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Planing to visit Santa Fe this year and after looking at the airfares I assume (hope) that there is a better alternative to fly into a different city and drive to Santa Fey. Suggestions would be appreciated.
Air travel to Santa Fe, NM
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I didn't even know you could fly to Santa Fe. We've always flown into Albuquerque (ABQ) and driven the hour to Santa Fe.
ABQ is basically your choice. Not a bad airport, & not a bad drive.
There is now service [as of 6/11/09] into Santa Fe on American Eagle from/to DFW; service to and from LAX slated for November.
http://www.santafenm.gov/index.aspx?NID=177
Flying into ABQ may still be your least expensive option, especially if you can fly on Southwest.
Deb
Well, as usual, Deb beat me to it (!). But my guess also is that ABQ is cheaper and has more frequent service. And the drive is really pretty nice.
Southwest isn't always the cheapest into ABQ but they may have the best service; from Portland, they are the only airline with direct service to ABQ. Note that you have to check directly on Southwest.com for prices and buying tickets - they don't show up on the main airfare websites.
If you don't want to drive from ABQ to Santa Fe, you can always take the new Railrunner train:
http://www.nmrailrunner.com/
There are airport bus connections to the train station...though I suppose if you need to rent a car anyway you'd want to rent it at ABQ. If you don't need a car up there, consider the train.
Thanks for the help.
Railrunner is a great way to get from ABQ to Santa Fe, but it will leave you having to take a taxi to hotel and to get around. It really isn't all that great for tourists, but is very good as a commuter rail. It does not run on Sundays, so that can hamper plans.
If you sign up for email notices or DING! from Southwest they send you some really good deals.
Deb
It's goofy that the Railrunner doesn't run on Sundays! (It's also not running July 3 - I happened to check when looking for that website - but running July 4th. Go figure). I understand that the train was designed for commuters, but it's also ideal for tourists who love it (I know I did and got the same feedback from other tourists riding it). They really need to figure out an economical way to run it on Sundays and holidays - perhaps charge more on weekends to cover the costs (like most trains, it surely loses money on every trip so relies on government subsidies to operate) or give discounts to people with NM drivers licenses or something. Most tourists would pay a lot more for a round trip ticket than they are charging now.
They are planning to have Railrunner service on Sundays, but probably not until next year.
If you do decide to take the Railrunner, they have shuttles that go most anywhere in the city, so if you're staying near the Plaza, you would be able to get to or very near your hotel on the shuttle.