Several friends and I will be meeting in Santa Fe in late March. We have booked a cooking school walk, have the info on Taos and the area museums, plan to visit the markets on Sat morning, and booked our hotel. What remains? Spa and restaurant recommendations. Our hotel serves large breakfasts so my guess is we will do small lunches and dinner. I would like recommendations for places which will allow a group of ten to share a table ( separate checks would be great, but not essential). As to spas we are more services than classes focused. I have looked at Ten Thousand Waves and would like your comments on it and suggestions for other spas. Thank you.

Oh you are going to have SUCH a good time!

The Georgia O'Keefe museum in town is wonderful. I had tickets to tour her home but had to cancel the trip. If it's of interest, get tickets ASAP. They sell out fast -
http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/her-houses.html
http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/abiquiu-tour.html

It's over an hour from Santa Fe, but is at the top of my bucket list for the area.

It is well worth seeing. I visited it on my last trip to the area, however several of my friends have not been and will doubtless want to go.

I would imagine you can get a table for 10 at several places, I know we have at the Shed, Geronimo, Casa Sena and Santacafe, though some were outside. You might also enjoy driving out to Rancho de Chimayo for lunch, though it may be too cool to eat outside. Perhaps drive out to the Valle Caldera and take a hike. I've had a massage at ten thousand waves, though it's been years ago. It was fine, I have to say, I'd probably just have one at your hotel, and use the extra time shopping in town.

Andiamo!, Restaurant Martin and 315 Wine Bar and Restaurant should all take 10.

Ten Thousand Waves is really nice, very zen.

Thank you so much for the recommendations!

If you are there on a Saturday morning, the farmers market is fun.
www.santafefarmersmarket.com

The market looks great!

Yeah, that Sunday Market at the same location looks neat, too. Makes me want to go back!

Martin Rios, chef at Restaurant Martin just got nominated for James Beard award!

Others -
Jennifer James, Jennifer James 101
Jonathan Perno, La Merienda at Los Poblanos
Martin Rios, Restaurant Martin
Andrew Cooper, Terra Four Seasons Resort

We may have to stay a few extra days to fit all these options in!

A quick recap of our choices:
a. hotel
Inn on Alameda. Excellent choice. Great location, excellent beds, very clean, terrific breakfast and top drawer service.
b. The Santa Fe School of Cooking Shop Walk. Not a good choice. We paid $45 each for an escorted visit to four shops. Only one of the shops had a prepared presentation, samples and demonstration. It was a cheese shop. In the other three ( tea shop, spice shop, vinegar/oil shop) we got no more than a standard customer experience. I felt pretty badly for having gotten all my friends to pay for it.
c. restaurants
We could easily have stayed another week, Santa Fe is a food lover's dream.
1. Cafe Pasqual good food, extremely crowded and noisy, good service. Great chocolate fudge cookie.
2. Cafe Sena excellent food, lovely setting, great service. The perfect stop for a group who wants to talk and visit.
3. Santacafe. Excellent food, polished service, quiet, great desserts.
4. La Boca. Terrific tapas, fun ambiance, great service. Try the Blood Orange sangria.
5. La Coza. Ordinary, noisy and crowded.
6. Chez Mamou, my favorite. Great food, terrific service, fabulous desserts, excellent wine list. Lovely!

It was the perfect weekend, lovely weather, excellent food and wine, fun shopping, the perfect time for lifelong friends to celebrate. We visited the markets and the museums, walked miles and enjoyed our special friendship.

Sorry about the cooking school. I have not got to any classes, but I think they are overpriced and many of their classes are not hands on.
The rest of the trip sounds great and I am betting you were pretty pleased with the weather here!

The cooking school was just a bump in an otherwise fabulous road,. The weather was fantastic.

We did stop at Los Poblanos on our way to the ABQairport. It was spectacular and well worth the detour. We enjoyed our dinner and sitting on their patio drinking some wonderful prosecco. What a happy memory.

Hi cmcfong,

Glad you had a good trip. I'll make note of the restaurant RECS.

I just returned from Albuquerque and Santa Fe, as my best life long friend lives there.

We had a special birthday dinner at Geronimo and it was absolutely fabulous! Hope you get to try that one another time.