Family of 4. Arrive in Albuquerque befoer noon on a Sat. Leave 5:30 pm following Sat. We want to do Alb., Santa Fe Bandelear, Los Alamos, Taos Tent Rock, Acoma..Maybe. Diffinatly Carlsbad caverns. Any route suggestions or itinery ideas. We are an active family and have 2 teen boys. Thanks for any suggestions. Where to stay, eat..etc.

DH and I did a week in NM for spring break. We hit everything you list except the caverns. Lots of good posts on this topic, including my trip report [not good at doing links yet.] Have you done a search for NM posts yet?

ST

Thanx ST, your trip report actually was our outline. Loved reading it. The "problem" seems to be when/how to get to the Carlsbad Caverns. We don't want to waste tons of time driving. One way is okay...but not much to see going back from the looks of the map.

Why does no one respond to our posted questions? For years now we put up vacation questions and only get 1-2 responses at most. What are we doing wrong? HELP!!!

Bandelier, Los Alamos, Taos, and Tent Rocks can all be done, or combined as daytrips, using Santa Fe as your base. So, consider 3-4 nights there. Lots of options for accommodations. What's your budget?

Then you could use Albuquerque as base for an Acoma trip. But I'm wondering if, given the time you've got, using two full days for a trip to Carlsbad Caverns makes sense.

Personally I would skip Los Alamos if you really want to get to Carlsbad. Carlsbad is a long drive in the opposite direction from everything else, but I'm sure it can be done.

personaly, I think you have to make a choice :

or you drive south : White Sand, Las Cruces,Gila, Cloudcroft,Carlsbad+/- Guadalupe and El Paso, Lincoln,...

or you stay north : Albuquerque(+ Sandia),Santa Fe and the pueblos + Rio Grande gorge , Abiquu, Badlands,
Turquoise trail, Bandelier

or you drive west : Albuquerque, El Malpais,Grants, Gallup, El Morro, Chaco Canyon, Shiprock, Farmington,
Ute moutain tribal park, Canyon de Chelley.

To do NM in one week is like to do Europe in 2 weeks : a lot of travel, some monuments but no souvenir and
a lot of fatigue...I know some tour operator have this in their catalogue but it's not a good idea...
Erik

monpetit - you mention the badlands. That's not an area that usually makes top NM lists on Fodors.

Do you recommend making that a destination (i.e. going out of the way from ABQ, or simply a place to visit if one is passing near Farmington? As you mention, NM is a big state, and road fatigue can set in quickly.

It's #11 on our top 10 list - just not sure if it'll crack into the must visit places for our trip this summer.

Here are three threads I found quickly for the search box. They have good information for you to read:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=35124914

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=35100440

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=35099478

I'm short for time but that will give you much information. When do you leave?
BeachGirl

We took a Tauck tour of New Mexico
a few years ago . Glad we did because of all that driving.
I think yo should spend 4 nights in Alb. and 4 in Santa Fe. Forget about Taos - it is National Heritage site but it is commercial and the Indian recervation is a dump. You're much better off going to Acoma Pueblo 55 miles west of Alb; see Chaco Canyon also. Other musts are White Sands, Bandalier and the Caverns (out of the way but worth it). Also take a balloon ride in Alb., expensive but great.

I would spend the day you arrive in Alb., seeing Old Town and maybe Petroglph Park or Sandia Peak, including the tram ride.

If Carlsbad is truly a priority, I would head out early Sunday morning, finding a route through some other interesting sites such as White Sands in Alamogordo and maybe even Lincoln, a tiny (almost) ghost town near Ruidoso with some cool Billy the Kid history. Birthplace of Smokey the Bear is nearby in Capitan, too. With proper planning, you might be able to catch the evening bat flight at Carlsbad that night. I would spend Sunday night in Carlsbad and do the caverns early Monday, then make a beeline back North, with a brief stop in Roswell if interested in aliens. I would make try to make it to Santa Fe that night if possible, or somewhere closeby. You could even spend the night in Santa Rosa for some Route 66 flavor if you can't make it to Santa Fe. Eat at Joseph's.

I would get to Santa Fe as soon as possible (don't get trapped for too long at the HUGE Clines Corners gift shop!) You can do Bandilier, Los Alamos and even Taos with Santa Fe as a base.

If you have time on your way back to Alb, take the Turqoise Trail (Highway 14) for some cool old mining towns and the Tinkertown Museum.

New Mexico is awesome. Have fun!

Crabtree, posts scroll off the front page pretty quickly in this forum, so I didn't see this until today. It helps if you select the state pertaining to your post; I would have seen yours sooner if I could have found it in the New Mexico folder.

I'll disagree with Barney18 - Taos Pueblo is not a dump. It's really interesting. So is Acoma if you have time to get there.

Carlsbad Caverns will take more than two days of your trip. It can take the whole day to drive there if you include any stops (like Lincoln) along the way. Without stops, it's about five or six hours. You'll want a whole day at the caverns, especially if you plan to do any of the side tours. By the time you're done, you'll need to spend a second night in Carlsbad or Roswell.

You can visit Bandelier and Los Alamos in a day, and Taos makes a nice day trip from Santa Fe.

Lee Ann

THANK YOU everyone for some great info. Our 2 boys are 13 and 15 so if that changes any of your opinions as to what to skip or must sees please advise. I agree NM is a huge state. The Caverns seem to be very intriging to the boys as does the Bronze casting up north and the pueblos in the north west. Tried in vain to find a charter to fly us to Carlsbad but no luck. If any one knows of something it would be great. We found a great guy via Fodor's to pilot us in Costa Rica last summer. Surprised NM doesn't have any one similar. Thanks again.
P.S. Where is the NM folder postingssomeone mentioned?

Sorry for a late response, but in Europe it was night...
We found the Bistsy badlands very interesting.We discover about them in Hillerman's novels.
There is also a nice pictures book about it(normally always disponible at Barnes and Noble or on the New mexico magazine site).
The formations are incredible, it 's really a wildernessa area and not difficult to walk. A nice spot for hiking and pic nic.
Erik
NB : For teens, Carlsbad is a must and there is a zoo nice at the town itself.
The bat flight is to see.
But as I say to you, I think there are some choices(hard because NM is a gem...)to do.

Hi Crabtree, Elendilpickle is referring to the option to pick a state when you start a post. If you were to pick New Mexico, we can search only New Mexico posts and find your posting. If left as "general" it cannot be searched as easily. I didn't see it until yesterday either.

Regarding the Shidoni foundry, they pour on Saturday afternoons so call them for the time that day.
505.988.8001
They just came to town for the arts festival so a lot of the sculptures will not be in the art yard.

Re the chartered flight:
Capital Aviation
Charter private aircraft from the Santa Fe Municipal Airport. Contact Capital Aviation, (505) 471-2700, for more information and reservations.

Also contact Santa Fe Air Center at (505) 471-2525 for possible charter service providers.

BeachGirl

The book is :
Wonderland a photographer's journey into the Bisti
by Eduardo Fuss,
publisher New mexico magazine
Erik