Stoner 
How Scottsdale is laid out
Scottsdale is long and skinny, about thirty miles from the Tempe line to the top of the map, and it gets newer, quieter and more expensive the farther north you drive. South Scottsdale is the old guard: ranch houses, mature trees, strip malls with excellent food. Old Town and the Waterfront are the downtown, where the bars, galleries and bachelorette parties live. The middle stretch, McCormick Ranch and Gainey Ranch, is lakes, greenbelts and golf. Then the 101 bends west and everything north of it turns into master-planned communities, mountain views and the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.
Scottsdale Road is the spine. Learn it and you'll never be lost. Paradise Valley sits next door on the west side, technically its own town, with Camelback Mountain as the backdrop.
South and downtown
The Old Town guide covers the nightlife and the art side, the Waterfront and Fashion Square guide is the calmer canal walk and the mall, and South Scottsdale is where the best cheap munchies in the city hide.
The middle
McCormick Ranch has the lakes and the little trains, Gainey Ranch has the guard gates and the golf, Paradise Valley has the big lots and the Camelback views, and the Airpark is where Scottsdale hides its office parks, lunch spots and indoor fun.
North Scottsdale
Kierland is patios and shopping on the Phoenix line, Grayhawk is golf and young families, DC Ranch is Market Street and the foothills, McDowell Mountain Ranch sits by the Gateway trailhead, and Pinnacle Peak and Troon is boulders, dark skies and silence.