Split my vacation time between Santa Fe and Taos, NM

In My Humble Opinion
1

We’re considering visiting Santa Fe and Taos, NM in September for 1 week.

I’ve never been there and don’t know which place is more interesting.

How many days do recommend we spend in Santa Fe, and how many in Taos?

And what do you recommend we see and do while we are there?

Thanks,
J.

2

Taos is Tiny. You can walk the entire town in an afternoon.

Santa Fe is small, but much bigger than Taos. There are huge numbers of galleries and restaurants. There are also a lot of neat little towns between the two.

Do you like art? (Rather, what do you like to do?)

3

Yeah, Taos is tiny, and you won’t be there during ski season. You might stay in Santa Fe and take a day trip to Taos. Although Santa Fe is fairly small, it is the state capitol, so has more amenities and things to see than other cities of comparable size.

4

What do we like to do?

Well, we like to see interesting and fun things. Shops and Galleries are fun. Hiking is interesting. Are there any activities that Santa Fe is known for (like Napa and Sonoma are known for hot air ballooning)? Any interesting performances?

Where is a good place to stay in Santa Fe? Is there a particular area or district in which lots of the tourist stuff resides?

Thanks,
J.

5

Santa Fe has an enormous number of galleries. You could easily spend a few days just wandering into them all. When we went this spring for the eclipse, we stayed at the Villas de Santa Fe, which were a comfortable walking distance from the Square and many of the galleries.

Shidoni Bronze foundry is between Santa Fe and Taos, and is good for several hours.

If you like science, and Atomic Energy in particular, the Atomic History museum in Albequerque is really pretty good. I was surprised at the quality and depth of their exhibits.

There are loads of great restaurants in the area- Yelp is your friend!

6

And the Bradbury Museum up the hill in Los Alamos is also very interesting, particularly the story of the Manhattan Project and Los Alamos itself. Combine that with a daytrip to the Puye Cliff Dwellings just outside Española.

7

Taos has a gallery with D.H. Lawrence’s paintings. Pretty absorbing if you are interested…

8

Based on the advice here, I’ve made my reservations for a week in Santa Fe.

Now that I’m going, I have to figure out what to do and see there.

What do you think is fun and interesting to do there?

Are there any little known or rarely visited things to experience?

What’s the best thing you did while you were there?

Thanks,
J.

9

If you can get your butt out there by this Thursday (6th) evening, you can see Zozobra - one of the weirdest, but fun things to see in Santa Fe.

Late to the party, but I agree: Santa Fe is a much better “hub” for daytrips and activities.

First Taos:

  • Well worth visiting - if for nothing else, the view of the Rio Grande gorge as you rise up to the plateau outside Taos is absolutely breathtaking (late afternoon, early evening for best light).
  • the plaza is smaller than Santa Fe’s, and many of the same types of shops.
  • the Rio Grande gorge bridge, outside Taos is worth seeing. Bigtime deep
  • (I’ve never been) the Taos pueblo is very popular

Santa Fe:

  • as mentioned, the plaza has a lot of shops and cool galleries. Some of the tourist shops will start to blur with the same stuff, but the galleries have some really cool stuff
  • just outside the plaza is the Georgia O’Keefe museum - very cool
  • Tomasita’s at the train station (on Guadalupe) for great NM food
  • Museum hill: very cool international folk art museum
  • in the area, all the indian casinos you would ever want to “donate” to :wink:
  • have to check what’s playing, but you could catch a show at the cool opera theatre (outdoor)

Day trips from Santa Fe:

  • for hiking, there are great dayhikes from the Santa Fe ski resort (trailheads in the ski resort parking lot)
  • Los Alamos. Beautiful scenery and cool museum on the a-bomb (right on “Oppenheimer” street/ave.)
  • Bandelier. Unfortunately the recent fires and resulting flooding have closed off a lot of the park, but you can still see some of the cliff dwellings.
  • Puye cliffs and Tsankawi are lesser known ancient indian sites. I love Tsankawi, but it can get pretty hot hiking around there (no shade). So bring water.
  • Turquoise trail - backroad route down to Albuquerque. Nice scenery and cool little towns. You can head up to Sandia peak from the backside as well.

There’s tons more, but that’s all I can think of right now

10

Man, I cannot imagine going to New Mexico and staying in one place for more than three nights. But that is just me, I guess.