Rancho Cucamonga's reasons to stop are mostly about Route 66, the old Cucamonga wine country, and the city's collection of surviving historic buildings. The restored 1915 Cucamonga Service Station on Foothill Boulevard is the most photogenic Route 66 site in the Inland Empire; the 1860 John Rains House — an early Anglo-American adobe — and the adjacent Tapia Adobe site together tell the story of the transition from Spanish land-grant ranching to Anglo settlement. The Etiwanda Historic District preserves a neighbourhood of Victorian-era homes and eucalyptus-lined streets from the 1880s temperance colony.
The Cucamonga Valley was one of the largest wine regions in 19th-century California, and a few historic wineries — most notably Galleano Winery in nearby Mira Loma — still operate. The Pal Recording Studio site on Archibald Avenue is a pilgrimage for fans of Frank Zappa, who briefly owned and worked out of the studio in the 1960s. Most visitors come for Victoria Gardens, a large open-air shopping and cultural district with the Lewis Family Playhouse and public library. The San Gabriel Mountains rise directly behind the city; Cucamonga Canyon gives quick access to wilderness trails.