Albuquerque, NM

I took a week off and visited New Mexico this year. While I have traveler the American Southwest before and have changed planes in Albuquerque I never set aside the time to explore it.

Albuquerque itself was not very impressive, a city with a college, a bunch of freeways and an airport. Getting around the airport was easy but it doesn't offer very many amenities. The food counters aren't very good and the service was a little under average.

The car rental experience was awful (ALAMO) but getting out on the highway was easy and quick. I should mention that it was summer time and the temperature was well into the mid-nineties (Fahrenheit) and I got a convertible.

The drive to our hotel was easy, 25 minute drive, but it was hot and dry and the highway was blistering hot.

The weariness faded when we got to our resort, the Hyatt Regency Tamaya in Santa Ana Pueblo. What a treat it was, 3 swimming pools, a couple of restaurants, sitting out in the middle of the desert. It was clean, comfortable, and quiet, a real pleasure.
I recommend it, it ranks high on my list of resorts in the US (I'll list my favorites later). The staff was friendly and helpful and I got a terrific rate using Priceline.



We laid around the pool, got suntans then went exploring the area. We discovered OLD TOWN Albuquerque and immediately liked it. It is a small area with some nice shops and restaurants and a park in the center where the locals gathered in the evening to entertain and even have a wedding.

The rest of Albuquerque didn't have anything special, strip malls, road construction BUT there is a very nice new shopping area on the east side of town off Hwy I-40, the name of which I can't remember right now but I will get info and post it later.

I should mention that we did not take the Sandia Peak tram, the world’s longest passenger aerial tram. It looks interesting and the views are probably terrific. We did however take the Turquoise Trail (I don’t recommend it). the most interesting part of the trail was stopping in Madrid, this is where they filmed the movie “Wild Hogs”. It is an interesting little town (with emphasis on little). Some local galleries and shops and the restaurant.

After a couple of days we checked out of the Hyatt and went up to Santa Fe (big mistake). After 36 hours there we left and went back to the Hyatt Tamaya. I'll cover Santa Fe in a later post.