I would love to visit Santa Fe but my husband got altitute sickness going up to the crater in Maui. I really don't know how far up he should go as he began feeling sick on the way up and it got much worse at the top. Since Santa Fe is 7,000 ft, I was hoping to hear other people's views. We would be flying to Santa Fe and not driving. Thanks

I think adjusting to high altitude is a lot easier if you drive than fly just because the change is more gradual. I get a little altitude sickness when I fly into Denver, but didn't experience any problems on a car trip from California to Colorado and we were at elevations a lot higher than Denver or when we drive from the CA coast up to Lake Tahoe.

Could you fly into someplace with a lower elevation (what is the elevation at ABQ?) and drive up to Santa Fe?

Haleakala is at 10,000 feet, while Santa Fe is at 7,000. If you do a gradual climb your husband may be able to avoid the altitude sickness. My own DH gets altitude sickness at 7,000 feet unless he takes it really slow on the first day.

Thanks. I was wanting to fly in for a 3 day weekend trip but I may have to extend my time and start at a lower elevation.

My understanding is that most airplanes are pressurized to an equivalent of about 8000 feet. Santa Fe is a bit less than that. Most people fly into ABQ and drive up to Santa Fe (it's only an hour) and it's a 1000 foot gain.

Now that I live on the coast (I'm from there) I find that whenever I go home, I spend the first day with a headache and a bit cranky.

Drink extra water, watch the alcohol, since it will hit you harder and faster, and don't try to run any 10Ks the first couple of days and you'll be fine.

I didn't have a problem in Santa Fe, but a friend did. She's a smoker and coupled with the altitude, she was hit with bad headaches and felt sick for about 3 days.

My husband worked there and said you have to take deeper breaths than you normally do, take it slow, avoid alcohol for the first few days and drink water instead until your body adjusts. People with certain conditons like asthma, heart, may need to check with their doctor. Your husband might want to do the same since he has already experienced a problem with altitude. Usually it just takes a bit of an adjustment, but to be sure it wouldn't hurt to check with the doctor.

Santa Fe is a great place. I'm sure you will have a wonderful time there.

BayArea - I spend a lot of time on planes and have a very accurate altimeter, which works on barometric pressure, on my watch. Most airliners seem to be pressurized a bit more than the equivalent of 8,000 ft. - my experience has been that a typical flight will be somewhere in the 6,500 to 7,000 ft range, with a surprising amount of variation during the flight for no apparent reason.

I've been to Santa Fe about 4-5 times and never felt anything different at all. I wasn't even aware it was that high an altitude. I always have flown into ABQ and driven to it. I have also flown into Denver quite a few times as I have business clients there and have never felt anything at all there, either. I live on the East Coast. I did go skiing at Aspen once and I think I felt a slight difference at that altitude, but nothing really that much. That was when I lived in Los Angeles. I wasn't sick or anything, I just noticed it a little. I have never done anything unusual at all in these places to prevent altitude sickness. I always drink some (wine at dinner, etc), but I'm not a lush or anything, and didn't change my habits in any way. I was in my 30s when visiting Aspen, but in my 40s visiting Santa Fe and Denver a lot. I'm generally healthy but don't work out or run or anything much.