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Tucson Attractions
Tucson blends the old and the new, with roots extending thousands of years into the Native American past and tendrils projecting far into the future, in forward-looking places such as Biosphere II and a cluster of astronomical observatories. You can taste the city’s rich history in its many museums—and taste its flavors in restaurants and food trucks around town (Tucson is one of only two international Cities of Gastronomy in the United States). Look in any direction, and you’ll find something fun, inspiring, and delicious.
The Tucson Attractions Passport is a great way to save money on admissions to many of the city’s top attractions. The passport, available at the Tucson Visitors Center, 811 N. Euclid Ave. (www.visittucson.org; 📞 800/638-8350), costs $24 and gets you discounted admissions to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Old Tucson Studios, Biosphere 2, the Pima Air & Space Museum, Tohono Chul Park, the Tucson Museum of Art, and many other attractions in Tucson and across southern Arizona. You can also download the Tucson Attractions Passport as a free app and make purchases through it.
Seeing It All from "A Mountain" — The best way to get a feel for the geography of the Tucson area is to drive to the top of a mountain -- but not just any mountain. "A Mountain" (officially called Sentinel Peak) rises just to the west of downtown Tucson on the far side of I-10. The peak gets its common name from the giant whitewashed letter A (for University of Arizona) near the summit. To get here, drive west to the end of Congress Street and turn left on Sentinel Peak Road. The park is open daily from dawn to dusk.
The Historic Districts — If you’re interested in the history of Tucson, join a walking tour of the Old Pueblo. Begin with a $3 guided tour of the Downtown History Museum, arm yourself with a street map, and go explore. Tours of downtown Tucson are also offered several times each week by local historian Ken Scoville of Old Pueblo Walking tours (tel. 520/230-9345), who charges $79 per adult ($69 children) for half-day tours.
Tip: Don’t visit this neighborhood on Mondays, when all of the attractions listed below are closed.
The Shrine That Stopped a Freeway — The southern Arizona landscape is dotted with roadside shrines, symbols of the region’s Hispanic and Roman Catholic heritage. Most are simple crosses decorated with plastic flowers and dedicated to people who have been killed in auto accidents. One shrine, however, stands out from all the rest: Tucson’s El Tiradito. Not only does this crumbling shrine attract the devout, but it once also stopped a freeway.
El Tiradito, on South Granada Avenue at West Cushing Street, is the only shrine in the United States dedicated to a sinner buried in unconsecrated soil. Several stories tell of how this shrine came to be, but the best of them concerns a young Mexican American man who was having an affair with a railroad conductor’s wife. Caught in the act, he was chopped to bits, his body scattered along the railroad tracks—thus “El Tiradito,” Spanish for “the Little Castaway.” Because he had been caught in the act of adultery and died without confessing his sins, his body could not be interred in the church cemetery, so he was buried where he fell.
The people of the neighborhood soon began burning candles on the spot to try to save the soul of the young man, and eventually people began burning candles in hopes that their own wishes would come true. They believed that if the candle burned through the night, their prayers would be answered. The shrine eventually grew into a substantial little structure, and in 1927 was dedicated by its owner to the city of Tucson. In 1940, the shrine became an official Tucson monument.
Such status was not enough to protect the shrine from urban renewal, however. When the federal government announced that it would level the shrine to build a new freeway through the center of Tucson, the city’s citizens were outraged. Their protests eventually resulted in the shrine being named to the National Register of Historic Places, and the freeway was moved a few hundred yards to the west.
To this day, devout Catholics from the surrounding neighborhood still burn candles at the shrine that stopped a freeway. A visit after dark, perhaps in conjunction with dinner next door at El Minuto, a popular Mexican restaurant, is a somber experience that will easily convince you of how important this shrine is to the neighborhood.
Rattlesnake Crossing — Generally speaking, rattlesnakes should not be crossed, but there is one Tucson rattler that should not be avoided. I am referring here to the city's unusual , a snake-shaped pedestrian bridge designed by Tucson artist Simon Donovan that spans E. Broadway Boulevard just east of downtown Tucson. From the north end, you enter through the giant vipers open mouth (watch out for the fangs). At the south end of the bridge, a giant rattle is raised in the air, and if you're lucky you just might hear it buzzing as you pass. The bridge is best accessed from the south end of the Fourth Avenue shopping district. Just walk east on E. Ninth Street, turn right on N. Third Avenue, and then follow the bike path through Iron Horse Park.
Mirror, Mirror in the Hall —The mountaintops of southern Arizona are dotted with astronomical observatories, and one thing many of them have in common is that they use massive glass mirrors to reflect the light of distant stars. At the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory Mirror Lab (tel. 520/626-8792), you can tour a facility that has made mirrors for telescopes all over the world. Keep in mind that some of these mirrors are more than 25 feet in diameter. The mirrors are cast and polished inside a facility under the east wing of the UA football stadium (not actually a hall). Monday through Friday at 1 and 3pm, there are 90-minute tours of the mirror lab ($20 adults; $18 seniors and military; $10 children and students 10–20). Reservations are required.
Art in the Open Air — Although it isn't very big, the Jewish Community Center Sculpture Park, 3800 E. River Rd. (tel. 520/299-3000) exhibits some excellent sculptures and is well worth wandering through. It’s just off the Rillito River Park path, so you can combine a visit to the sculpture park with a walk or bike ride along the (usually) dry riverbed. You'll find the community center at the north end of North Dodge Boulevard.
Driving the Catalina Highway —Within a span of only 25 miles, the Catalina Highway, which begins off Tanque Verde Rd. on Tucson’s northeast side, climbs roughly 1 mile in elevation from the lowland desert landscape of cacti and ocotillo bushes to forests of ponderosa pines. As it passes through several different life zones, this route is the climate-zone equivalent of driving from Mexico to Canada. When you look at it this way, the $5 fee for driving this twisty-turny road seems like nothing compared to the cost of a flight to Canada (and that fee will also get you into Sabino Canyon, above). Along the way, there are numerous overlooks, some of which are head-spinningly vertiginous. Other spots are particularly popular with rock climbers. Be sure to stop at Windy Point, with its sweeping view of the entire Tucson Valley. There are numerous hiking trails, picnic areas, and campgrounds along the route. For more information, contact the Coronado National Forest Santa Catalina Ranger District, 5700 N. Sabino Canyon Rd. (tel. 520/749-8700).
29 Results
- Museum
ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center
To learn more about Tucson’s copper-mining past and present, head 15 miles south of Tucson to tour this huge open-pit copper mine, still an active working mine. One-hour mine tours are offered four times a day (call for summer days and hours). The center also has exhibits and a video…Sahuarita
- Museum
Arizona History Museum
As the state’s oldest historical museum, this repository of all things Arizonan is a treasure-trove for the history buff. If you’ve never explored a real mine, you can do the next best thing by exploring the museum’s full-scale reproduction of an underground mine tunnel. You’ll see… - Museum
Arizona State Museum
The oldest anthropological museum in the Southwest offers one of the state’s most interesting exhibits on prehistoric and contemporary Native American cultures. Paths of Life: American Indians of the Southwest focuses on 10 different tribes from around the Southwest and northern… - Zoo/Parkgarden
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
More zoo than museum proper, ASDM is one of the best of its kind in the country. The Sonoran Desert, which spans central southern Arizona and parts of northern Mexico, contains within its boundaries not only arid lands, but also forested mountains, springs, rivers, wetlands,… - Attraction
Biosphere 2
For 2 years, beginning in September 1991, four men and four women were locked inside this airtight 3-acre greenhouse in the desert, 35 miles north of Tucson near the town of Oracle. During their tenure in Biosphere 2 (Earth is considered Biosphere 1), they conducted experiments on…Oracle - Theme Park
Breakers Water Park
If your family vacation plans have you visiting Tucson in the summer, don't despair that you'll be stuck inside air-conditioned buildings the whole time. Keep cool at this water park. Breakers has the largest wave pool in Arizona. There are also lots of water slides and a water-play… Center for Creative Photography
Have you ever wished you could see an original Ansel Adams print up close, or perhaps an Edward Weston or a Richard Avedon? You can at the Center for Creative Photography. Originally conceived by Ansel Adams, the center now holds more than 90,000 works by more than 2,200 of the…- Museum
Children's Museum Tucson
This museum, in the historic Carnegie Library in downtown Tucson, is filled with fun and educational hands-on activities. Exhibits include a music room, a room where kids can paint with light, an enchanted rainforest, an ocean discovery center, and an electricity gallery. Expect to… - Natural Attraction
Colossal Cave Mountain Park
It seems nearly every cave in the Southwest has its legends of bandits and buried loot, and Colossal Cave—which isn’t exactly colossal but is certainly impressive—is no exception. A 45-minute tour through this cavern combines a bit of Western lore with a bit of geology, for an…Vail - Historic Home/Art Museum
De Grazia Gallery in the Sun
Prolific southwestern artist Ettore “Ted” De Grazia (1909–1982) was a Tucson favorite son, and his home, a sprawling, funky adobe building on 10 acres of land in the foothills, is a city landmark. De Grazia is said to be the most reproduced artist in the world, since so many of his… - Museum
Downtown History Museum
If you want to learn more about the history of Tucson, this is the museum to visit. Exhibits cover Spanish presidio days, American army days, merchants, and schools. Through the use of artifacts and old photos, these exhibits help bring the city’s past to life. One of the most… - Museum
Flandrau: The UA Science Center
Located on the University of Arizona campus, Flandrau is the most convenient place in Arizona to do a little stargazing through a professional telescope. On clear nights, astronomers train Flandrau’s 16-inch telescope on whatever objects in the night sky are most interesting. You… - Museum
Fort Lowell Museum
Located in Fort Lowell Park, this museum occupies the site of a cavalry outpost that was active between 1873 and 1891. The museum chronicles the history of life at the fort, with some of the ruins of the original fort preserved for viewing. Before it was a fort, this site was a… - Religious Site/Museum
Mission San Xavier del Bac
Called the White Dove of the Desert, Mission San Xavier del Bac is a blindingly white adobe building that rises from a sere, brown landscape. Considered the finest example of mission architecture in the Southwest, the beautiful church was built between 1783 and 1797, incorporating… - Museum
Museum of Contemporary Art
Among the newest museums in Tucson, the Museum of Contemporary Art is housed in the city’s old downtown fire station, conveniently close to dozens of restaurants and art galleries. While it holds nowhere near the inventory of its big sisters in places like Chicago and New York,… - Theme Park
Old Tucson Studios
Despite the name, this is not the historical location of the old city of Tucson—it’s a Western town originally built as the set for the 1939 movie Arizona. In the years since, Old Tucson has been used in the filming of John Wayne’s Rio Lobo, Rio Bravo, and El Dorado; Clint Eastwood’s… - Museum
Pima Air & Space Museum
Located just south of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, the Pima Air & Space Museum houses one of the largest collections of historic aircraft in the world. On display are more than 275 aircraft, including a mock-up of an X-15A-2 (the world's fastest aircraft), an SR-71 Blackbird,… - Historic Site
Presidio San Agustin del Tucson
At this reconstruction of part of the Spanish fort that was Tucson’s birthplace, you’ll really get a sense of the early history of this city. Within its adobe-block walls and in an adjacent adobe building, displays illuminate various aspects of Tuscon’s founding years. Most months… - Zoo
Reid Park Zoo
Although relatively small and overshadowed by the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, the Reid Park Zoo makes a fun in-town destination for families. Africa, Asia, and South America enclosures display African and Asian elephants, white rhinoceroses, giraffes, anteaters, capybaras (the… - Park
Sabino Canyon Recreation Area
At the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains on the northeastern edge of the city, Sabino Canyon is a fabulous place to commune with the desert for a morning or an afternoon. This desert oasis has impressive scenery, hiking trails, and a stream; you can splash in the canyon’s… - Nature
Saguaro National Park
The quintessential symbol of the American desert, saguaro cacti occur naturally only here in the Sonoran Desert. Sensitive to fire and frost, and exceedingly slow to mature, these massive, treelike cacti grow naturally in great profusion around Tucson, but have long been threatened… - Museum
Southern Arizona Transportation Museum
Housed in a building adjacent to the former Southern Pacific Railroad Depot, built in 1941, this little museum is worth a visit if only to wander around the depot grounds. The museum’s exhibits focus on the history of the railroad in southern Arizona; on the grounds are an old steam… - Museum
The Mini-Time Machine Museum of Miniatures
More than 400 miniature houses fill this private museum, everything from a rococo palace to an old English pub to a Craftsman bungalow patterned after Pasadena’s famous Gamble house (designed by architects Charles and Henry Greene). There are miniature houses from all over the world,… - Museum
The University of Arizona Museum of Art
With European and American works dating from the Renaissance up to the 20th century, the art collections at this museum are even more extensive and diverse than those of the Tucson Museum of Art. Tintoretto, Rembrandt, Picasso, O’Keeffe, Warhol, and Rothko are all represented.… - Museum
Titan Missile Museum
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to have your finger on the button of a nuclear missile, here’s your opportunity to find out. This deactivated intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silo, called the Copper Penny, is now a museum—and is the only museum in the country…Sahuarita - Gardens
Tohono Chul Park
In fewer than 50 acres, Tohono Chul—the name means “desert corner” in the language of the Tohono O’odham, or Desert People—provides an excellent introduction to the plant and animal life of the desert. You’ll see a forest of cholla cacti as well as a garden of small pincushion cacti.… - Garden
Tucson Botanical Gardens
Set amid residential neighborhoods in midtown Tucson, these gardens are an oasis of greenery and, though small, are well worth a visit if you’re interested in desert plant life, landscaping, or gardening. On the 5 1/2-acre grounds, there are a dozen different gardens that not only… - Museum
Tucson Museum of Art & Historic Block
This complex includes galleries housed in historic adobe homes, a courtyard frequently used to display sculptures, and a large modern building that often mounts the most interesting exhibits in town. One highlight is the Palice Pavilion–Art of the Americas exhibit, which consists of… - Museum
Tucson Rodeo Parade Museum
A parade must be pretty special to warrant its own museum, and Tuscon's Fiesta de los Vaqueros Rodeo Parade is indeedspecial. It's the longest nonmotorized parade in the country, including all manner of horse-drawn carriages, buggies, and wagons. If you aren't in town for the…
More About Tucson Attractions
Tucson Shopping
Although the Tucson shopping scene is overshadowed by that of Scottsdale and Phoenix, Tucson does provide a respectable diversity of merchants. Tucsonans have a strong sense of their place in the Southwest, and this is reflected in the city's shopping opportunities. Southwestern clothing, food, crafts, furniture, and art abound (and often at reasonable prices), as do shopping centers built in a Southwestern architectural style.
The city's population center continues to move steadily northward, so it is in the northern foothills that you'll find most of the city's large enclosed shopping malls as well as the more tasteful small shopping plazas full of boutiques and galleries.
Along Fourth Avenue between Congress Street and Speedway Boulevard (just north of downtown Tucson), more than 50 shops, galleries, and restaurants make up the Fourth Avenue historic shopping and entertainment district. The buildings here were constructed in the early 1900s, and the proximity to the University of Arizona helps keep this district bustling. Many of the shops cater primarily to student needs and interests.
El Presidio Historic District, around the Tucson Museum of Art, is the city's center for crafts shops. This area is home to Old Town Artisans and the Tucson Museum of Art shop. The city's "Lost Barrio" district, on the corner of Southwest Park Avenue and 12th Street (a block off Broadway), is a good place to look for Mexican imports and Southwestern-style home furnishings at good prices.
More About Tucson Shopping
Tucson Nightlife
Tucson after dark is a much easier landscape to negotiate than the vast cultural sprawl of the Phoenix area. Rather than having numerous performing-arts centers all over the suburbs as in the Valley of the Sun, Tucson has a more concentrated nightlife scene. The Downtown Arts District is the center of the action, with the Temple of Music and Art, the Tucson Convention Center Music Hall, and several nightclubs. The University of Arizona campus, a mile away, is another entertainment nexus.
The free Tucson Weekly contains thorough listings of concerts, theater and dance performances, and club offerings. The entertainment section of the Arizona Daily Star ("Caliente") comes out each Thursday and is a good source of information for what's going on around town.
Club & Music Scene
Mariachi -- Tucson is the mariachi capital of the United States, and no one should visit without spending at least one evening listening to some of these strolling musicians. At the St. Augustine Cathedral, 192 S. Stone Ave. (tel. 520/623-6351; www.staugustinecathedral.com), there is even a mariachi Mass every Sunday at 8am.
Jazz -- To find out what's happening on the local jazz scene, contact the Tucson Jazz Society (tel. 520/903-1265; www.tucsonjazz.org). This organization's website lists various jazz nights at restaurants all over Tucson, including Old Pueblo Grill Alvernon, 60 N. Alvernon Way (tel. 520/326-6000; www.metrorestaurants.com), with live jazz on Sunday nights.
Gay & Lesbian Bars & Clubs -- To find out about other gay bars around town, keep an eye out for the Observer (tel. 520/622-7176; www.tucsonobserver.com), Tucson's newspaper for the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community. You'll find it at Antigone Books, 411 N. Fourth Ave. (tel. 520/792-3715; www.antigonebooks.com), as well as at the bars listed.
The Performing Arts
Tucson's performing arts scene is just as lively as Phoenix's, and three of Tucson's major companies -- the Arizona Opera Company, Ballet Arizona, and the Arizona Theatre Company -- spend half their time in Phoenix. This means that whatever gets staged in Phoenix also gets staged in Tucson. Tucson also has its own symphony and manages to sustain a diversified theater scene. Usually, the best way to purchase tickets is directly from the company's box office. Tickets to Tucson Convention Center events (but not the symphony or the opera) and other venues around town may be available by calling Ticketmaster (tel. 800/745-3000 or 866/448-7849; www.ticketmaster.com) or by stopping by the TCC box office, 260 S. Church Ave. (tel. 520/791-4101; www.cityoftucson.org/tcc).
Performing Arts Centers & Concert Halls -- Tucson's largest performance venue is the Tucson Convention Center (TCC) Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. (tel. 520/791-4101; www.cityoftucson.org/tcc). It's the home of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and where the Arizona Opera Company usually performs when it's in town. This hall also hosts many touring companies. The box office is open Monday through Friday from 10:30am to 5:30pm.
The centerpiece of the Tucson theater scene is the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. (tel. 520/622-2823), a restored historic theater dating from 1927. The 605-seat Alice Holsclaw Theatre is the Temple's main stage, but there's also the 90-seat Cabaret Theatre. Call for box office hours.
University of Arizona Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. at Park Avenue (tel. 520/621-3341; www.uapresents.org), on the UA campus, is Tucson's other main performance hall. It stages Broadway shows and performances by national and international musical acts. A big stage and excellent sound system permit large-scale productions. The box office is open Monday through Friday from 10am to 6pm, and September to May Saturday from noon to 5pm and Sunday from noon to 4pm.
Originally opened in 1930, downtown Tucson's Fox Theatre, 17 W. Congress St. (tel. 520/624-1515 or 520/547-3040; www.foxtucsontheatre.org), is a restored movie palace that is now the city's most beautiful place to catch live music, a play, or even a classic or independent film. The box office is open Tuesday through Friday from 11am to 6pm and on performance Saturdays and Sundays from 2 hours before showtime.
The Center for the Arts Proscenium Theatre, Pima Community College (West Campus), 2202 W. Anklam Rd. (tel. 520/206-6986; www.pima.edu/cfa), is another good place to check for classical music performances. It offers a wide variety of shows.
Outdoor Venues & Series -- Weather permitting, Tucsonans head to Reid Park's DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center, at Country Club Road and East 22nd Street (tel. 520/791-4873), for performances under the stars. This amphitheater stages live theater performances, as well as frequent concerts (many of which are free).
The Tucson Jazz Society (tel. 520/903-1265; www.tucsonjazz.org), which manages to book a few well-known jazz musicians each year, sponsors different series at various locations around the city. Tickets are usually between $15 and $35.
Classical Music, Opera & Dance -- Both the Tucson Symphony Orchestra (tel. 520/882-8585 or 520/792-9155; www.tucsonsymphony.org), which is the oldest continuously performing symphony in the Southwest, and the Arizona Opera Company (tel. 520/293-4336; www.azopera.org), the state's premier opera company, perform at the Tucson Convention Center Music Hall. Symphony tickets run mostly $36 to $60; opera tickets are $15 to $99. If you want to catch some economical classical music, check out the schedule at the University of Arizona College of Fine Arts School of Music (tel. 520/621-1162; www.music.arizona.edu). Performances include classical music and opera held in the Music Building's Crowder and Holsclaw halls, both of which are near the intersection of Speedway Boulevard and Park Avenue on the UA campus. Equally worthwhile are the performances by the UA Dance Ensemble, which are staged in the Stevie Eller Dance Theatre, a little jewel box of a building. The bold contemporary architecture of this building makes seeing a performance here a double treat. Call the above number for information on performances.
Theater -- Tucson doesn't have a lot of theater companies, but what few it does have stage a surprisingly diverse sampling of both classic and contemporary plays. Arizona Theatre Company (tel. 520/622-2823; www.aztheatreco.org), which performs at the Temple of Music and Art, splits its time between Tucson and Phoenix, and is the state's top professional theater company. Each season sees a mix of comedy, drama, and Broadway-style musical shows; tickets cost $31 to $55. The Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Ave. (tel. 520/882-9721; www.invisibletheatre.com), a tiny theater in a converted laundry building, has been home to Tucson's most experimental theater for more than 40 years (it does off-Broadway shows). Tickets run about $18 to $42.
The West just wouldn't be the West without good old-fashioned melodramas, and the Gaslight Theatre, 7010 E. Broadway Blvd. (tel. 520/886-9428; www.thegaslighttheatre.com), is where evil villains, stalwart heroes, and defenseless heroines pound the boards. You can boo and hiss, cheer and sigh as the predictable stories unfold on stage. It's great fun for kids and adults, with plenty of pop-culture references. Tickets are $18 for adults, $16 for students and seniors, and $8 for kids 12 and under. Performances are held nightly, with two shows on Friday and Saturday nights, plus a Sunday matinee. Tickets often sell out a month in advance.
