Start from 110 curated places around Tucson, AZ, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
El Charro Café
Operating in the same downtown adobe since 1922 by the same family, claiming credit for inventing the chimichanga. Sun-dried carne seca on the patio is the order, not the chimi tourists come for.
Mi Nidito Restaurant
Old-school South 4th Avenue family Mexican spot in business since 1952, where Bill Clinton's combination plate is still on the menu. The line wraps the building most nights for a reason: red chile and beans done the same way for 70 years.
Trails & outdoors
Tumamoc Hill
Paved 1.5-mile-each-way climb up the basalt hill west of downtown to the University of Arizona Desert Lab, with sunset crowds that turn it into a social event. 700 feet of vertical and a 25 percent grade near the top.
Sabino Tram Road Trail
The 7.5-mile round-trip walk up the paved Sabino Canyon road past nine stone bridges and a perennial creek, with the option to ride the tram down. Almost flat at first then gently steady; the canyon walls do the work.
Things to do
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Hybrid zoo, botanical garden, and natural-history museum on 98 acres west of Tucson Mountain Park, ranked Tucson's #1 attraction on TripAdvisor. Mountain lions, hummingbird aviary, and a raptor free-flight twice a day in winter.
Pima Air & Space Museum
One of the largest aviation museums in the country, with 400+ aircraft on 80 acres adjacent to the Davis-Monthan boneyard. The volunteer docents flew most of these planes and that's the actual draw.
Landmarks & sights
Mission San Xavier del Bac
1797 Spanish Colonial mission southwest of downtown on the Tohono O'odham Nation, often called the Sistine Chapel of the U.S. for its restored painted interior. The plaza outside is also where you buy frybread from O'odham vendors most weekends.
Sentinel Peak Park
The basalt hill west of downtown with the giant whitewashed A on its face, lit up after every UA football win. A paved road switchbacks to a summit overlook that takes in the whole valley plus four mountain ranges.