Salt Lake City

Understand

Districts

Notable neighborhoods in Salt Lake City include:

Downtown, the financial core and home to Temple Square (a two-block complex that includes the LDS church headquarters, the Salt Lake Temple, and various other sites related to Mormon history and culture) Central City, a mostly residential area from approximately 400 South to 900 South Sugar House, a commercial/residential district in the southeastern corner of the city, known for its funky shops The Avenues, a historical neighborhood with many old buildings, northeast of downtown University, the area around the sprawling University of Utah campus and the adjacent Research Park, VA Medical Center, and Fort Douglas Federal Heights, a small, affluent neighborhood in the hills east of The Avenues and north of the University East Bench or Foothill, a residential neighborhood between 900 South and I-80, bisected by the major arterial road Foothill Boulevard Capitol Hill, an affluent sloping district north of downtown, topped by the Utah State Capitol building the Marmalade District, a quirky area immediately west of Capitol Hill with some unusual architecture and decor Rose Park, a residential neighborhood northwest of downtown, near the airport Glendale, a heavily Hispanic residential district and home to the International Peace Gardens, at the southern end of the westside The benches refer to a handful of residential, upper-class communities along the slopes of the Wasatch Mountains on the east side of the valley, and to a lesser extent on the Traverse Mountains at the southern end of the valley and the Oquirrh Mountains on the western side. The predominant economic divide in the Salt Lake Valley is between the eastern and western halves, with the east side traditionally being more affluent and conservative. The Wasatch Front is the urban strip along the western edge of the Wasatch Mountain Range. It comprises everything from approximately Brigham City in the north to Santaquin in the south, anchored by the

Getting there

By plane The Wasatch Front region is served by three airports, but you will most likely fly into Salt Lake City International Airport. The two smaller airports near Ogden and Provo respectively are served by a very small number of flights and are mostly of interest to travelers who live in the direct vicinity. 1 Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC IATA), 776 North Terminal Dr, ☏ +1 801-575-2400, toll-free: +1-800-595-2442, [email protected]. Located on the western side of the city just off of I-80, Salt Lake serves as Delta Air Lines' mid-country hub, with over 120 daily departures for Delta alone. Hotel shuttles, taxis and ride-share services Lyft and Uber connect the airport with downtown. The UTA TRAX Green Line (see below) offers an inexpensive $2.50 ride from the airport to downtown. It hosts direct international flights from Amsterdam, London, Paris, Seoul, and various cities in Mexico and Canada. (updated Feb 2024)

By car Salt Lake City is served by two interstate freeways: Interstate 80 connects to eastern and western destinations all the way from coast to coast, and Interstate 15, though viewed as a commuter freeway by locals, extends to both the Canadian and Mexican borders. Northern destinations accessible directly from I-15 consist mostly of small towns in eastern Idaho and western Montana. Southern destinations on I-15 include much larger cities such as Las Vegas and San Diego. I-80 provides a direct connection from Salt Lake to several major American cities, though all are hundreds of miles away. Across the 500-mile-wide (800-km-wide) Great Basin, I-80 serves Reno, Sacramento, and San Francisco. East of Salt Lake, I-80 connects to most of the larger towns in Wyoming and increasingly metropolitan cities further east, as far away as Chicago and the greater New York City area. If coming from Boise, Portland, Seattle, or anywhere in between, take Interstate 84 to Ogden, then take Interstate 15 south to Salt Lake. Approximate travel times:

Getting around

Derived from Joseph Smith's ideas around urban planning from the "Plat of Zion," most of the Salt Lake Valley uses a consistent street grid radiating out from the southeast corner of Temple Square, downtown. Major streets run precisely east-to-west or north-to-south. Addresses are coordinates within the grid, and streets represent intervals of 100 in each direction. For example, the street five blocks east of the grid's center is called 500 East (commonly called 'Fifth East' in spoken conversation) and 13 blocks south is 1300 South (or 'Thirteenth South'). This means that the cardinal directions mentioned in street names do not represent a direction you can drive on that street, and if the direction designation is the only difference between two street names, they are two completely different streets, unlike the common street naming system where North Main and South Main would be two halves of a contiguous road. Building addresses are numbered based on their position between the 100-interval streets at either end of the block: 629 South 1500 West would be between 600 South and 700 South on 1500 West. A few streets are known by their names rather than their numbers: these include South Temple (which runs East/West, splitting the northern and southern halves of the grid) and Main Street (which runs North/South, dividing East and West sides). 100 East is universally known as State Street; 100 North and 100 West are better known as North Temple and West Temple, as they border the northern and western edges of Temple Square. Some other streets downtown have honorary names, which are not in common use. Streets are an eighth of a mile (a fifth of a kilometer) apart downtown, but become more irregularly spaced as you move farther from the city center. Many major roads are numbered according to the grid system, but suburban streets are a mix of numbers and names. Most street signs helpfully provide the coordinates of named streets. The Avenues neighborhood in the northeas

See

1 Utah State Capitol, 350 N State St (just north of downtown; public transit: UTA Bus 200 (stops at four places around the Capitol grounds)), ☏ +1 801-538-3074. M–F 7AM–8PM, Sa Su 8AM–6PM. The grand state capitol building is prominently displayed on the mountainside, in a lovely park overlooking Downtown. The grounds include a reflecting pond and several memorials. Inside are large open areas and monumental architecture. On weekdays, guided tours are available at no charge on the hour. All publicly accessible areas are free. (updated May 2023) 2 Salt Lake City and County Building, 451 S State St (at the corner of University Blvd & State St.; public transit: UTA TRAX Red Line (Library Station) and Bus 1, 4, 200, 205, 209, 451, 455, 470, 472, and 473), ☏ +1 801-533-0858. Guided tours on Mondays, June-August free, but online reservation needed. Seat of the city government since the 1890s, and in times past was also the seat of county government and even the state capitol building for 20 y