Lot's of little stores and antiques if that is of interest to you. A few good places to eat but other than that not much to see.
We had a really fun experience taking our young children to Roswell during our recent road trip from Texas to California. I don't know if I need to go back any time soon, but it was a great memory for our boys (aged 5 and 2.5), who got a kick out of all of the alien-themed attractions. The alien part of downtown is very small, and you don't need more than half a day to explore it all (including shopping, eating, and seeing the UFO Museum). Worth the trip if you are in the region and have kids.
There are a few buildings worthy of stopping by when experiencing the UFO vacation. Mc Donalds is shaped like a UFO and lit up with lights at night, also the novelty shops have cool window displays to enjoy
The best time to visit this place is on the July 3rd to 6th! The aliens take over the streets during the parade, and there was a full-sized space ship with Princess Lea and Han Solo waving from it. :) The Blue Angels also put on a great show during the festivities. If you are an Area 51 buff, the UFO talks in the UFO Museum is worth going to. They even had George Takei as a guest speaker! The fireworks display was also incredible. One could see it from almost anywhere because there are no hills to block the show. The Mexican restaurants there have excellent food, esp. the Huevos Rancheros. Beam me there, Scotty!!!
All the "Alien" information is in one location, the UFO research center, the rest of the Alien stuff is a few gift stores that pretty much sell the same stuff. The downtown area is about 3 blocks long by 1 block wide. You can do it all in about an hour. The coolest thing is the Alien head street lights, and just before you enter the town from the south to the north, there is a cool display in the field on the right showing some aliens and humans mingling.
Well, I expected to see a town covered in alien decorations and people walking around on the streets asking to borrow my phone so they could call home but there was none of that. There are a few shops that cater to the needs required to satisfy your alien fix but its really not worth going out of your way to see. I enjoyed having the opportunity to visit Roswell and the people are genuinely nice. If you are driving thru the area stop by and say hello. I can now say I have been there and done that.
The Downtown Historic District of Roswell is a lot of fun. The entire atmosphere revolves around the "Alien Crash Landing." The store and museum's have really adopted it for their benefit. The people that I talked to were great and a lot of fun. (Some really cool conversations) It is definitely worth an afternoon of shopping and enjoying the town.
I went out of my way to get here. Nothing at all of interest. I was going to stay two days. I stayed less than a day. There is nothing of interest it fun here. If you came looking for anything serious to see don't bother.
We wanted to see some alien stuff.... I guess the town is sick of the "alien" tourist. There really isn't much here, a few gift shops and only like 2 alien places... one is a museum that was poor, and another is zone 51 for some fun pics.. that is it. We are glad we went to Roswell to see first hand.. but honestly... will never go back.
Long trek to get here, but worth it. We passed only 2 or 3 other cars on the road for hours driving to Roswell as it is very desolate. It is a very unique experience. As you would expect, there are alien statues and alien themed stores, etc everywhere in town. You can browse for hours. We bought several tee shirts and some kitchy stuff. Very Fun!