Arizona small businesses, it is an easy way to spend a Saturday morning.
Allow at least one to two hours if you want to walk through the market, order food, and stop at several booths. You could move through it faster if you only need a few specific items, but that is probably not how it will go once breakfast, coffee, and pastries become involved.
The market and parking are both free. Portable restrooms and ADA-accessible restrooms are available, but pets are not permitted on the Chandler-Gilbert Community College campus. More than 95% of vendors accept credit cards, although bringing a little cash is still a good idea. A reusable shopping bag is also helpful because bread, flowers, salsa, and several things you did not plan to buy can add up quickly.
I would especially recommend the Gilbert Farmers Market to weekend visitors who want to see a more local side of the East Valley. I would gladly return, take my time browsing, and probably still have trouble deciding which food to try first.
For another unique outdoor experience near Phoenix, my Salt River Wild Horses: Where to See Arizona's Famous Wild Horses explains where to go, when to visit, and what to expect.
If you end up booking anything for your trip, using my affiliate links helps support my blog at no extra cost to you. I spend a lot of time researching and writing these guides, so I really appreciate the support.
Sky Ranch Lodge, Sedona. Booked it for the location, stayed for the sunsets.
This is not a five-star resort with ten restaurants and a spa menu the length of a novel. It’s a family-owned boutique hotel on Airport Mesa that knows exactly what it’s good at: red rock views from basically everywhere and one of the best sunset spots in town, private, with maybe four other couples instead of a crowd.
We booked a Premier Rim Room and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Watched the sunset from our own patio one night and it’s still one of my favorite moments of the whole trip.
✨ Six acres of botanical gardens to wander morning and evening
✨ Pool + hot tub that hit exactly right after a day of hiking
✨ On-site food truck for easy breakfasts and lazy room service nights
✨ Complimentary shuttle so you’re not fighting Sedona parking
✨ Robes, slippers, and a staff that felt genuinely happy to help
Two stays in and I’d book it again without a second thought. This is where to stay in Sedona if you want it to actually feel like Sedona.
Thank you to @skyranchlodge for having us, link in bio for the full review 🌵
Four hours on a train through a canyon you can’t reach by car — such a fun experience! We picked the indoor seats with unlimited access to the open-air viewing car, which honestly felt like the only right call. You’re not stuck in an assigned seat the whole time we bounced between the two, snacks in hand, chasing the best light.
The scenery is the whole point. Red rock cliffs, the Verde River, a 734-foot tunnel, historic trestle bridges views most people visiting Sedona never see, because you literally can’t drive to them.
The charcuterie box that comes with your ticket is shockingly filling ✨ so skip lunch at the Copper Spike Café beforehand, save your appetite for dinner back in Sedona.
Four hours with no stops did start to feel long by the end, but the trade-off for scenery like this? Worth it.
Would I ride it again? Yes. Would I buy lunch first again? No.
Link in bio for the full review cost breakdown, what to pack, and exactly how early to arrive 🚂
I ate chilaquiles while a Cessna taxied past the window, and that’s just a normal Tuesday breakfast in Sedona.
@mesa_grill_sedona sits right beside the Sedona Airport Scenic Lookout, so along with your food you get red rock views stretching in every direction and a front-row seat to tiny planes lifting off. Chef Mercer Mohr runs the kitchen, serving up Southwestern comfort food from breakfast through dinner, chilaquiles, elevated diner classics, burgers, steaks, seafood, all of it.
The view is what pulls people in the door, but the food actually holds its own. Good enough that this place stays packed with locals, not just tourists passing through on their way to the lookout. It also picked up the 2025 Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice and OpenTable Diners’ Choice awards, so it’s not just me saying it.
Indoor seating if you want the AC, a pet-friendly patio if your dog’s along for the trip. Either way, get there before plane-spotting turns into a wait for a table.
Link in bio for the full Sedona breakfast roundup ✈️🌵
Confession: my newsletter is where the good stuff lives. Not the polished, edited-for-the-grid stuff, the “here’s the hole-in-the-wall I almost skipped” stuff, the packing lists I actually use, the “don’t book this hotel” warnings before you waste your money on them.
The newsletter is basically me texting you before a trip instead of after one. Sign up and you’ll be the first to know where I’m headed next, plus a few things I’ll never post here.
Link in bio if you want in. ✈️
Yes, it’s only July. Start planning anyway. Fall books faster than people expect, and a few of these destinations are worth getting ahead of. Here are five places worth putting on your radar right now.
Ireland: Cooler temps, moody skies, dramatic coastline fall was made for it. Tourist crowds drop, the green stays, and the whole country feels a little more like itself.
Great Smoky Mountains, TN/NC: Fall foliage in the Smokies is the real thing. The color peaks mid-October and the views from the ridgelines are hard to argue with. It’s also one of the most visited national parks in the country, so going on a weekday makes a real difference.
New York City: Fall is NYC at its best comfortable temps, the energy of the city shifting into a new season, and every neighborhood doing something worth showing up for. It’s also just a great walking city when it’s not brutally hot.
Japan: Fall foliage season is as good as spring cherry blossoms and somehow less talked about. The colors are dramatic, the temples and gardens are stunning, and it’s worth planning around peak dates by region.
Mystic, Connecticut: Small, walkable, genuinely charming Mystic in fall feels like exactly what a New England autumn is supposed to look like. Easy to pair with a broader New England road trip if you want to extend it.
Full guides linked in bio 🍂
Follow @travelwithwendyplummer for Beautiful Beach Destinations, City Guides, Foodie Spots, and Luxury Hotel Recommendations.
