Tucson AZ is a popular destination for tourists from all over the world. With so many amazing places to choose from, it can be hard to know where to go. To help make your decision easier, we’ve compiled a list of the best places to visit in Tucson AZ based on traveler ratings and reviews. So whether you’re looking for a romantic getaway spot or an adventure playground, there’s something for everyone in this metropolis!
The Best Place to Visit in Tucson AZ
Reid Park Zoo
- Address: 3400 E Zoo Ct, Tucson, AZ 85716, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.6 (8543)
- Phone: +1 520-791-3204
- Website: Link
- Opening hours:
Monday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PMTuesday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PMWednesday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PMThursday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PMFriday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PMSaturday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PMSunday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
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Top 15 Tourist Attractions in Tucson AZ
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
- Address: 2021 N Kinney Rd, Tucson, AZ 85743, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.8 (8311)
- Phone: +1 520-883-1380
- Website: Link
- Opening hours:
Monday: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PMTuesday: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PMWednesday: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PMThursday: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PMFriday: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PMSaturday: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PMSunday: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM
- Reviews:
What a great out door adventure, amusement, activity! This museum will definitely have you engaged for hours and hours. Definitely visit hours before closing unless you’re just going to the gift shop. The animals, the design the knowledge available and gain will be forever treasured! I had a blast with my family. Honestly the apprehension made it the adventure very suspenseful and rewarding! I think tour guides should be available for this type of museum. It will definitely take the adventure from Great to Extraordinary!!!!By Joel Weathers (6 months ago)This is one of the nicest museums I have ever visited. Entry is expensive, but you can tell they really use that money to maintain the premises. The bathrooms were clean and even had sunblock dispensers. The staff was very friendly and helpful. One of the highlights was the raptor flight demonstration. I really enjoyed watching the birds and learning about how unique the Harris hawks are in the bird world. The variety of cactus and other desert plants was another highlight. I had no idea there was such a variety of life in the desert. If you’re in the area, this museum is definitely worth a visit.By Andrew (9 months ago)Great time with the kiddos and beautiful spot. We hadn’t been here in about 20 years, and it was definitely worth it. The stingray exhibition, which does cost extra both for entry and for feeding, was amazing for the kids. Very educational, very fun, definitely wet. The pack rat playhouse was an amazing place for kids! It’s inside, air conditioned, and has a lot of play activities for the kids, there’s even picnic tables for the adults. Overall great time!By Rebecca Martz (3 months ago)This place is special. I love Botanic Gardens, but to have all the desert plants and flowers makes it unique and fascinating. It is also a great walk through the desert with a gorgeous view. I love the MINERAL EXHIBIT and the aquarium exhibit. The minerals are in a cave exhibit which looks like the real thing. SO COOL. The Hummingbird Aviary was dreamy.
There is SO much to see and do. You could probably see the highlights in an hour or two. But I could spend days just getting lost in this wonderful place.
Definitely remember how HOT it is. Many people were complaining already. Just remember, it’s the desert. 😉 And, keep your paper map! Your phone probably won’t have service either. So good to know if you want to split up. And you can see a lot but don’t have to do the loop through the desert unless you want to; especially if you have young kids or are concerned about the heat. It’s a nice walk but you see mostly the same things near the entrance.
Even the Gift Shop was amazing. I am not much of a shopper, but this was full of gorgeous pottery and minerals and books and Prickly Pear Taffy! The snack bar there has delicious drinks too! I loved the AGAVE LIMEADE! And the Prickly Pear Lemonade was delicious.
The staff and all of the volunteers were wonderful people. The whole experience was good for my Soul. Thank you so much!
By Dawn (8 months ago)This place is flipping amazing! There are so many differ types of cactus to see! We were able to come at a time when there has been sown rain, so there were not only wild flowers, but cactus flowers too! We saw Javelinas, black tailed gophers, a cougar, so many flying bugs, butterflies, and moths. There is a lovely hummingbird aviary with at least three types to see. There are sunscreen dispensers in the bathrooms, water fountains throughout the trails. There is a mineral display and a spot to pet rays for $3.00 per person to pet the sting rays and kids have to have a paying adult to go with. If you go at the right time you can feed them too! This place is amazing and I definitely recommend going!By Angie Korol (a month ago)
Pima Air & Space Museum
- Address: 6000 E Valencia Rd, Tucson, AZ 85756, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.8 (6841)
- Phone: +1 520-574-0462
- Website: Link
- Opening hours:
Monday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PMTuesday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PMWednesday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PMThursday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PMFriday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PMSaturday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PMSunday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Reviews:
If you’re a local then you definitely know about this place. If you’re from out of town or a visitor then you wanna see this place. We’ll worth it. Be prepared to spend at least 3-4 hours checking this place out. But also be prepared for the heat and the weather. Take water, hat and sunscreen. Some people can walk around the grounds. But you can also take the tram. We took the tram and saved the walking. The tram is roughly 45 minutes. But has a lot of information about the jets, planes and other machinery that is also there. Definitely worth the visit.
Side note: the food at the snack bar is decent. Don’t expect restaurant style food it’s a snack bar. Quick food, soft drinks, water and a cool place to sit and relax out of the heat. Enjoy.By Robert Herrera (5 months ago)FUN & EDUCATIONAL! GREAT WORKOUT!This place is massive! I was told there is a combined 80 acres of indoor and outdoor space dedicated to aircrafts and more. You see everything from helicopters, jets, single prop planes, medical transports, presidential planes, cargo planes, old military jeeps, memorabilia, insignia and tons more.
There is a restaurant on site, plenty of opportunities for the restroom, tons of free water fountains scattered about, and even more seating in the form of benches, chairs, and picnic tables. I get the feeling the staff understand the amount of energy and time it takes to ingest all the information and view all the sites this museum has to offer.
PRICE: The $18 charge (circa early 2022) came to be well worth it. I was there for over 3 hours and know I could have been there much longer if I was to read all the rhetoric available.
FYI: They close early in the summer. My guess, it is way too hot and they probably have too many people experiencing heat stroke.
SUGGESTIONS: (1) Arrive early (2) purchase the tram if you can afford it (3) save the entrance Hanger 1 for last because it is the last to close (4) come hydrated (5) Skip your gym routine the day of (6) Wear comfortable shoes (7) wear layered clothing as you will be indoor and outdoor and find yourself getting hot and cold.
*Check out the map in my images
By surgioramon (9 months ago)All I have to say is this was a very special place it was an honor to walk these grounds.To all those who can’t attend then the pictures are for you as well as for me. It brought me much joy taking them, my father who is 92 can’t come see these beautiful planes so I bring them to him through pictures.
He was Air Force and fraught in the Chosen Reservoir Battle in the Korean War, I go to see him next week, so to all those who enjoy planes like my daddy here’s to you.
The volunteer that work here are educated and a joy to talk to about the history of each plane.
The day we attended the weather was nice so we walked the grounds, I would say this Museum is an all day maybe two day trip to really enjoy all they have, we didn’t even go through all the hanger. So give yourself plenty of time.
The gift shop is very reasonable in price, I picked up a few things for my grandson & son.
I highly recommend.
By Loree Slack (3 weeks ago)Great place to take the kids of all ages if you love anything to do with aviation! There are dozens and dozens of different types of planes and helicopters within the bounds of this museum. There is an inside museum that could take you all day if you wished, there is an air park to walk around in outside and they give guided tours to the bone yard across the street in a comfortable air conditioned bus with a great tour! Definitely worth the trip to keep these types of local museums alive!By Kay W (10 months ago)This was my second time after a 15 year gap and not have they added a lot of aircraft! So much to see and explore. We spent five hours here and enjoyed every minute. The outside static displays cover 80 acres so we opted to see it on a hide tree for the extra $8, well worth it. It can be walked as well.By Marc Shoemaker (6 months ago)
San Xavier del Bac Mission
- Address: 1950 W San Xavier Rd, Tucson, AZ 85746, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.8 (6142)
- Phone: +1 520-294-2624
- Website: Link
- Opening hours:
Monday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PMTuesday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PMWednesday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PMThursday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PMFriday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PMSaturday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PMSunday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
- Reviews:
Beautiful little place with a lot of history.
The architecture of the building is wonderful, and there is some very sympathetic restoration happening to keep the Mission looking as great as it is.
The staff here are amazing, really helpful, and very knowledgeable.
The insides of the buildings are exquisite with the carvings and hand painted murals and walls.
Great gift shops selling authentic art and handcrafted goods on site.
Nice place to visit. Will take about 60 to 90 minutes to look around everything.
By Samuel Liddicott (7 months ago)An active parish and important historical place. Beautiful and engaging. Moderately maintained by volunteer contributions. Moving, inspiring and historically significant. Quiet enough to spend time in prayer and reflection. A special chapel for remembering the dead, sick and beloved.By Valerie Flanagan (10 months ago)We visited this mission on a Sunday a week ago before the 10 am mass. We read that we cannot “tour” the inside of the mission during mass. It’s a beautiful church and worth the visit. There was a hill next to the mission that had a spectacular view of the mission and the valley. There were vendors outside the church selling food and drinks.By Catherine Hunt (a month ago)I’ve been in a lot of missions and in my opinion this is the most beautiful and well preserved. The church is a beautiful place of worship and art. One can see beauty wherever one turnsBy Jorge Gonzalez (a month ago)Gorgeous chapel, unfortunately under renovations on one side at the time we visited. Lots of people on the weekend! There is a cute gift shop on the right and vendors set up tents in the front selling various food items. Parking is somewhat limited during busy times.By Paige Ellsworth (2 months ago)
Sabino Canyon Recreation Area
- Address: 5700 N Sabino Canyon Rd, Tucson, AZ 85750, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.8 (3786)
- Phone: +1 520-749-8700
- Website: Link
- Opening hours:
Monday: Open 24 hoursTuesday: Open 24 hoursWednesday: Open 24 hoursThursday: Open 24 hoursFriday: Open 24 hoursSaturday: Open 24 hoursSunday: Open 24 hours
- Reviews:
We took the trolley up and enjoyed the scenery and the information in the tour. We especially appreciated the strictly enforced mask wearing as we have frail family members at home to protect.
Half our group hiked the ridge back down and the rest of us rode back one stop then walked the rest of the way.We had a wheelchair with us and the road was manageable for able bodied people to push it. There were some pretty good uphill sections so we got a great workout.
The scenery was so beautiful! We stopped at most of the creek crossings and our chair user was able to get out and walk around a bit. We were a as all SO happy to find somewhere to safely be outside together.
By Lyric Montgomery Kinard (11 months ago)Did a very quick afternoon visit to the dam area to check out the water flow from the monsoons. The trail is pretty easy and a wonderful place to wander around for beautiful desert vistas (still quite hot though so be prepared!!). Thrilled with how green the desert looks after all the rain. The views of the mountains were stunning in the afternoon light and some of the cacti are flowering. The pops of color are always such a treat!By Katrina Kadyszewski (3 months ago)Sabino Canyon is a hikers paradise offering trails at every level. For the less athletic, a bus service is a great alternative that hikers can jump on and off during the one hour tour of the canyon.The canyon bus is windowless (weather permitting) and allows for amazing views of this incredible natural scenery.
This is definitely a “don’t miss” visit just an hour from Central Tucson.
Do it!
By Ian McFall (10 months ago)I just love this place. I never have been here on summer time but we had visitors and we need it to go somewhere so we decided to go to Sabino and take the shuttle. When we got there we saw that they had a high water tour. When we read about it we realized that the shuttle only goes to the stop number 2 so we decided to walk instead. When we arrived to the first bridge (just after stop number 2) we understood why the high water tour. You can see it on the pictures. I’ve never seen so much water in Sabino. It was beautiful. I’m so happy we had visitors other wise I would have never go to Sabino in August.By Eunice Diaz (3 months ago)This is a fabulous all-access outdoor area. They have paved trails for this with special mobility needs. They do have large bathroom stalls for wheelchairs, I did not see a changing table. There are very helpful and friendly staff!! There are many staff available on the various paths who can help guide you as well as great sign markings! There are water fountains available at many locations to refill. There are many beautiful locations, many easily accessible. We saw some wildlife such as birds, lizards, and small animals like rabbits.By Tani Wade (3 weeks ago)
Old Tucson
- Address: 201 Kinney Rd, Tucson, AZ 85735, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.5 (3665)
Tucson Botanical Gardens
- Address: 2150 N Alvernon Way, Tucson, AZ 85712, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.7 (2854)
Trail Dust Town
- Address: 6541 E Tanque Verde Rd, Tucson, AZ 85715, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.5 (2748)
Tohono Chul | Gardens, Galleries, and Bistro
- Address: 7366 N Paseo Del Norte, Tucson, AZ 85704, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.7 (2032)
Children’s Museum Tucson
- Address: 200 S 6th Ave, Tucson, AZ 85701, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.7 (1978)
The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures
- Address: 4455 E Camp Lowell Dr, Tucson, AZ 85712, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.8 (1257)
International Wildlife Museum
- Address: 4800 West Gates Pass, Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 85745, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.7 (1157)
Tumamoc Hill
- Address: Tumamoc Hill Rd, Tucson, AZ 85745, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.8 (1091)
Tucson Museum Of Art
- Address: 140 N Main Ave, Tucson, AZ 85701, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.7 (833)
Sweetwater Wetlands Park
- Address: 2511 W Sweetwater Dr, Tucson, AZ 85745, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.6 (714)
Arizona State Museum
- Address: 1013 E University Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85721, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.6 (270)
Although Tucson AZ is a large state with many amazing places to visit, these 15 locations stand out as the best according to traveler ratings and reviews. Did your favorite spot make the cut? Let us know in the comments above!
One of the best kept zoos I have ever visited. Shady pathways with plenty of places to sit and rest. Animals are kept in very natural looking habitat and obviously well cared for. A fun and educational way to spend a sunny afternoon
This Zoo is amazing it has so much to see but it’s not so large that it takes hours to get through. All of the enclosures are well spaced out so the walk between them is nice but not obnoxious. When it’s not busy the peacocks like to roam on the actual walking paths. They also like to get into the other animals enclosures, it’s fun to see.
We had a great time at the zoo. The dinosaur exhibit throughout the park was a nice break away from the normal zoo experience. It was great to be able to associate the dinosaurs to potential relatives of today. We really enjoyed the different exhibits. The only downside is we went when it was too warm, which means several of the animals were relaxing where we couldn’t see them. If we’re in the Tucson area again, this will likely be a stop we make again when the kids are older. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see visiting this place more than 1-2 times a year.
I had an amazing time at the zoo. Although it was a warmer day and I went during the afternoon most of the animals were still out. The rhino was rolling around like a puppy in the mud and one peacock was putting on a beautiful show. The only thing that would have made it better is if the concession stands were open to get a nice cool treat.
We love the zoo! There is fun for all ages! The prices are very reasonable to get in and you can feed the giraffes for $3. We love feeding them! It takes us about 2ish hours with little kids to go through the zoo. There is a variety of animals to see and some babies as well! The animals are spaced out well, the paths are shaded, and there are benches to rest on if needed. There are food and drink options available. The staff/volunteers are all friendly. Weekends, holidays and the occasional school field trip cause the zoo to be busier. There are a lot of fun activities at the zoo throughout the year, such as decorated for Halloween, Christmas, Dino’s at the zoo, and adult events such as brew at the zoo.