West - New Mexico/Texas itinerary..thoughts?

Hey all... I have 6 days to work with and was thinking of visit New Mexico and Texas. I have been to Santa Fe before but that was back in 1990 so I am sure it has changed. Anyway I was thinking of

1 Night Albuquerque
1 Night El Paso, TX
1 Night Carlsbad
2 Nights in Santa Fe

I was planning on hitting up White Sands National Monument, Guadalupe Forrest, Carlsbad Caves and Roswell on the drives inbetween. Are these sights worth visiting? Which do you recommend I save the most time for?

Thanks!

^
PS extra bonus points if you recommend a authentic Tex/Mex restauraunt in El Paso! Yum!

What time of year are you planning? Believe it or not, New Mexico (from Albuquerque north) can get snow during late fall/winter!

Your longest drives are Albuquerque to El Paso and Carlsbad to Santa Fe... both 5-6 hours.

I'd stop at the Owl Bar in San Antonio, NM for Green Chile Cheese Burgers on the way from Albuquerque to El Paso. There is also the Trinity Site, if you happen to be going through on the first Saturday in October/April. A little east of your path from Albuquerque to El Paso is the Very Large Array (VLA) which is kind of cool.

Personally, I find Santa Fe overrated, and avoid it. Just too touristy for me.

Can't recommend a TexMex restaurant in El Paso, but Cecilia's in Albuqeruqe is quite good. It's a breakfast/lunch place, so you need to plan accordingly.

What time of year are you planning? Believe it or not, New Mexico (from Albuquerque north) can get snow during late fall/winter!

Your longest drives are Albuquerque to El Paso and Carlsbad to Santa Fe... both 5-6 hours.

I'd stop at the Owl Bar in San Antonio, NM for Green Chile Cheese Burgers on the way from Albuquerque to El Paso. There is also the Trinity Site, if you happen to be going through on the first Saturday in October/April. A little east of your path from Albuquerque to El Paso is the Very Large Array (VLA) which is kind of cool.

Personally, I find Santa Fe overrated, and avoid it. Just too touristy for me.

Can't recommend a TexMex restaurant in El Paso, but Cecilia's in Albuqeruqe is quite good. It's a breakfast/lunch place, so you need to plan accordingly.


Ahh thanks for the food recommendations...def will look into those. Planning middle-late Oct.

The Frontier Restaurant in Albuquerque is a must-experience.

1 Night Albuquerque
1 Night El Paso, TX
1 Night Carlsbad
2 Nights in Santa Fe

I was planning on hitting up White Sands National Monument, Guadalupe Forrest, Carlsbad Caves and Roswell on the drives inbetween. Are these sights worth visiting? Which do you recommend I save the most time for?


I'd probably do something like the following--
* Fly to ABQ, spend time there and Santa Fe
* Drive down to White Sands, then over to Carlsbad/Roswell
* Back to El Paso, and fly out of ELP

The order you listed has a bit of backtracking. It is possible to fly from Carlsbad, but the options are limited and flights expensive. I'd stick with ABQ/ELP.

I'd probably do something like the following--
* Fly to ABQ, spend time there and Santa Fe
* Drive down to White Sands, then over to Carlsbad/Roswell
* Back to El Paso, and fly out of ELP

The order you listed has a bit of backtracking. It is possible to fly from Carlsbad, but the options are limited and flights expensive. I'd stick with ABQ/ELP.

I wanted to fly into one city and out of another until I saw the prices of one-way car rental drop offs have skyrocketd! Would have added another $300 to my trip! :(

As for authentic tex-mex in El Paso, I don't think that there is a really good place to find some (apart from Taco Cabana, which I really like). Today, I recently finished off a consulting job here in El Paso (which now puts me into a job hunting mode again), but for the past two weeks, the clients that I worked with had me work with another one of their vendors from a Cincinnati OH-based tech firm.

The other vendor's consultants have told me that in two different hotels (Wingate by Wyndham and Doubletree) the staff highly recommend a restaurant called Carlos and Mickeys for really good food and their king-sized margaritas. As far as I can tell, all the contractors were completely satisfied by their experience there.

El Paso is also know for it's proximity to Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. And the tourists to Mexico usually follow one of two agendas: to prowl the bars late at night or go there in the day time for cheap and professional dental procedures. I think $300 to root canal a molar with a 18K gold cap and $15 for medicines and with a turnaround of just a day is far more economical than anywhere else.

As for driving, Carlsbad is about 175mi east of ELP (the airport) on US 180, White Sands National Monument is about 75mi north on US 54, and Albuquerque is about a 4 hour drive north on I-10/I-25.

PM me for more info. :-)

(An interesting tidbit: the beaches of San Diego are about 60 miles closer to El Paso than the beaches of South Padre Island when driving. Really!)

I just tried the train between Albuqurque and Santa Fe (www.nmrailrunner.com) and would recommend it. It's scenic, very inexpensive, and relatively quick.

I just tried the train between Albuqurque and Santa Fe (www.nmrailrunner.com) and would recommend it. It's scenic, very inexpensive, and relatively quick.

But then you miss driving The Turquoise Trail ;). I also love the High Road to Taos stopping in Chimayo for lunch.

Bobette

I was never all that impressed with Roswell. This may be your plan already, but spend more time seeing the natural stuff (esp. Carlsbad Caverns) and use Roswell as a place to sleep at night.

As for Santa Fe, if you're into galleries you can be entertained for days. If not, could be a different story. When are you planning to be there? If it happens to be in December, the luminarias around the Plaza are worth seeing.

I was never all that impressed with Roswell. This may be your plan already, but spend more time seeing the natural stuff (esp. Carlsbad Caverns) and use Roswell as a place to sleep at night.

As for Santa Fe, if you're into galleries you can be entertained for days. If not, could be a different story. When are you planning to be there? If it happens to be in December, the luminarias around the Plaza are worth seeing.

Will be the the end of Oct. Driving from Carlsbad to Santa Fe goes right through Roswell so will just spend a couple of hours there.

Will be the the end of Oct. Driving from Carlsbad to Santa Fe goes right through Roswell so will just spend a couple of hours there.

Cool! Enjoy it. You'll be too late for the Balloon Fiesta in ABQ, but overall a great time to visit.

Will be the the end of Oct. Driving from Carlsbad to Santa Fe goes right through Roswell so will just spend a couple of hours there.

Eat at Martin's Capitol Cafe in Roswell. It is on West 4th Street, between the courthouse and the public library. Very good and inexpensive tex-mex/new mex food. Extremely popular with the locals.

You might be able to snag a bottle or two of cherry cider (from Carrizozo) from one of the local grocery stores (it may or may not be available for sale, depending on how the season went), say, at Farmer's Country Market; I believe that they have a location at Main and Mescalero. Good stuff.

I do like Carlsbad caverns.

If you're up for camping, you can camp on the sand dunes at White Sands. It's pretty surreal during a full moon.

In ABQ, you might ride the tram to the top of Sandia peak. You can have a beer up there at >10,000ft, or hike around. There's some nice hiking in NM, particularly from ABQ north.

I'd also suggest a trip to see some of the archeological sites -- Chaco canyon, etc. if you like that sort of thing. You won't see many other people, so it would be a stark contrast to downtown Santa Fe.

-fcg

Mrs. Italy and I just returned from two weeks driving from ELP to DEN. We found most of the restaurants in ELP to be chains, that said and not knowing your budget there are some very good steak places. We did have an excellent lunch in Mesilla (http://www.laposta-de-mesilla.com/) which is about an hour drive west of ELP.

In ELP we drove the Mission Trail and visited the Ysleta Mission and Tigua Indian Reservation, Socorro Mission and San Elisario Chapel which took about 2.5 hours. Very interesting history.

In ABQ we ate at the Church Street Cafe‎ (
http://www.churchstreetcafe.com/), 2111 Church St NW, Albuquerque, NM‎ - (505) 247-8522‎ which we highly recommend (if the weather is nice ask to sit out back). We found the Turquoise Trail to be an interesting and relaxing drive. Stop at the Mine Shaft (http://www.themineshafttavern.com/) Tavern in Madrid for lunch.

To go from ELP to Carlsbad and on to your next destination will be an all day affair so you should plan on leaving ELP or where ever you are the night before early.

Stop at the Mine Shaft (http://www.themineshafttavern.com/) Tavern in Madrid for lunch.

We've stopped at The Mine Shaft a couple of times. Madrid is a different little artsy village in the middle of nowhere on the Turquoise Trail.

Bobette

We had the same reaction for a rental p/u in ELP. Changed p/u location from the airport to the off-site location and the price dropped $500.00!

One thing I always try to get to in Santa Fe is Ten Thousand Waves. It's a Japanese-style spa on the road to the ski area above the town. Marvelous, marvelous place to spend some time, and they have accomodations there, too. Pricey, but I've come out of a massage there feeling like a complete ball of putty. http://www.tenthousandwaves.com