Where to Stay in Surprise, Arizona

What is Surprise known for?

Surprise Stadium carries the city's own name, while the Wildlife World Zoo stands as the other entry on a short roll of landmarks, and both draw traffic in from across Maricopa County. The Sun City suburbs lie south-east. Surprise grew on the far side of that band of planned retirement communities, north-west of Phoenix, and that position explains much of what the city is.

What are the main landmarks in Surprise?

Surprise keeps two landmarks on its roll. The Wildlife World Zoo is the first of them, a place given over to animals, and it accounts for most of the reason anyone drives out here without business in the city. Surprise Stadium is the second.

Its name is the city's own, a marker for a place founded in 1937 that sits directly north-west of the three Sun City suburbs.

What is the history of Surprise?

Surprise dates from 1937. The city was established in Maricopa County long before the built-up area running out from Phoenix approached it, and its early decades passed at a distance from the metropolitan core of Arizona. Then the valley filled in.

Sun City was laid out in the 1960s as a planned retirement community in the same county, Sun City West followed in the late 1970s, and Sun City Grand came after them, so a band of new towns grew up on the Phoenix side of Surprise. Surprise sits directly north-west of those three suburbs. The relationship shows in how the city is read from outside: it is described by its position beyond Sun City, Sun City West, and Sun City Grand rather than by any older centre of its own.

Two landmarks arrived with the growth. Surprise Stadium and the Wildlife World Zoo both stand within the city, and between them they give a place founded in 1937 the kind of destination that draws people out from Phoenix for the day. Maricopa County has held the whole story throughout, from the founding to the arrival of the retirement towns to the south-east.

Where is Surprise?

The setting is desert. Surprise spreads across a broad piece of Maricopa County, north-west of Phoenix, with Sun City, Sun City West, and Sun City Grand filling the ground between the city and the metropolitan core. Arizona's valley floor carries the whole of it.

Distance rather than terrain is what a visitor notices here, since the city's territory takes in far more ground than its built-up blocks alone would suggest and the drive between one landmark and another is real.

What is the climate of Surprise?

Phoenix weather reaches Surprise unchanged. The city sits in the subtropical band on the same valley floor as Phoenix, so the long dominant heat of the middle of the year and the short mild turn at the other end arrive here on the same schedule. Shade is the scarce thing.

A morning at the Wildlife World Zoo or an evening at Surprise Stadium works better than the middle hours, which is the practical shape of a day out in this part of Maricopa County.

How do you get to Surprise?

Everything arrives through Phoenix. The metropolitan area to the south-east is where the region's long-distance connections concentrate, and the run out to Surprise crosses Sun City, Sun City West, and Sun City Grand before reaching the city. A car is the practical answer.

Distances across Maricopa County are long, both landmarks sit apart inside a city that covers a wide stretch of ground, and getting between Surprise Stadium and the Wildlife World Zoo is a drive rather than a walk.