Family Trip to Tucson

M.,

I am chiming in late, and please ignore Margaret K.'s post it was rude and not very helpful. Also look into Sabino Canyon for hiking. There is also the Pima Air Museum (www.pimaair.org) this is one of the biggest air museums and also has a huge "boneyard" you can take a shuttle over from the museum and walk around and check out all of the retired military planes along with some presidential planes. There is also Old Tucson, but if you are on a budget take the drive to Tombstone and walk around there, it is more like a town where as Old Tucson seems more staged to me. As other posters have said Mt Lemmon is great for hiking and so is the Desert Museum and walking around Fourth Avenue. You might want to walk around the University while there, it is a really nice campus to visit. I also second El Charro for good Mexican Food and Pinnacle Peaks is fun for everyone and is casual(there is a website for this restaurant if you want to check it out, just google it). There is plenty to do in Tucson for a week, I always feel as if I never have enough time to do what I want when there, but I do love to visit. Let me know if you need or want any other information. Have a great family vacation!!

K.

I honestly think Tucson is the boringest place in the world and I don't know how anyone could live there. For a short time you can make things to do, like going to Saguaro National Park, but I think a couple hours there would do ya. When I was last there (with my nephew) we toured Bioshere 2, but I don't even know if you can do that anymore.

Hi M.,

The Desert Museum is fun for the whole family. Most of it is outdoors. Saguaro National Park is great for hiking. Also, it's more time in a car, but you could drive up to Mt. Lemmon, which has fabulous vistas, and also great hiking, and is a good 20 degrees cooler than the city, which is great in summer. It has been more than 10 years since I lived there, but at that time, it was fun to walk down 4th Avenue; there were quite a few shops and sandwich shops and such. And El Charro is a restaurant that, at the time anyway, had the best carne asada on the planet! There were 2 locations. Hope that helps Have fun!

One suggestion I have for indoor time or evenings is a jigsaw puzzle. The warning is to get one with less than 500 pieces. 200-300 pieces is the best. It is much more rewarding for kids and it is something they can do with grandparents. Work it on a piece of posterboard and then you can put it under a bed when you are not working on it. Ravensbarger makes some really good ones that have nice themed pictures.

I don't know if you have boys of girls, or are sports fans, but a lot of the major league teams do their spring training in Arizona. Take a look at:
http://www.springtrainingonline.com/

It is a lot of fun, great opportuniies for autographs, etc.

Have fun!

Hi - We were just there last winter. You should check out Kartchner Caverns. They are great! I think you need to make reservations in advance so you might want to call ahead. You also might want to head south to Bisbee (an old mining town) and Tombstone. You don't need too much time in either but both are very fun little towns particularly for a family and the country is beautiful down there. If you do go to Bisbee be sure to eat at the Bisbee Breakfast Club (its hours are limited so check in advance). It overlooks this enormous old copper mine. There are also some nice trails for hiking in and around the Huachuca Mountains if you go down to Bisbee and Tombstone.