Tucson, AZ

Boring! Tucson is the gate to hell

Not a bad place to spend a weekend.  It's known for some good dining and some of the best spas around.  The weather is about 7-8 degrees cooler than Phoenix and there is some more character in the homes which are more authentic adobe sytle.  It's also greener than I expected, lots of trees, palms and cactus.  Extremely flat so perfect for biking although there are the mountains in the background and there are some good places to hike which you can find through Sierra Club's website.  Downtown is quite small and pretty run down looking although there are a couple decent blocks, sort of a smaller version of Sacramento really.  I would say if you are looking to stay here the Marriott is a good bet and the Sheraton Four Points is right there and inexpensive.  The Marriot is nicer but both are decent and are next to the University of Arizona and 4th avenue, which is the best place to check out.  The area of 4th between University and 8th is sort of like San Francisco's Haight district, plen... Read more

Tucson is an armpit. Majority of the city looks old and rundown. Not as sprawling as Phoenix but none the less not a very impressive city in anyway.

I think Tucson had a really funky period where it was a draw for hippies and artists, but I think the sprawl and residential growth turned it into Phoenix with mountains. Most people who have spent a good deal of time here for the art scene have lamented the metamorphasis of Tucson... If you like natural beauty...its a very neat place. If you want culture...very very limited. Excellent food though. Basically God's waiting room for people from Chicago, Iowa, and Minny.

I grew up near Tucson and love the desert and the University of Arizona. Unfortunately, like all western cities, it has been raped by greedy developers. I'm rating it a 1 because I don't want anyone else to move there to further its destruction.

Hot dry and dusty with a high crime rate. Not a hell of alot of culture. Some friendly people when I was there- but I would not live here.

Tucson is a great city and I had a blast there when I was there about 10 months ago. There still are plenty of hippies and Punkers around and the nightlife is indeed thriving. The Hotel Congress and Plush were my most frequent stops when I was there. It is also the home of the hippest band in America today, Calexico!

hot, dry, barren, boring, not much of a city, rather just a large continual suburb, make a day trip from phoenix to see the sonoran dessert museum or old tucson movie studios.

Visited Tucson in May and it was over 100 degrees. Windy, dusty and extremely hot. Seems more like a large suburban area than a large city. Strip malls and fast food places galore. I know it was hot but the city seemed deserted. No one walking around, just people driving with their windows rolled up. Not much going on downtown. Not much culture either. No thanks.

Tucson is a pleasant city that has some very nice things going for it. It's perched in a valley surrounded by high mountains, and as a result doesn't get the ridiculous heat extremes of Phoenix nor the sudden cold snaps of Flagstaff - it's just pleasant, almost every day. It's also a much more genuine looking city than Phoenix, as the people there recognize that they are not in Wisconsin; the houses are adobe and the lawns have desert flowers and cacti. The biggest knocks against Tucson are that, outside the U of A, there isn't a lot going on culturally. Also, it's pretty isolated geographically - even the Grand Canyon, in the same state, is a five hour drive from Tucson.