Armory Park Historic District
Tucson's first historic district offers an eclectic mix of architectural styles including Spanish, Victorian, Queen Anne, mission, Spanish Colonial Revival and California bungalow. The Temple of Music and Art (Tucson performance center for Arizona Theatre Company), Tucson Children's Museum and Tucson Center for the Performing Arts are all located in this 30-block area. The district extends from East 12th Street to 19th Street and from Stone Avenue to Second Avenue.

El Presidio Historic District
The site of Tucson's original settlement in 1775, this 12-block area is now home to historic buildings, local artisans, restaurants and the Tucson Museum of Art. If you have just a short time to get a taste of Tucson, this is the place to do it. El Presidio extends from Alameda Street to Sixth Street and from Granada Avenue to Church Avenue.

ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center

W. Pima Mine Road (about 20 minutes south of Tucson), Sahuarita.

Phone 520-625-7513.

Tuesday-Saturday 9 am-5 pm. Free admission to the Mineral Discovery Center exhibits, Discovery Theater, and gift shop.
The center takes you from the beginning of Arizona mining to the present-day industry with exhibits about geology, minerals, mining methods and equipment. An optional one-hour bus tour of the ASARCO open-pit mine and mill is available.

 Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

2021 N. Kinney Road (30 minutes northwest of downtown), Tucson.

Phone 520-883-2702.  

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. October through February and from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. March through September.

Visit a zoo, a natural history museum, and a botanical garden when you visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The attraction has an array of wildlife, including Gila monsters and hummingbirds. The museum sits in the Tucson Mountains and is perfectly blended with the breathtaking scenery. 

 

Arizona State Museum
The Arizona State Museum (ASM) is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution and is the oldest and largest anthropology museum in the region. ASM demonstrates the life of the southwest with research projects and collections. The museum is open Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

 

Edward Nye Fish House

120 N. Main Ave.

El Presidio District, Tucson.

Phone 520-624-2333.
Sunday noon-4 pm, Monday-Saturday 10 am-4 pm (closed Monday June-August).  (free admission on Sunday 10 am-1 pm).
This excellent example of a territorial-style adobe home was built in 1867 on the site of the original Presidio's military barracks. Its thick walls and saguaro rib ceilings are typical of the architecture of that period. Today, the property houses the Goodman Pavilion of Western Art, which is part of the Tucson Museum of Art.

 

Fort Lowell Museum

2900 N. Craycroft Road (in Fort Lowell Park), Tucson.

Phone 520-885-3832.
A few miles outside the original Presidio, this fort was the regimental headquarters of the 6th U.S. Cavalry. The fort fell to ruin when it was closed in the late 1800s, but the Arizona Historical Society has restored the commanding officer's quarters and stocked it with furnishings and artifacts from the period. Wednesday-Saturday 10 am-4 pm. 12-18, free under 12 (free admission first Saturday of each month).

International Wildlife Museum

4800 W. Gates Pass Road (near Old Tucson Studios), Tucson.

Phone 520-617-1439

Monday-Friday 9 am-5 pm, Saturday and Sunday 9 am-6 pm

The Safari Club International's nonprofit educational institute was founded in 1988 to educate visitors about Arizona's native wildlife, plus mammals, insects and birds from around the world. More than 400 species are on display, with many hands-on exhibits. A restaurant and gift shop are on-site, too.

 

International Wildlife Museum
This interactive attraction has more than 400 species of mammals, birds, and insects from around the world. Unlike zoos, the International Wildlife Museum doesn’t collect animals for exhibition. Animals are entrusted to the museum via donations. The museum also has a 98-seat movie theater that shows wildlife and natural history films at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The International Wildlife Museum is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

 

Mission San Xavier del Bac

1950 W. San Xavier Road (on the Tohono O'odham Reservation

10 mi/16 km south of Tucson on I-19),

Tucson. Phone 520-294-2624.
 The original mission founded by Father Kino has been expanded and restored since it was erected in 1694. This "White Dove of the Desert" is a superb example of Spanish-mission architecture and houses a museum with religious artifacts and relics of the native peoples of the area. Gift shop and traditional Tohono O'odham arts and crafts shops on the premises. Daily 8 am-5 pm. Masses are held throughout the day, and self-guided tours are permitted. Free, but donations are accepted.

Old Tucson Studios

201 S. Kinney Road (about 25 minutes northwest of downtown), Tucson.

Phone 520-883-0100.

Daily 10 am-6 pm.
This replica of an 1880s frontier town is part television and film studio, part amusement park. Built in 1939, it has served as the set for more than 300 cowboy movies and TV shows, including The Quick and the Dead and Gunsmoke. Today, it's still a film studio, but it also has live western shows, a steam train, pony rides and the Western Legends Museum.  The site also has major concerts, festivals, sports events, and children’s activities.

Pima Air & Space Museum

6000 E. Valencia Road (northeast of Tucson International Airport), Tucson.

Phone 520-574-0462.

More than 200 painstakingly restored aircraft, ranging from a Wright Brothers plane to the high-tech flyer, the SR-71 Blackbird. Don't miss the chance to tour the nearby Davis-Monthan AFB "Aircraft Graveyard," which has more than 5,000 aircraft, including World War II vintage and U.S. presidential planes. Tours are led by museum personnel and depart from the gift shop. In winter, reservations for these tours sometimes fill up months in advance. The museum is open daily 9 am-5 pm. Advance reservations required for "Boneyard" tours. Museum admission

 

Titan Missile Museum
A ballistic missile museum that gives you a close-up look at the Titan missile program and the part it played in the Cold War. At one time, the 165-ton liquid-fuel rocket held a nuclear payload 214 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. November-April daily 9 am-5 pm, May-October Wednesday-Sunday 9 am-5 pm. 1580 W. Duval Mine Road (about 20 minutes south of Tucson), Sahuarita. Phone 520-625-7736.

Tucson Children's Museum

200 S. Sixth Ave. (in the Carnegie Library building), downtown, Tucson.

Phone 520-792-9985.

An interactive facility where kids can practice being doctors, lawyers and firefighters. There's also a dinosaur exhibit with hand-crafted models. Sunday noon-5 pm, Tuesday-Saturday 10 am-5 pm..

Tucson Museum of Art

140 N. Main Ave., El Presidio District, Tucson.

Phone 520-624-2333

Sunday noon-4 pm, Monday-Saturday 10 am-4 pm (closed Mondays June-August).
The permanent collection of more than 5,000 works includes Asian, pre-Columbian, Hispanic and contemporary American art (including art from the Southwest). Founded in 1924, the museum property includes five historic Tucson homes (La Casa Cordova, the Sosa-Carrillo-Fremont House and the former homes of Edward Nye Fish, J. Knox Corbett and Leonardo Romero), which may be toured.

University of Arizona Mineral Museum

University Boulevard and Cherry Avenue (in the Flandrau Science Center on the University of Arizona campus), Tucson. Phone 520-621-4227.

Sunday 1-5 pm, Monday-Friday 9 am-5 pm.
Examples of more than 15,000 minerals, gems and even meteorites from the museum's permanent collection are circulated through the university's exhibits, making it one of the largest public collections in the U.S. About 2,000 artifacts are on display at any given time. Other exhibits chronicle the history of Arizona mining and minerals.