If you're new to the area, visiting from out of town, or even a native, you need to check this place out. I have gone twice and have left extremely impressed both times. The atmosphere is so amazing. Right away, just walking through the courtyard to the main entrance, there's so much beauty to take in. You'll walk past the courtyard cafe, cantina, bookstore, and gift shop on the way to the main entrance. Both times I've gone, I did the museum first and then the shops and cafe afterwards. \n\nThe entire museum is somewhat of a maze and, if you're not on a guided tour, can be pretty confusing to navigate. We didn't have a tour guide either time -- they're free and on a regular schedule, but we preferred to wander at our own pace. The first floor is very large and divided up into sections. There's a lot of baskets, pottery, and katsina dolls to check out, and some really interesting native american history to take in. I learned a lot about the local and native history. The first floor (to me) gets boring kind of quickly. A lot of the collections are not as old or historic as I had expected. It seems like the younger visitors enjoyed the first level more than I did.\n\nThe most impressive part of the museum for me was the 2nd level. I was in complete awe of the Indian Boarding School exhibit. I learned SO much about the Indian Schools that I had never even heard of before. I really wish they would have taught us about this experience when I was in school. It was AMAZING. \n\nOverall, the museum experience was very good. We learned a lot and really enjoyed the history, art, and culture. The only thing I don't like about the museum is navigating through it. They do give you maps and offer guided tours, but it's fairly difficult to navigate if you don't know where you're going. I don't like to look at maps, I prefer to wander. Different areas are not very clearly marked. You'll see a door in a hallway and wonder what it leads to, then walk through and realize you're entering a completely different part of the museum. It's kind of hard to explain, but I wish the areas were more clearly marked. It's not really big enough to get lost in, but we definitely had several occurrences where we weren't really sure where we were or where we were headed.\n\nThe 2nd time I visited, we decided to have lunch at the cafe and we were really impressed. The service was great and the prices were MUCH more reasonable than we had expected. We figured it would be pricey, but it was not. I had the smoked salmon quesadilla and it was outstanding. \n\nThe museum shop is pretty typical from what I've experienced at other museums -- a few knick-knacks that are in my price range, surrounded by ridiculously high priced pieces of art/pottery/dolls/rugs. It's REALLY neat to look at but I couldn't imagine buying anything other than a magnet or a coffee mug. Some of the pieces are thousands of dollars, but it's awesome to just look and admire.\n\nOverall, always a great experience, easy to find (there's a light rail stop right out front), and it's also very close to other touristy places if you're visiting and want to experience Phoenix. I highly recommend this place.
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