Go South - The Ultimate 5-Day Southern Arizona and New Mexico Travel Guide

Most visitors to Arizona either park themselves in Phoenix with a golf club in one hand and a margarita in the other, or head north to elbow through the crowds at the Grand Canyon. No judgment.  Even if the allure of golf has escaped me, the landscapes in the north of the state – Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon and Monument Valley all cause jaws to involuntarily drop and that’s before you even think of the Canyon.

BUT, turn your gaze – and your rental car - south, and you’ll find a very different Arizona. Less polished, more curious. Here, saguaro (cacti for grown-ups) stand like sentinels over empty trails, frontier towns still wear their spurs, and the desert whispers enticingly. Add a dash of New Mexico, and this route becomes a five-day antidote to every over-planned, trip you've ever regretted.

This southern Arizona and New Mexico travel guide is designed for those who like their travel independent, efficient, and memorable, with enough time to explore but not so much you start googling “group tours.” You’ll need a rental car as you’ll be driving through landscapes that feel like film sets, eat the best Mexican food you’ll ever encounter north of the border, and return with dust on your boots and something worth talking about at Monday’s meeting.

Day 1: Tucson Arrival and Downtown Ramble

An easy 1hr 45min drive from Phoenix Sky Harbour is the endlessly appealing city of Tucson. Stop for lunch en route is best had at El Guero Canelo (5201 S 12th Ave; elguerocanelo.com), home of the famed Sonoran hot dog—a bacon-wrapped, salsa-splattered local institution that is far better than it has any right to be.  The salsa stand alone should win awards for its sheer range.

Fully sated, head straight for the heart of downtown, it’s compact, walkable, and pleasantly devoid of chain-store sameness. If you don’t fancy battling for a parking space, read the piece I wrote for Visit Tucson on their marvellous – and free – Streetcar, which connects the downtown effortlessly.

Third Avenue is where things begin to get interesting, with an under-the-radar mix of homegrown boutiques and desert-modern vintage. But the real magic lies a few blocks north on Fourth Avenue: a scruffy parade of independent stores where you can buy vinyl, incense, and a velvet painting of Elvis without breaking stride.

Pick any of the bars lurking here (The Surly Wench’s burlesque shows – 424 N 4th Avenue) are legendary if you’re in town on a weekend) or stroll down to something more refined at Bar Crisol (196 W Simpson St), a tiny gem of a cocktail bar where the drinks are stronger than the air conditioning and the décor of typewriters and guitars is the epitome of offbeat cosiness.

Stay central if you can, Hotel Congress (311 E Congress St) is atmospheric and historic (and yes, still has creaky floors and occasional train noise). Day one is about letting Tucson introduce itself. The desert can wait, you’ll get there soon enough.

Day 2: Saguaros, Street Art and a Tucson Icon

If you’re going to be introduced to the desert, you’ll want your handshake to have some style.  Start your day with an e-bike tour through Saguaro National Park—home to the iconic giants of the Sonoran Desert.  You’ll climb peaks like a homesick angel on these zippy creations and discover the desert is far from a single colour – the purple of staghorn cholla and the red desert mistletoe (yes, really) offset the green and white of the saguaro perfectly.

With your expert guides from Tucson E-Bike Tours, you’ll navigate Saguaro National Park East loop (2-3hrs) offers a manageable route with sweeping desert views and the towering local florae that are at once comical and awe-inspiring.  The landscape is like nowhere else and you'll gain the double benefit of sensational photos and a real education on desert flora and fauna, including how the saguaros serve as nesting grounds for local birds but also have the capacity to 'heal' after hosting.

Nowhere as much fun but practical if you’re short on time, you can also drive the loop ($25 per vehicle) with a number of convenient stop off points for spiky selfies.

Back in Tucson, you’ll probably have noticed last night the street art which proliferates the downtown.  Now get up close and person with a self-guided street art tour downtown.  

Either use this excellent map from the Tucson gallery or just start with the famed "Greetings from Tucson" wall (534 N 4th Ave) and work your way through the alleys and underpasses in any particular direction you fancy.  Do not miss “The Running of the Piñatas" at 31 N. 6th Avenue – it’s Cinco de Mayo meets The Hunger Games.

For dinner, head to El Charro Café (311 N Court Ave; elcharrocafe.com), which claims to be the oldest Mexican restaurant in the U.S. continuously operated by the same family with over 100 years of deliciousness.  Much like ‘the oldest pub in England’ debate, whether or not that’s true is really relevant.  Their carne seca (sun-dried beef) is reason enough to believe it might be.

Pick your brewery of choice on 4th Street and savour the surprise at your two days in this perfect little Arizona city. You'll want the rest before the Wild West kicks off tomorrow.

Day 3: Tombstone – Where the West Refuses to Die

It’s a 75-minute drive southeast to Tombstone, a town that clings proudly (and ever-so-slightly theatrically) to its frontier past.  Yes, it’s touristy. Yes, the gunfights are staged. But there’s something endearing about a place where every bartender owns a replica six-shooter and nobody blinks at spurs and stetsons on a Tuesday morning.  We stayed at Trail Riders’ Inn (N 7th Street – a 5 minute walk from downtown), a classic motel with pool and RV parking lot.

Everything in Tombstone gravitates towards E Allen Street, which knowingly resembles every Western movie you’ve ever sat through on a wet Sunday afternoon.  Start with the Oriental Saloon (500 E Allen St), where costumed gunslingers stage daily shows with a dose of history combined with a side-eye wink and a bang (usually hourly from about 11am; check times ahead). Entry is $10 plus drinks, which adds at least 50% to the fun level and takes the edge off the first ‘BANG!’  

It’s less famous than the OK Corral down the road but a local – whose business card read Willie Nelson, Trader in Junk – assured us it was far more authentic the previous evening.  We didn’t argue.

Next, step into the Tombstone Gunslinger Museum and Hall of Fame (402 E Allen St; $5 entry). It’s a compact but fascinating tribute to real and fictional figures from the Old West, complete with vintage revolvers and stories that blur the line between history and Hollywood.   Those who aren’t fans of pictures of bullet-splattered dead bodies may want to swerve this one although it’s ghoulishly fascinating.

A mile outside if town, Tombstone’s Boothill Graveyard isn’t solemn so much as darkly theatrical—much like the town itself. Perched just outside town, it holds the graves of outlaws, prospectors, prostitutes, and victims of quick tempers and slower bullets. The epitaphs are brutally honest, sometimes funny, often grim. One reads: “Here lies Lester Moore, Four slugs from a .44, No Les, No More.” Most died young, some deserved it, some didn’t (the men lynched by mistake deserve a pause for thought). The mismatched wooden markers and sun-bleached headboards feel more like a warning than a memorial, proof that Tombstone’s Wild West image wasn’t just marketing.

End the day back at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon (417 E Allen St; bignosekates.info), once the Grand Hotel and now a raucous blend of live music, hearty food, and Wild West kitsch.  Order the brisket sandwich, listen to someone in full cowboy regalia play Johnny Cash covers and find yourself your own Willie Nelson to regale you with tales of Wyatt Earp.

After a few bourbons, you’re best off staying overnight.  If you’ve resisted the temptation to match Willie drink-for-drink, you can press on to Bisbee, just 30 minutes south, to get a head start on tomorrow’s adventures.

Day 4: Bisbee, Chiricahua & the Road to New Mexico

Start early and head for Bisbee, Arizona’s most artistically inclined former mining town, nestled high in the Mule Mountains. With steep streets, colourful staircases and an inexplicable number of mannequins in windows, Bisbee feels like a Wes Anderson film waiting to happen.

Grab a strong coffee and a flaky pastry at Bisbee Coffee Company (2 Copper Queen Plaza) and take a quick wander through the galleries and vintage shops clustered around Main Street.

90 minutes further on is the remarkable Chiricahua National Monument - a spectacular and often-overlooked expanse of towering rock formations and scenic trails on the Arizona/New Mexico border. The 8-mile Echo Canyon Loop is a standout if you’ve got half a day to hike, but even the shorter trails like Massai Point Nature Trail offer far-sighted views of the various hoodoos (rock formations – but that’s far less interesting a name!) without too much commitment.

Entrance is free (a perk of not yet obtaining National Park status), and you can get helpful trail maps at the visitor centre – most trails are interconnected so you’re in ‘choose your own adventure’ territory.  

On your drive up or down, stop at Organ Rock – the resemblance is uncanny!

Note – if arriving after 10am, parking can be a challenge.  Your best bet is to head up to Massai Point (the highest point of the monument).  It’s worth it for the views alone and it’s a 20 minute stroll to the Echo Canyon trailhead.

After the hike, continue east to Las Cruces, New Mexico (about 2.5 hours). Check in, grab dinner at La Posta de Mesilla (2410 Calle de San Albino), and toast your successful state-hopping with a margarita served in a building that’s seen everything from stagecoaches to smugglers.

Day 5: White Sands and the Road Ahead

Your final day is dedicated to one of the most surreal landscapes in the Southwest: White Sands National Park. It’s a 50-minute drive from Las Cruces and is an other-worldly landscape whenever you arrive from sunrise to sunset. Entrance is $25 per vehicle (or covered by your America the Beautiful Pass).

Once inside, you’ll find 275 square miles of undulating gypsum dunes that look more like Antarctica than New Mexico…until you realise it’s 35°C and the sand squeaks underfoot.  Various car parks dot the route – pull off at any and walk 10 minutes (follow the red marker posts to re-trace your steps, trust me it all looks the same after the second dune!)  Beyond some stick-figures 200m away, you’ll have the park to yourself and can image you’ve crashed landed in your own sci-fi movie. 

More formal marked trails exist – the 1-mile Playa Trail or the Dune Life Nature Trail are both short, scenic, and often dotted with signs pointing out tracks left by foxes, lizards, and the occasional child tumbling down a nearby dune.

Best of all, rent a sled – and wax - at the visitor centre or bring your own for some of the smoothest downhill rides this side of Aspen.  Doesn’t matter whether you’re four or 84, the childish glee of gliding down a sand dune brings a little bit of joy to your heart.    Once you’re done, stay for sunset and watch the sand shimmer from white to blue to silver against a luminous backdrop. It'll be a travel memory that stays with you.

Where next?  Retracing your steps to Arizona and hiking in Patagonia?  South to El Paso and the shallow end of Texas? Heading north to Santa Fe’s adobe architecture and green chile? A quick diversion to Pistachioland and a selfie with the world’s largest pistachio (it’s America, of course that’s a thing)?   Just spin the wheel and drive into the sunset.

Southern Arizona and southern New Mexico are rarely top of the list for first-time visitors to the Southwest and that’s exactly why they’re worth exploring.  Over five days, you’ll see history worn loud and proud on a ruffled sleeve, bounce around other-worldly rock and sand landscapes and elevate you to the top of the class in the ‘Where’s that?!?’ Instagram posting game

This isn’t a travel guide to Southern Arizona and New Mexico that demands endless time or heroic levels of planning. It’s five days of discovery, efficiently packed, with just the right mix of nature, history, and local flavour to make it feel like more than the sum of its parts.  Best of all, you’ll return with stories that don’t sound like everyone else’s.

And yeah, skip the golf course - that never leads to good stories.