Start from 17 curated places around Tubac, AZ, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Elvira's Restaurant
An upscale Mexican destination that traces back to a 1927 Nogales original, now in a dramatic, art-filled Tubac room famous for its array of house moles. The most ambitious dinner in the village and a genuine reason to drive down from Tucson.
Shelby's Bistro
A relaxed bistro in the middle of the shopping village doing American and Southwestern plates, sandwiches, and a shaded patio that's the easy lunch stop between galleries. The dependable, unfussy midday anchor.
Trails & outdoors
Juan Bautista de Anza Trail: Tubac to Tumacácori
The signature local walk: an easy 4.5-mile riverside stretch of the national historic trail connecting the Tubac presidio to the Tumacácori mission, shaded by cottonwoods and following the route of the 1775 expedition that founded San Francisco. Flat, historic, and birdy.
Anza Trail North Segment, Tubac
The quieter, less-walked stretch of the Anza Trail heading north from Tubac along the Santa Cruz toward Canoa, with more solitude and the same cottonwood-bosque birding. A good out-and-back when the southern leg is busy.
Things to do
Tubac Center of the Arts
The village's nonprofit arts hub, with rotating exhibitions of Southwestern contemporary and traditional work, plus concerts, workshops, and an open-studio tour. The cultural anchor that ties the gallery scene together.
Tubac Golf Resort
A historic resort course laid out on the former Otero land grant, with fairways framed by the Santa Rita Mountains and grazing longhorns; the golf movie Tin Cup was filmed here. Scenic enough to be worth a meal or a round even if you barely golf.
Landmarks & sights
Tubac Presidio State Historic Park
Built on the site of the 1752 Spanish presidio, the oldest in Arizona, this was also the state's very first state park. The museum holds the original 1859 Washington printing press that ran Arizona's first newspaper, plus an underground look at the original fort foundations.
Tumacácori National Historical Park
The weathered adobe ruins of an 18th-century Spanish mission church, San José de Tumacácori, set in a quiet grove along the Santa Cruz River three miles south of the village. The unrestored, sun-bleached sanctuary is far more atmospheric than any rebuilt mission.