36 Hours in Tucson

As Austin is to Texas, Tucson is to Arizona. In this outspoken university town, artists, intellectuals and athletes share their passions for good food and outdoor fun. In Tucson’s case, its location in the southern Sonoran Desert divides two sections of scenic Saguaro National Park where cactuses reside in multi-limbed groves. Two years ago, Unesco cited Tucson as the nation’s first City of Gastronomy, highlighting its mix of Native American, colonial Spanish and border Mexican influences. That recognition seems only to have lit the fuse on new and adventurous breweries and distilleries as well as restaurants. With challenging urban hikes, other, more remote, trails nearby, and a new bike share system, Tucson makes for a calorically balanced weekend.

Friday

1) 1:30 p.m. Tour de Tucson

Reliably dry weather and a variety of terrain has made Tucson, newly home to a bike share system, popular with cyclists. For an overview of the city from the saddle, take an introductory ride with Tucson Bike Tours ($50). The owner, Jimmy Bultman, provides bright orange upright Civia bikes, helmets and commentary on city history and culture as he guides cyclists through neighborhoods of vintage adobe homes that ring downtown. The route surveys Tucson’s history pre- and post-railroad arrival in 1880, when the city transformed from a sleepy town with a Spanish fort into a shipping center. Risk adobe-envy in restored residential quarters such as Presidio and Barrio Viejo and cruise through the palm-filled campus of the University of Arizona.

2) 4:30 p.m. Prickly Pear Pint

Tucson’s strength in gastronomy, as saluted by Unesco, does not solely belong to solids. Distillers and brewers are giving liquids a local accent. The tiny tasting room that fronts the brewery at Iron John’s Brewing Company offers opportunities to sample owner John Adkisson’s rotating roster of sophisticated beers made with the likes of local mesquite flour, creosote blossoms or prickly pear cactus (flights of four four-ounce samples, $8).

3) 7 p.m. Ranchero Beef

The owners of the 1922-vintage El Charro, which bills itself as the oldest continuously operating, family-run Mexican restaurant in the United States, recently expanded into the steakhouse business with Charro Steak. In a mash-up of Mexican flavors and cowboy fare, the menu includes guacamole made tableside ($10.95), tortilla soup ($8.95), and boneless rib-eye ($36.95) and bone-in strip ($30.95) steaks grilled on mesquite wood that scents the rustic room. Sides like chile-dusted creamed corn ($6) also have a south-of-the-border accent, while the mostly American wine list includes a blend from locally made Arizona Stronghold Vineyards ($13 a glass).