If You Like

Nightlife & the Arts

Even more than Santa Fe, Albuquerque claims a bustling, youthful nightlife scene and numerous performing-arts options. Cultural strengths include several first-rate performance venues, a fine symphony, and a handful of excellent theaters. The city also has a nice variety of bars, including a burgeoning club district downtown and some lively collegiate spots in Nob Hill.

Shopping

Although visitors to Albuquerque sometimes observe the sprawling shopping-center and strip-mall developments and assume that the Duke City is mostly the domain of chain outlets, you can find some superb, high-quality independent shops in this city, especially in funky Nob Hill and the rejuvenated downtown. Nob Hill, which runs along old Route 66, specializes in offbeat stores carrying vintage clothing, arty home furnishings, and peculiar novelty gifts. Downtown's retail sector still maintains a reassuring whiff of old Route 66, mingled as it is with modern art galleries and shops. As with Nob Hill, it's a good bet for unusual stores, from the historic Man's Hat Shop to Skip Maisel's Native American goods emporium; downtown also has 516 Arts and other important galleries at the forefront of the city's fine art scene. The mother lode for shopaholics, however, is Old Town, which abounds with shops selling Native American and Spanish colonial arts and crafts, clothing, and the usual array of souvenirs. All three neighborhoods, in fact, have an increasing number of art galleries, and the prices here tend to be considerably lower than in Santa Fe.

Sports & the Outdoors

You're never far from outdoor diversions in Albuquerque, a city that also follows its professional and college sports teams with great fervor. University of New Mexico's football and men's and women's basketball teams are first-rate and draw huge crowds, as do the Albuquerque Isotopes, the Triple A minor-league baseball team of the Florida Marlins. As for participant sports, there's great biking in several parts of the city—in particular along the 16-mile Paseo del Bosque along the Rio Grande—as well as the ski area atop Sandia Crest—the parks and recreation department even publishes a highly detailed bike map. Golfing is another favorite pastime, and you'll find excellent municipal courses in town and a highly acclaimed tournament course at the University of New Mexico.