Nogales is Arizona's main gateway to Sonora, but it is more than a place to queue at the border. The fence cuts through what was once one town, leaving Nogales, Arizona, and Heroica Nogales, Sonora, facing each other across International Street.
The American side is small and practical, with a historic downtown, early 20th-century storefronts, and a courthouse built from local stone. The story here is the border itself: trade, migration, Mexican-American families, and the 1918 Battle of Ambos Nogales, after which the first permanent fence went up through the middle of town.
Nogales works best as a short, focused stop from Tucson or the Santa Cruz Valley. See the museum and courthouse, walk Morley Avenue, and if you have a car and a taste for desert backroads, make the longer trip to Ruby ghost town.