Going there spring break. What’s fun? (Family including 2 kids, ages 11 and17). Good zoo? Museums? Help me SDMB you’re my only hope. Help me SDMB you’re my only…
GQ is for questions with factual answers. This is more of a survey, so I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
Tucson isn’t exactly crawling with exciting things to do, but here are a few things you should hit:
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Titan Missile Museum (in Green Valley south of town). An actual decommisioned missile silo. Both the above ground and below portions of the tour are pretty interesting. The silo scenes in Star Trek: First Contact were filmed there.
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Kitt Peak National Observatory. On top of a mountain about thirty miles west of town. It’d probably help if the kids are somewhat interested in astronomy, but the views are pretty if nothing else. Unfortunately, unless you make a reservation through this: http://www.noao.edu/outreach/nop/ you’ll get kicked off the mountain before sunset.
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Catalina Highway at sunset. This road from northwest Tucson crawls up the Catalina Mountains which border the north side of the city. Depending on when spring break is, there might be snow at the end of the road at 8000’. No matter how hot the day is in Tucson proper, take warmer clothes up the mountain. Time the drive back down so you can watch the sunset over the valley.
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is one of the best zoos in the US and takes you on a nice scenic drive over the Tucson mountains just West of the city. My #1 pick for out of town visitors.
http://www.desertmuseum.org/
http://desertmuseum.org/visit/planning.html
If you prefer airplaines to critters and cactus the Pima Air and Space Museum is worth a look. The Titan missle museum Fiddlesticks mentioned is actually part of this museum. It’s not Wright-Patterson but is’s a big facility with a lot of one of a kind military planes.
All of Fiddlesticks suggestions are excellent BTW. Kitt Peak is a bit of a drive but a nice place for a day outing and a picnic and the view from the observation deck of the Mayall telescope is aweseome.
If you’re into weird stuff Biosphere 2 might be fun. It’s not quite as bizarre as the days when I worked there but you can go inside now.
Padeye, the Tucson homeboy
Ask Diana Ross.
Add Kartchner Caverns and Colossal Caves to your list. Also, Suhuaro National Park (East and West sections)…I prefer the trails of the east part for hiking.
Day tips to Nogales, Mexico might be interesting if you’ve never been there.
Tohono Chul park is a nice walk in the northern part of the city. You will see labeled native plants.
There are numerous opportunites for hiking, and riding bicycles.
For something really unusual, there are a number of caches located around Tucson, and they are found by using a GPS receiver. Find out about them by going to http://brillig.com/geocaching/. BTW, this site can be used for any location in the US and there are even references to other countries at this site.
Photography…especially sunrise and sunset.
So, there are things to do. Best of luck!
Try and get a tour of AMARC-the airplane boneyard at Davia-Monthan AFB.Seeing acres of planes is something you remember for a long time.When I went in the 1980’s on a deployment,they had over 450 B-52s.They were all cut apart for SALT 2,but its still worth a visit.
Try and get a tour of AMARC-the airplane boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB.Seeing acres of planes is something you remember for a long time.When I went in the 1980’s on a deployment,they had over 450 B-52s.They were all cut apart for SALT 2,but its still worth a visit.
Okay. For the kiddies:
Mrs. Tiggywinkle’s Toys: located at Swan and Grant, this is the toystore of your dreams. Kid’s books, music, and toys. Toys galore. Everything. Seriously. Be sure to take them to the Marble Slab Creamery next door too; excellent ice cream. Best cinnamon ice cream I’ve found, anywhere.
Yikes! toys: On Country Club and Broadway. A teeny place where you can get vintage lunchboxes, plastic puffer fish, Jesus action figures, and other truly bizarre and inspired playthings. Next door you can find Austin’s, a real serious diner. For real frivolous people.
Both these toy stores feature enough kid toys to amuse the little kids, and enough bizarre stuff to amuse the older ones.
Summerhaven on top of Mount Lemmom is interesting, scenic, and you get to ride a ski lift over no snow whatsoever.
The Folk Shop on Campbell, between Grant and Glenn. It’s a folk music shop with some amazing instruments; tons of fun to wander in.
Also in that neighborhood, Bookman’s used stuff emporium is a must. Books, DVDs, computer games, music, and occasional live perfomances by musicians… Watch out for the Tamale Lady.
The Flandrau Science Center is a pretty good planetarium/science museum. It’s on the U of A campus.
Make sure to take the kids on a trail ride or a cowboy cookout or some such. It’s touristy, but half the fun of being a tourist is being touristy.
Authentic local here, so if you have any questions, just ask. I’ll be happy to help out. Meantime, if I think of anything else, I’ll post.
It’s “Miss Ross” unless you’re buying.
Thanks all for suggestions. Outta be fun.
Mr. Spooky and I are thinking about heading down to Tucson later this month, so these suggestions are very interesting and helpful. Thanks.
The Sonoran desert is beautiful, and we are looking forward to warming up a little bit. Any suggestions for good B&B’s?
seal_clubber (what a horrible name!), I don’t know where you live, but I really think that your children would love to go on a trail ride in the desert.
My son (7) enjoys “Old Tucson Studios”, a fake old west town outside of town where they shoot western movies. It’s now sort of a theme park, and they have shootouts, stunt shows, Indian storytelling, saloon entertainment, wagon rides…
One of the restaurants features movie posters from the many movies filmed there.
The park is on the way to the Desert Museum, which I also highly recommend. (Don’t try to do them both in the same day, though.)
TLB
And if you like sushi, there is a good, all-you-can-eat sushi place at Oracle and Roger named Sushi-Hama. $20 per person = try the Pancho Roll. And tell them you have a birthday person in the group (on the low). Their birthday ‘song’ is NOT to be missed and EXTREMELY embarrassing.
Southeast of Tucson is Tombstone. You can watch a recreation of the gunfight at the OK Corral. Or just peruse the touristy stuff.
Or, you could just go boff each other on “A” Mountain.
Sounds good to me, although will have the kids…maybe MrVisible could keep an eye on them…
If you’re coming from Southern California, Pichaco Peak State Park is an easy place to stop off and explore the desert for an hour or two. It’s about 35-40 minutes or so north of Tuscon on Interstate 10.
Oops, sorry, that’s Picacho Peak:
Sabino Canyon Recreation Area. You can walk or bike up a road along Sabino Creek where it emerges from the mountains. Days you can ride a tram with a guide who narrates the trip, certain days you can ride bikes. You can get off the tram at any stop for picnic or just looking around, get back on to a later tram.
Arizona State Museum, if you are interested in anthropology, on the U of A campus.
Gaslight Theater, dinner (pizza, etc.) theater showing goofy locally written melodramas.
Bisbee, off the same direction as Tombstone. Tours of the open pit copper mine.
Lots of good suggestions from above posters (best bets: A-S Desert Museum, Titan Missile Museum/Pima Air & Space Museum). I personally think that Old Tucson is overpriced and overrated. Definitely don’t go on a crowded day.
I just spent the last 4 years in Tucson as a student, so here is what I would advise:
Pretty much what everyone else has said as far as the tourist things to do (Desert Museum, Airplane Graveyard etc…) so I will focus on the best places to eat.
Down by the University is an area called “4th Avenue” because it is located on, 4th Avenue 
The two best places to eat are 1) Brooklyn Pizza Company and 2) Mya Quetzal. Brooklyn is located one block north of 6th street and they make the pizzas right in front of you, they sell it by the slice and for the kids they have scoops of Italian Ices (made right there in the restaurant) for $1. I used to work there, so tell them Chris sent you Mya Quetzal is one block south of 6th street and they serve authentic Guetemaln cuisine. The price is more than fair for the amount of food you get and the quality of it. Try anything they serve with walnuts.
As far as lodging, a great B&B can be found in the middle of downtown (downtown being a relative term to anyone who has lived in a large city like Chicago or NY and compare it to what Tucson calls “downtown”) in what is called Armory Park. I put my parents up there when they came down for graduation and they raved about it. I have seen it myself and it is every bit as good as the website shows. The man who runs it is very accomodating and just a great guy. Here is the link http://www.armorypark.com/
Hope this helps. If you have a specific taste in mind I can tell you a handful of other places to eat that are unique to Tucson.
Thanks for the tips, Tree Boy. The Guatemalan food sounds very interesting, and I checked out the b&b website. You wouldn’t happen to know of any good vegetarian cafes or restaurants, would you? I’m guessing there are some near the university?