Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Spring Break in Albuquerque and Santa Fe

I'd like to thank everyone who helped me plan this trip with their posts and suggestions. I'll start with the Albuquerque portion of the trip and then add on the adventures in Santa Fe later today or tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Friday, March 20, 2009 - Today we began our spring break getaway to New Mexico. Since we are gluttons for punishment, we got up at 4am to catch a flight at 7:30am to fly from St. Louis, through Dallas, and then connect on to Albuquerque. The weather in Albuquerque was beautiful when we landed - clear, bright, and sunny. We rented a car for this adventure so that we could take some day trips out of the metropolitan area to enjoy to gorgeous natural beauty of New Mexico.

We stayed at the Hyatt Uptown in the Albuquerque Uptown area. DH had accumulated enough points from traveling for work so that we could stay three nights for free. The rooms at the Hyatt Uptown were very fancy compared to where we normally stay when we are vacation (we are all about budget travel - clean, safe, and centrally located - anything else is a bonus). Our room had a 42 inch plasma television, a couch, a work station with kitchenette, free wi-fi access, and a very comfortable king sized bed with awesome pillows. The hotel also had a complimentary continental breakfast each morning. I felt spoiled staying in such a lush room.

Since today was Friday, and it was Lent, we had to find a meatless option for lunch. Since we were starving and it was conveniently located across the street, we ate at Bravo! Cucina Italiano. We both had pasta dishes that were vegetarian. While a little heavy on the olive oil, they were good sized portions and the service was good. Feeling better from having eaten and ingested a good amount of water to stay hydrated, we set out on our first adventure.

We went to Old Town first. Since it was a Friday and the weather was beautiful, the plaza was pleasantly busy with all sorts of people milling around. We lucked out and found a free parking space right outside of San Felipe de Neri Church right on the plaza. We made note of our time because parking enforcement officials were circling and taking notice of when cars were coming and going. We had two hours to wander around.

We started at the church. Then we poked in and out of some shops, looking for trinkets and souvenirs to take home. One shop, The Candy Lady, had an impressive display of several homemade fudges, truffles, and candies. The store also had a restricted area where she kept a collection of naughty candies, cards, and adult novelty items. Another store we enjoyed was the Old Town Cat House, which handmade native pottery and items dedicated to all things cat. There, we met Charles II, the shop’s furry mascot, and bought a small piece of cat pottery made by Acoma Indians.

After working up an appetite strolling around Old Town, we decided to have a few drinks at St. Clair Winery and Bistro, which is just a few short blocks from Old Town. When we arrived, we were pleased to find out they were having a spring festival. For $5 per person, we got a free wineglass, five generous wine tastings and there was a blues band playing live music. Since we wanted to enjoy the festival and the beautiful weather, we decided to have dinner there. We ate an artisan “nosh” plate with three kinds of cheeses, red grapes, mixed nuts, mango chutney, olives and homemade crostinis and it was only $10 too. Unfortunately, the altitude and the alcohol hit me hard and I crashed out at 8pm Friday night. LOL

Saturday, March 21, 2009 - Blessed with another day of picture perfect weather, we started our Saturday with a hearty breakfast at Barelas Coffee House. I have a breakfast burrito with red sauce and DH had huevos rancheros with green chile sauce. They were delicious and very filling. The restaurant was packed with locals which we took as a good sign.

After breakfast, we visited the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. On the weekends, the museum offers dance presentations by various tribes in their outdoor courtyard. Today we saw dancers from a Navajo tribe in native dress. There were two females and two males, all appearing to be teenagers, with a leader who sang and played the drum. They performed three dances - the Gourd, the Sashbelt, and the Bow and Arrow dance. It was fascinating to hear the significance of the dances, the tribal dress, and traditions. We really enjoyed it.

We had lunch at the Owl Café. We had the famous green chile cheeseburgers and I ordered a side of the “O loaf” onion rings. Wow it was a lot of food, but it was so good. I had to skip the tempting milkshakes because I gave up sweets for Lent. We also plugged a few quarters into the jukebox and listened to oldies while we ate at the diner.

Ready to burn off lunch, we went to Petroglyph National Monument. After stopping at the visitor’s center, we hiked at Boca Negra Canyon and did three trails - Mesa Point, Macaw, and Cliff Base. The Mesa Point trail took us a mile above sea level and was craggy and rough for a novice hiker like myself, but I bravely climbed and enjoyed the views of the Sandia Mountains along the way.

On our way back, we took Historic Route 66 and saw the remnants of many of the old motels and diners that were the rage back in the day. We had dinner at Chama River Brewing Company, a microbrewery DH wanted to check out. The food was pretty good and hubby liked the beer.

Sunday, March 22, 2009 - For the third day in a row, we had mild temperatures and decent weather, although it was a bit cloudy today. We got up early and stuffed ourselves full of breakfast burritos at Frontier Restaurant, in the Nob Hill area. When the server noticed we were from out of town (he checked DH’s id when he paid with a debit card), he told us we had to have one of their famous sweet cinnamon rolls on the house. A customer in line next to us said the first one was always free - like crack - to get you addicted, and he was right! LOL The burritos were stuffed full of egg, hash browns, the meat of your choice, and red or green chile sauce. The roll was warm and so buttery. It was awesome!

The big breakfast was the fuel we needed to hike at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. We did both hikes - the Cave Loop Trail (1.2 miles) and the Canyon Trail (1.5 miles one way) a trek into a narrow canyon with a steep 630 foot climb to the mesa top. The Canyon Loop hike was pretty strenuous for someone who doesn’t hike and isn’t in the best shape. We had to shimmy through the narrow canyon and climb up and over boulders. While the hike was definitely challenging, I am proud to say we made it all of the way to the top after about 1.5 hours. The views of the tent rocks and the mountains were gorgeous! Wonderful photo ops here!

After all of that hiking, we drove back into town and had a late lunch at the Flying Star Café. I had an enchilada stack with blue corn tortillas, spicy rice and beans. DH had chile rellenos. We didn’t realize how tired we were until we sat down for lunch and rested. We wandered around Old Town a bit more, picking up souvenirs for our families and decided to call it a day. We still had to pack and get ready to move on to Santa Fe.

More to come about Santa Fe....

On to the Santa Fe portion....

Monday, March 23, 2009 - Monday we checked out of the Hyatt Uptown and took the Turquoise Trail (Scenic Hwy 14) from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. We stopped at Madrid and explored lots of cute little shops. We did a little shopping and got hot chocolate and coffee at Java Junction since it was a bit colder and windier than in Albuquerque. Overall, it took less than an hour to drive from Albuquerque to Santa Fe on the Turquoise Trail.

Our hotel in Santa Fe, the Old Santa Fe Inn was so charming. It is a contemporary inn located in an adobe structure, reminiscent of a motel, with a u-shaped set up and a gravel parking lot/courtyard in the middle. The rooms had red doors, tiled numbers and chile ristras hanging in front of them to welcome you to Santa Fe. The reception area had a big fireplace and served fresh cookies and coffee at 4pm. They also had a big breakfast buffet that was included in the room cost and it was wonderful with breakfast burritos and waffles. We stayed in one of the traditional rooms without the fireplace, but it was still a great sized room with a comfortable bed, well-appointed. The desk workers were outstanding and very friendly. We loved staying here and we got a great rate for the room on hotels.com - about $107 a night.

After we got settled in at the hotel, we walked four blocks to the plaza. Similar to Albuquerque, there were shops, restaurants, old churches, and Native American Indians were selling their handcrafted jewelry under the portico of the Palace of the Govenors. We poked around some shops (even went into a cool stamping store) and had lunch at the Rooftop Pizzeria. We both had their lunch special of one large slice of pizza with two toppings, a salad, and a beverage for $10 each. The pizza was pretty good and the salad was more than we expected for a pizza place.

After lunch we visited the Loretto Chapel, which is known for its “Miraculous Staircase.” The next stop was St. Francis Cathedral. Unfortunately, the entire façade was covered in plastic because of restoration so we weren’t able to appreciate its outer beauty. We did go in and tour the church with some insight from the docent on duty.

After returning to the plaza and doing some shopping, we decided to have dinner at The Shed. We arrived at 5:30pm for an early dinner and were told there would be over an hour wait for a table since we didn’t have a reservation. Color us confused on needing a reservation for dinner on a Monday night, but what could we do? We spent more time wandering the plaza before we were seated for dinner around 6:45pm. We had the chips and salsa, and I had cheese enchiladas while DH had an enchilada, a taco, with posole and beans. It was a good meal and well worth the wait.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - After a filling breakfast at the hotel (breakfast burritos and splitting a fluffy waffle), we went hiking at Bandelier National Monument.

We originally set out to do one hike, the Main Loop Trail (1.2 mile loop), with the option of going to the Alcove House (1 mile loop off of the Main Loop Trail). On the Main Loop Trail we saw deer, lizards, squirrels, and were able to climb short ladders into cavates, which are small man-made alcoves into the side of the canyon. This trail was pretty flat, mostly paved, and relatively easy to do. When we got to the point in the trail that we could go to the Alcove House or complete the loop back to the visitor’s center, DH and I had a long discussion. To get to the Alcove House, you have to climb very long ladders up 140 feet to get to the Alcove House set into the side of the canyon. I’m not good with heights, so I didn’t really want to do it. DH talked me into it and said if I freaked out, we could stop and go back.

Well…that really wasn’t an option once we got started. Climbing up wasn’t nearly as bad as climbing down. The views from the top were pretty spectacular and we got to see where approximately 24 ancestral Native Americans lived. Then we had to make the descent the way we came up. I had such a death grip on the ladders and I was totally holding up the lines of people wanting to come down, but I did not care. I was scared out of my mind! LOL After reaching firm ground again, we took a long break so I could regain my sanity. DH said he could see my legs shaking and it was only then that he felt bad that he “encouraged” me to climb. The next day my biceps were sore from gripping the ladders so tightly. Ugh.

After we had a quick cheap lunch at the visitor’s center, DH wanted to do another hike, the Falls Trail, which took you to a pair of waterfalls. It was 3 miles roundtrip and I was tired, but I agreed. We only made it to the first waterfall and it was pretty amazing. I would recommend getting the trail guides at the visitor’s center if you’re not familiar with the area. It was nice to have some context and I think they were only $1 or $1.50 each.

After a long day of hiking, we drove back to Santa Fe and had dinner at the Second Street Brewery, another microbrewery DH wanted to try. DH is a budding homebrewer, so these little brewery stops were very exciting for him. In my opinion, the service was horrible and the food was bad, so I didn’t eat much at all, but DH said the beer was good.

Then came the sickness….I started throwing up sometime after midnight on Wednesday morning. Then came more unpleasant sickness that I will not detail here. I blamed it on the brewery at first b/c the food was bad, but when I continued to be sick all day Wednesday, all day Thursday, all day Friday and on and off most of the weekend, I couldn’t really blame food poisoning.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - My intestinal sickness continued with me for the duration of our trip. Today I was eventually able to leave the hotel in the afternoon. We visited the New Mexico Capitol building and San Miguel Mission (the oldest church still in use in the US). Afterwards, I took a long nap while DH went out for lunch. I told him to bring me back a broth based soup. He brought back this thick chunky tortilla soup from Chocolate Maven. I tried to eat some of it b/c I was hungry b/c my stomach was empty but that was a big mistake. Had I been healthy, I’m sure I would have devoured the whole cup b/c it was very flavorful, but I ended up pretty sick the rest of the night. DH had dinner at Cowgirl Hall of Fame, where he had a game burger and watched some sports on TV.

Thursday, March 26, 2009 - Thursday was the worst day by far for me being ill. At one point, I was lying on the bathroom floor in our room and could not get up for over an hour. Oh, and I forgot to mention that my muscles were so sore and stiff from all of that hiking that on top of being sick, I could barely move, sit, or walk. I spent most of the day in bed while DH went out on his own to do a little sightseeing. He visited the Guadalupe Sanctuary and did some shopping. He had lunch at another brewery, but spared me any leftovers. LOL He was going stir crazy in the room and we hadn’t eaten together in days so I kept sending him out to eat on his own.

The last thing on my absolute must see list was the Georgia O’Keefe museum. I mustered up enough strength to go on Thursday in the late afternoon. We joined the docent led tour which was free with the admission and excellent. I would definitely recommend it. Then it was back to the hotel. I think I ate one cookie that whole day (again from Chocolate Maven) and a half of a can of ginger ale. DH had dinner at Maria’s where he had the margaritas and attested to their strength (and DH can hold his liquor pretty well).

Friday, March 27, 2009 - Today we were headed home - Thank Goodness! It wasn’t because I didn’t love New Mexico, but I wanted to be in my own bed after being so sick. However, Santa Fe had a spring snowstorm and it blanketed the town with three to five inches of snow. The highway between Santa Fe and Albuquerque was shut down overnight so we had to wait for things to clear up before we could head back to Albuquerque to catch our flight. We had breakfast at the hotel and checked out early so we could get a start on the drive back. About 25 miles into the drive, there seemed to be a line where the snow completely cut off. Albuquerque did not have one flake of snow to be found. So needless to say, we got to the airport hours earlier than we needed to.

We had the unfortunate luck of having our flight canceled that night due to high winds in Dallas and we were unable to get out until Sunday morning. Since we had returned the rental car and didn’t anticipate spending two extra nights at a hotel, we hung out at the Holiday Inn at the airport and watched a lot of NCAA basketball.

Despite being sick, I will say Albuquerque and Santa Fe were beautiful charming towns. The weather was really nice, except that freak snowstorm, and the people were super friendly! We felt very welcomed and loved the food that we did get a chance to eat. I would definitely recommend visiting to anyone.