When first arriving in New Mexico we spent three weeks in Bloomfield, then moved on to Los Alamos for a couple of weeks. After that we moved on to Albuquerque for 12 days.
In addition to doing stuff in Albuquerque, we took a few days trips a little further afield to Santa Fe and Pecos. Here’s a list of everything we did in Albuquerque, from where we stayed to what we did to what we ate and drank.
Where We Stayed
We stayed all 12 days at the TownePlace Suites Albuquerque Airport (here’s my review). We picked it for a few reasons; it was great value when using points, every room at TownePlace Suites hotels have a full kitchen and this particular property still had one bedroom suites available when we made our reservation.
It wasn’t possible to book a one bedroom suite with points and so I booked a studio suite, but I have Titanium status with Marriott (TownePlace Suites is one of their brands) and so I was hopeful we’d be able to get an upgrade. Sure enough, I contacted the hotel a couple of days before arrival using the chat feature in Marriott’s app to request an upgrade and they confirmed we’d been upgraded to a one bedroom suite before we arrived.
Where We Hiked
The hardest trail I hiked in Albuquerque – and possibly ever – was the Pino Trail in the Sandia Mountain Wilderness. While it’s a difficult trail anyway, it was particularly hard when I did it because there were long stretches of snow and ice which made it even harder. I don’t have spikes for my hiking boots at the moment, so it felt a little precarious at times.
The following week I hiked the Domingo Baca Trail which leads you to the wreckage of TWA flight 260 which crashed into the mountains back in 1955. The remote location means that some of the wreckage had to be left in place on the mountain. This was another hard hike, but worth the effort for its uniqueness.
Shae, Truffles and I also went hiking at Galisteo Basin Preserve to the south of Santa Fe. We met up there with some friends we made on Instagram and Truffles particularly enjoyed the hike. She doesn’t have good enough recall for us to let her off leash on normal hikes, but the Preserve’s location away from roads and lack of squirrels, rabbits, etc. meant we felt a little more comfortable letting her off leash and she did a great job.
What We Did
Albuquerque is home to the International Balloon Fiesta in October every year, so we’re planning on heading back for that later this year. In the meantime, we visited the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum which is all about ballooning history.
That was a very interesting museum. A museum which wasn’t so interesting was the Harrell Bug Museum in Santa Fe. It totally wasn’t what we were expecting; it was in a mall, there were some live animal enclosures which seemed far too small for the size of the animals (such as a monitor lizard), while the bug exhibits were basically displays of lots of bugs but very little information about them.
We have some pictures of the tarantula display, but I know that kind of thing can freak people out who have arachnophobia, so here’s a photo of something a little more pleasant to look at – all kinds of butterflies.
Before meeting up with Monica, Jay and Hershey for the hike at Galisteo Basin Preserve, we visited Pecos National Historical Park which is home to Pecos Pueblo and the remains of a couple of churches from the 1600s and 1700s.
On our final full day in Albuquerque, Shae and I rode the Sandia Peak Tramway to the top of Sandia Peak which is 10,378 feet above sea level. After having a lovely meal outside from Ten 3 restaurant at the top of the mountain, we headed back down.
Where We Ate & Drank
After visiting the balloon museum, Shae and I decided to go check out a local winery. There were a few in the area, so we picked one called Acequia Vineyards & Winery that had good reviews on Google.
It’s a small winery owned by Al Knight who was very friendly and welcoming. We tasted five different wines – all of which were very good – and the patio at the back of the property had beautiful mountain views.
Al recommended a couple of local places to eat, so one evening we ordered dinner to-go from Casa de Benavidez. Shae ordered an enchilada with green chile sauce which she liked, while I got their jumbo sopaipilla burger which was indeed jumbo and very tasty.
That was our final meal in Albuquerque; earlier that day we ate at Ten 3 restaurant at the top of Sandia Peak after riding the tramway. Both Shae and I had their brisket sammie with fries which were also very good.
The day before that was when we visited Pecos National Historical Park and went for a hike with Monica, Jay and Hershey. After the hike we went back to where they were staying in Santa Fe and had a delicious dinner of roasted chicken thighs and vegetables around a fire. The sunset views from the top of their house were also incredible.
We’ll returning to Albuquerque later this year, so we’ll hopefully have more fun things to share at that point 🙂
Just to let you know the top of Sandia Crest is 10,678 feet, not 10,378 feet! Just a minor error in an otherwise very interesting article. Casa Benavidez is the bomb!
It looks like you’re right that Sandia Crest is that high, but Sandia Peak is at 10,378 feet.
I highly recommend eating at more New Mexican food places next time you’re here. We pride ourselves on green and red chile. Maybe try Durans and Padilla’s for some more local tastes. Good read-thanks!
Thanks for the suggestions – we’ll be back in October for the Balloon Fiesta, so I’ll add those to our list for then.
Check out Tomasita’s and Monroe’s for great New Mexican food! Another good hike at a lower elevation is The Petroglyphs in NW Albuquerque. Old Town for strolling and shopping.
We never made it to Old Town, so hopefully we’ll have time to visit there in October. We did Petroglyph National Monument when in Albuquerque at the start of the pandemic which was cool.
I’ll add Tomasita’s & Monroe’s to our list for the future – thanks!
The international Balloon Fiesta at the beginning of October is incredible. Reserve hotels and Balloon rides very early, like right now. Instead of two New Mexican food restaurants, go to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center for a meal. Diversity is what New Mexico is about, and the restaurants are just part of it. Don’t eat in Old Town unless you are just a tourist. You really missed the good museums(Georgia Okeefe) in Santa Fe, and you should plan a few hours at Meow Wolf and eat at The Pantry. So so much more to do and see. We are the land of enchantment after all.
Things should get better as we release from COVID29 restrictions.
Thanks for all the suggestions! We already have our hotel booked for the Balloon Fiesta, but we need to get the balloon rides sorted.
We’d passed by the Georgia O’Keefe museum but didn’t have a chance to check it out at the time, but we’ll hopefully return to Santa Fe in the future and so it’s on our list for then.
Meow Wolf reopened a few days before we left Albuquerque and we wanted to visit, but all the tickets were unfortunately sold out. That’s definitely on our list of places to visit as we’ve heard it’s incredible.
Thanks for the other food recommendations too – I’ve added them to our list.