Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum ranked among top 10 U.S. museums

in TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards

For the second year in a row, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is ranked among the top 10 U.S. museums in TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards.

2013 was the first year that the travel website bestowed the awards based on the reviews and opinions shared by travelers on the site.

The Desert Museum is the only Arizona museum in the top 10, which includes the Art Institute of Chicago, the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix was ranked 21.

The list of top U.S. museums, with links to descriptions, reviews and websites, is available on the TripAdvisor website.

Founded in 1952, the 98-acre Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum at 2021 N. Kinney Road, 14 miles west of Tucson in Tucson Mountain Park, is a fusion of zoo, botanical garden, art gallery, natural history museum and aquarium. About 85 percent of the museum experience is outdoors.

The grounds comprise 21 interpreted acres with two miles of walking paths, 16 individual gardens, 1,200 native plant species and 56,000 individual plants. The animal collection includes 230 native mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and birds including a multi-species hummingbird aviary.

“This is an excellent museum that focuses on the biology and flora of the Sonoran Desert. You will see plants and animals in their natural habitat, and the desert views are spectacular,” noted a TripAdvisor reviewer.

The museum’s 98 acres are owned by Pima County and leased to the museum.

For more information about the Desert Museum, including hours and admission fees, please visit its website or Facebook page.

Two-for-one admission to the Desert Museum is one of the great deals on more than 60 attractions in Southern Arizona that are available in the 12^th Anniversary Tucson Attractions Passport.

The “Book of Fun,” with up to $400 in savings, is only $18. It is available online at www.TucsonAttractions.com or you can pick one up at the Southern Arizona Attractions Alliance Sales Office, 660 S. Country Club Road, or the Tucson Visitor Center in La Placita Village, 110 S. Church Ave., Ste. 7199.