Biosphere 2 Review

It was an amazing experience and knowledgeable!! So worth the travel time.

We didn t actually do the tour so my rating does not reflect the tour
1) on route tried to phone to ask about the next tour time, length, parking availability for an RV, etc. .gave up because I could not talk to a human, just a bunch of automated messages
2) website is broken, tried 3 different browsers on 2 computers
3) went out of our way to go there to speak to a human and see the parking lot (which does accommodate RV s). An hour and 15 min tour after walking to the start and having to be 10 min early is now a 1 hour and 35 min tour. We are travelling across the country with our dog and we would be ok running a generator for A/C for an hour but over 90 minutes I was getting uncomfortable with this. Providing a kennel would be appreciated or providing power in the parking lot to run A/C would also be fine. (Carlsbad cavern in New Mexico provided kennel services)

Biosphere 2 is a great educational experience. Informative and interesting if you are curious about our planet.

Biosphere is a great place. Very interesting and you can learn a lot if you interact with guides. Highly recommend!

Very interesting history. My friend and I used Groupon and got a good deal so the trip from Phoenix and the tour, which lasted an hour plus, were well worth the price.

Where else in Biosphere 1 can you experience something like Biosphere 2???

One of the coolest sightseeing stops I have ever made! Highly suggest going at least once. Be prepared to spend longer than you think you will have to. Also be prepared to walk during the tour throughout the biosphere! Can't wait to get back there again!

This will sound like a lot of the other reviews, but I too was very bothered by the tour guide! It was great to see the Bioshpere2 and the engineering that went into it, but having to listen to the tour guide rant about his personal beliefs and feel like we were being lectured the whole time really spoiled the day. I normally don't write reviews, but after listening to the tour guide talk about how he believes in following the law, then to have him go into telling how some of the plants and trees were brought in illegally by a gentleman because sometimes the greater good overrides the law was to much.

The University of Arizona is trying to turn the Bioshpere2 into a money making tour machine and they are letting the structure rust in places and need to be careful if the tour guides are turning people off by spouting their personal opinions. The tour guide also kept asking for the group to send other people their way that would want to see the tour.

After seeing it once, I would have a hard time recommending someone paying the high admission price. Seeing the Karchner caverns was a much better outing.

What an amazing place! I highly recommend it. What is really great is they continue to use this fantastic place for experiments even today!

So worth the trip. Walking through it and experiencing it first-hand is second to none

No where near as nice as it use to be not worth paying full price for that tour.

Wow! Very interesting and amazing adventure. Our tour guide was informative and entertaining, what an incredible undertaking for the crew that tried to live and operate that experiment. Shows just how complicated the world environment really is.

We arrived on a rainy day and found a long line that moved very slowly. Purchasing tickets in advance didn't help because the same line was used for choosing your tour or purchasing tickets. We had to wait for 2 hours for the next tour due to the large crowds and lack of tour guides. I don't believe the operation was run efficiently.

Really boring the kind of place I would want to go once, just once. Never again

Wonderful place to visit! Thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. Guide was knowledgeable, group wasn't to large, and loved all the stories. Tour is almost completely indoor with only around 15 min of it outside so dress appropriately. I went in the winter and was glad I had a jacket even though used it very little. Great time!

I highly recommend paying the additional amount for the history tour as well.

Very interesting tours at this fascinating facility!

Great place right outside of Tucson to learn about the environment. $20 for adults, not the cheapest but not unreasonable either. Fun for kids.

Biosphere 2 is a very cool place to visit. If you are coming for cutting edge technology and visible ground breaking developments probably not your place. If you are coming to check out the evolution of ecological sciences and our knowledge of how eco systems coexist, or don t, then you have found the right place. Biosphere 2 is a beautiful building architecturally and is a glimpse in to the knowledge and technology of the late 80 s and earth 90 s, however not much has change from that time. Don t expect to be awe inspired by the tour, however it is informative and incredibly interesting to be able to walk amongst past and present experiments. Overall worth going to if you re in the area.

Okay, an informative spectacle, but...no elevators, just long walkways and many stairs, with no solid shelters from downpours or sun, plus (mini-) hikes from the parking to admissions, from admissions to the tour, then more walking and stepping during the tour. There are restrooms near admissions. The little cafe (that doesn't open until 11 am) with more restrooms, is inside the complex, well past the admission counter, so anyone will need a pricey tour ticket even just to hang out in there. There are restrooms near where the tour begins, way inside, too, down flights of stairs (or a long, steep ramp). The gift store, located before and next to the ticket counter, is comparatively small, offering but a sparse selection of souvenirs specific to this attraction. Also, this outfit sells--does not loan--umbrellas, at convenience pricing, so do arrive prepared for whatever weather is likely.

Very impressive and interesting tour, would highly recommend tour. Not for wheel chair bound individuals. Walked 1 1/2 miles with over 150 steps and small doorways.

This place has potential to be amazing. However, it is just a relic of time. If you research the history of was fraught with drama and issues. It needs lots of love and care to get it back to where it was. It's a shame I was very excited to see this place.

Neat place with great staff. I wish I'd visited there when it was newer back in the 1990's when I'd lived in Tucson.

We do an Astronomy Workshop there twice a year. A wonderful location and a unique experience.

What they are doing here is interesting environmental science that deserves its funding. But they did not deserve my 20 bucks for their quick run through tour with a guide that wasn't much more than an undergrad who was spoon fed his lines. Had little to no real answers to questions, I even answered a few for him.

Very interesting project that is laying ground work for a space colony. Also provided accelerated soil errotion and plant co2 stress analysis.

Very interesting to visit and see a world within world. The tour doesn't give the full depth of the real science going on behind the curtains. Great place to visit with a class.

More amazing than the 11 year old version of me had imagined.

Its an amazing place to visit. Its stories about scientific studies conducted inside and an ecosystem inside an ecosystem are quite fascinating. The casitas to stay inside provide an olden era experience and are quite comfortable.

Very interesting. Took the family tour which was less informative yet kept moving so the young ones didnt lose interest.

This is a must for all. What an interesting on going experiment. They test how drought affects the rainforest. Which plants suffer more, which plants recover fastest.
In the ocean, how much C02 can be pumped into the atmosphere that the ocean can absorb without killing the coral and other plants and animals. This is a controlled environment that these Uof A scientists can learn what to do with a warming planet.

Biosphere 2 was really interesting. They have tours that you must take to see certain areas. There are also some areas you can explore on your own. Our guide was wonderful and really passionate about the experiments from the past and ongoing at Biosphere 2.

Interesting and a lot of fun to see all the ways different experiments can help us

Very Interesting if you're involved with different things with the environment, but definitely recommend seeing the Biosphere 2

For anyone who ever endured the TV show Lost, this place has several painful similarities to the Dharma Initiative. It was delightfully strange, and like many other reviewers have said, the tour guide was the most annoying part. I would have much preferred a self-guided tour with a few plaques and docents scattered around presenting/answering questions. My boyfriend and I went today, and I am half expecting to wake up on a deserted island tomorrow. Its real weird, be sure to use a Groupon or discount if you can.

The tour was a good way of learning about the history of people trying to survive on a different planet.

I'm going to start off by saying I'm a super geek so my review may be of no consequence to you but I loved it. The lung was so damn cool

A must see if you are in Arizona it s in the middle of nowhere but well wort the drive the tour is very informative

Educational for sure. Its an experiment center so it not like going to a botanical gardens or gardens that are maintain to perfection. It is tested to the perfection of science and the effects of a warming and higher carbon planet... for the 20 dollars I would plan to take advantage and explore as much as you can.. beautiful desert foot hills..

I absolutely loved it! The architecture, science, history, and tech are amazing. I would highly recommend the trip. There are a few places on the tour where you need to be able to bend your back and there are quite a bit of stairs but they lead to some really cool places. Again, I would highly recommend!

Was younger, but had an alright time, walking around and just looking at everything is what i remember..... And who remembers the movie....

be sure to take the extended tour! so much information and science! if you ever had any y questions about climate change, this is the place to go!

Grate place to take the family.A learning experience

Excellent place. Unfortunately the rainforest section is closed for a while due to a drought experiment, but the facility is still impressive. Small gift shop and cafe, and the tour is very accessible for all ages.

This is an awesome place. Just being able to put a variety of environments in a glass dome is amazing. Definitely recommend it.

This was really interesting and we'll worth the drive!

Very educational considering the impending collapse of society.

It was a fun experience to see how scientists figure out how to make the world a better place and trying to understand it as well!

The place is really bad. I would suggest never going here. I think they are part of the illuminati.

Took the tour today with Orville. A wonderful place with an even better tour guide!

Pretty cool place to visit! My only issue is that you can only look around in a tour group, so about 30 people squeeze into each bio at a time. Worth coming at least once

We took the tour and it provided great information but my 12 year old got a little bored as it was not a fast pace or enough action during the tour

Very cool to see and experience such a monument to scientific research and engineering. Tour guide had loads of information to share and kept it very interesting.

not up to the expectations!! Just time pass on a weekend!! You can complete in couple of hours..

In Tucson on vacation and drove out to see the valley. Saw signage for Biosphere. Decided to check it out. Pretty cool place. Very different. Toured facilities and inside of dome. A lot of science going on and the history of the dome and what it takes. I learned a lot. Glad I did the tour.

Such a great experience! Kids and adults will enjoy something from this visit.

Unbelievable science past 35 years. Incredible for junior Senior high school kids

Highly recommend going to visit this while in Tucson. A short 20 miles out of town. Really nice and educational. You're able to go inside the domes. My favorite was the ocean.

Just so beautiful and full of discovery. Their staff is very kind and helpful

Very awesome! It is so neat to hear the background & history of the Biosphere & to know that it is being used today as research lab for our enviroment!

Such a cool place to go visit and I m so glad we did. The tour was amazing and until you get there you don t even realize the amazing things that they have done and what is going on currently with their work with NASA

Amazing facility. Our tour guide is Eric and he is super knowledgeable and helpful.

Amazing experience. Went here with 6th grade class. Best field trip ever. Truly fun & scientific.

Place is so amazingly cool. The tour guides know a lot.

It was interesting but very bummed that we didn't get to go into the rain forest dome due to some scienctific experiments