Sights in Tucson
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Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Home to cacti, coyotes and super-tiny hummingbirds, this ode to the Sonoran desert is one part zoo, one part botanical garden and one part museum – a trifecta that'll keep young and old entertained for easily half a day. All sorts of desert denizens, from precocious coatis to playful prairie dogs, make their home in natural enclosures hemmed in by invisible fences. The grounds are thick with desert plants, and docents are on hand to answer questions and give demonstrations. There are two walk-through aviaries, a mineral exhibit inside a cave (kids love that one), a half-mile desert trail and an underground exhibit with windows into ponds where beavers, otters and ducks…
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Reid Park Zoo
A global menagerie including giant anteaters and pygmy hippos delights young and old at the small and compact Reid Park Zoo. Cap a visit with a picnic in the surrounding park, which also has playgrounds and a pond with paddleboat rentals.
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Saguaro National Park
If you're standing beside a docent at this cacti-filled park, don't refer to the limbs of the saguaro (sah-wah-ro) as branches. As the docent will quickly tell you, the mighty saguaro grows arms, not lowly branches – a distinction that makes sense when you consider their human-like features. They shake your hand, wave at you or draw a gun on you. They are also the most iconic symbol of the American Southwest, and an entire army of these majestic ribbed sentinels is protected in this national park. Their foot soldiers are the spidery ocotillo, the fluffy teddy bear cactus, the green-bean-like pencil cholla and hundreds of other plant species.
Saguaros grow slowly, taking…
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Tucson Museum of Art & Historic Block
For a small city, Tucson boasts an impressive art museum. There's a respectable collection of Western and contemporary art, and the permanent exhibition of pre-Columbian artifacts will awaken your inner Indiana Jones. A superb gift shop rounds out the works. First Sunday of the month is free.
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Pima Air & Space Museum
An SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, JFK's Air Force One and a massive B-52 bomber are among the stars of this extraordinary private aircraft museum. Allow at least two hours to wander through hangars and around the airfield where more than 300 'birds' trace the evolution of civilian and military aviation. If that's too overwhelming, consider joining the free 50-minute walking tour offered at 10:30am or 11:30am daily (1:30pm & 2:30pm December to April) or shell out an extra $6 for the one-hour tram tour departing at 10am, 11:30am, 1:30pm and 3pm.
Hardcore plane-spotters should call ahead to book space on the 90-minute bus tour of the nearby 309th Aerospace Maintenance &…
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Tucson Botanical Gardens
The 5.5acre (2.2ha) landscaped, wheelchair-accessible terrain of the Botanical Gardens is in a reasonably busy part of the city, yet man-made noise fails to penetrate very far into the garden's pleasant groves of native dry-land plants. The organic highlights of a day-dreamy meander through the grounds include a tropical greenhouse and a small herb garden.
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Pusch Ridge Stables
To go horseback riding amid cacti and scrub brush, visit one of several stables offering excursions by the hour, half-day or longer. Summer trips tend to be short breakfast or sunset rides. One of the most reputable companies is Pusch Ridge Stables, which also offers overnight pack trips.
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Mission San Xavier del Bac
The dazzling white towers of this mission rise from the dusty desert floor 8 miles south of Tucson – a mesmerizing mirage just off I-19 that brings an otherworldly glow to the scrubby landscape surrounding it. Nicknamed 'White Dove of the Desert,' the original mission was founded by Jesuit missionary Father Eusebio Kino in 1700 but was mostly destroyed in the Pima uprising of 1751. Its successor was gracefully rebuilt in the late 1700s in a harmonious blend of Moorish, Byzantine and Mexican Renaissance styles. Carefully restored in the 1990s with the help of experts from the Vatican and still religiously active, it's one of the best-preserved and most beautiful Spanish…
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Arizona State Museum
The oldest and largest anthropology museum in the Southwest provides a fantastic introduction to the history and culture of 10 regional Native American tribes. The main permanent exhibit about the tribes' cultural history is extensive, but easy to navigate and good for newbies and history buffs alike. These galleries are complemented by much-envied collections of minerals and Navajo textiles. Don't miss the impressive Wall of Pots and take a peek into the climate-controlled Pottery Vault (the museum has more than 20,000 whole vessels).
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USFS ranger station
The Santa Catalina Mountains are the best-loved and most visited of Tucson's many mountain ranges. Head to Sabino Canyon, where you'll find the USFS ranger station. Maps, hiking guides and information are available.
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Tucson Children's Museum
Parents sing the praises of the Tucson Children’s Museum, which has plenty of engaging, hands-on exhibits that stimulate the imagination, problem-solving skills and creative expression.
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Center for Creative Photography
The CCP is known for its ever-changing, high-caliber exhibits and for administering the archives of Ansel Adams, perhaps the best-regarded landscape photographer in American history. The museum closes down between exhibits for an extended period, so check the website before visiting.
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UA Museum of Art
At the UA Museum of Art you can clap eyes on 500 years of European and American paintings and sculpture featuring such heavy hitters such as Rembrandt, Goya, Matisse and Picasso.
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Old Tucson Studios
Nicknamed 'Hollywood in the Desert,' this old movie set of Tucson in the 1860s was built in 1939 for the filming of Arizona. Hundreds of flicks followed, bringing in an entire galaxy of stars, including Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford and Leonardo DiCaprio. Now a Wild West theme park, it's mostly mom, pop, buddy and sis who are shuffling down its dusty streets. Shootouts, stagecoach rides, saloons, sheriffs and stunts are all part of the hoopla. The studios are a few miles southeast of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum off Hwy 86.
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Tucson Portrait Project
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Presidio Historic District
The Tucson Museum of Art is part of this low-key neighborhood, which embraces the site of the original Spanish fort and a ritzy residential area once nicknamed 'Snob Hollow.' This is (per current historical knowledge) one of the oldest inhabited places in North America. The Spanish Presidio de San Augustín del Tucson dates back to 1775, but the fort itself was built over a Hohokam site that has been dated to AD 700–900. The original fort is completely gone, although there's a short reconstructed section at the corner of Church Ave and Washington St.
The historical district teems with adobe townhouses and restored 19th-century mansions. Shoppers should steer towards Old…
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Fox Theatre
This renovated art-deco theater on Congress St downtown is a 1930s beauty with fluted golden columns, water fountains and a giant sunburst mural radiating from the ceiling.
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El Tiradito
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Barrio Histórico District/Barrio Viejo
This compact neighborhood was an important business district in the late 19th century. Today it's home to funky shops and galleries in brightly painted adobe houses. The Barrio centers on 100 S Stone Ave and is bordered by I-10, Stone Ave and Cushing and 17th St.
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4th Avenue
Linking historic downtown and the university, lively 4th Ave is a rare breed: a hip yet alt-flavored strip with a neighborhood feel and not a single chain store or restaurant, oops, except for Dairy Queen. The stretch between 9th St and University Blvd is lined with buzzy restaurants, coffee houses, bars, galleries, tattoo parlors, indie boutiques and vintage stores of all stripes.
Under the overpass that crosses 4th Ave and Broadway is the Tucson Portrait Project, one of our favorite public art projects anywhere. This wall-to-wall mosaic of about 7000 Tucsonian faces is a simple yet powerful testament to the diversity of the city's population.
The best time to visit 4th…
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University of Arizona Museum of Art
Across the road from the CCP, peruse 500 years of European and American paintings and sculpture. The permanent collection features such heavy hitters as Rodin, Matisse, Picasso and Pollock.
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Sabino Canyon
Sabino Canyon, a lush, pretty and shaded mini-gorge, is a favorite year-round destination for both locals and visitors. Narrated hop-on, hop-off tram tours along the Sabino Canyon Trail (adult/child $7.50/3) depart every half hour for a 45-minute, nine-stop loop with access to trailheads and riverside picnic areas. It’s nicest in the afternoon when the sun plays hide and seek against the canyon walls. A non-narrated shuttle ($3/1) provides access to Bear Canyon and the trailhead to Seven Falls, which has picnic sites and swimming but no facilities. From the falls, the trail continues up as high as you want to go.
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