If you've ever driven cross-country heading west and experienced the length and monotony of the Texas flatlands, then you know hitting New Mexico is like arriving in the Promise Land. Suddenly the landscape gets greener, the small bumps become hills turning to mountains, and you feel a little closer to the cultural Mecca that is Santa Fe. You know your next stop is northern New Mexico and such beatnik escapes as Los Alamos and Taos rife with craft stores, art galleries, hot springs, bohemian bookstores and health food markets.
Santa Fe, known for its town square, small winding streets, art community and laid-back atmosphere, is an hour's drive north from Albuquerque and the state's international airport. Southwest Vacations (tel. 800/243-8372; www.swavactions.com) has an excellent search engine that allows you to name your dates, departing city and destination before outputting a choice of hotels and flights. We found six hotel options to New Mexico from Baltimore for a two-night trip in late July that included round-trip airfare as well. (About the same amount of choices came up for a lengthier trip.) One of the options included the beautiful Hotel Santa Fe, a resort/retreat hotel where the three-night trip with airfare cost comes to about $644 per person. Hotel taxes and service charges are included. The hotel is only a six-block walk to the famous Plaza, the site of great summer festivals, art showings and just hanging out. For something a little less pricey, you can stay at the Santa Fe Courtyard by Marriott for around $449 for a two-night air/hotel inclusive trip. Play around with the search engine to come up with other options. When in Santa Fe, be sure to stop by the Nambe Factory Outlet store (tel. 800/443-0339; www.nambe.com) where you can find affordable and unique household accessories such as candle sticks, platters, pitchers or salt and pepper shakers.
About a half-hour northwest of Santa Fe lies the eerie town of Los Alamos. You can feel the buzz of energy and almost hear the whisper of government secrets amongst the tree-lined streets of the small town that changed the world during World War II. Los Alamos is where the team of the world's leading physicists led by Robert Oppenheimer invented the atomic bomb. The place has an odd feel to it, like a constant hum. Maybe it's all the government labs with the top secret signs. Maybe it's the 10,000 scientists thinking deep thoughts. Or maybe it has some left over energy from the days of the invention of the atomic bomb. Either way, as soon as you hit route 37 heading out of town towards hot springs, the famous Mesa Grande, and myriad Pueblo Indian sites, you feel a change.
Today, the Los Alamos National Laboratory (tel. 505/667-7000; www.lanl.gov) is still very much in operation as a leading government laboratory in charge of most of national physics projects. The lab is the largest employer in northern New Mexico with almost 10,000 employees. For a list of hotels, motels or inns in the Los Alamos, go to www.losalamos.com/lodging. Lodging in Los Alamos runs from full-service hotels to small bed and breakfasts. Some example of places to stay include the North Road Inn (tel. 866/696-6922; www.northroadinn.com) where prices range from $71 for a single to $85 for a couple with a $10 fee for a full kitchen. All fourteen rooms come with free internet access, free cable TV, and free parking. For the affordable chains, Best Western has a newly renovated extremely attractive hotel that suits nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts. Just minutes from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Best Western Hilltop House Hotel (tel. 800/462-0936; www.bestwestern.com) has rooms between $70 and $90 dollars.
Further north, heading towards the New Mexico-Colorado border, the town of Taos is a haven for artists, bohemians and people looking to get away from it all. Georgia O'Keefe (tel. 505/946-1000; www.okeeffemuseum.org), the famed artist, who along with her partner Alfred Stieglitz, started the Taos artistic movement by making her home in Taos and the town the subject of her many works of art. (Her museum, however, is in Santa Fe.) Fortunately, the lodging takes advantage of Taos' incredible vistas. For deals on accommodations, visit Taos Pillow & Play Packages (https://taos-pillow-packages.com) for listings on a variety of special offers on seven popular places to stay in the area. In the "Value Package" section, we found a four-night stay at the American Artist Gallery House Bed and Breakfast (tel. 800/532-2041; www.americanartistsbandb.com) with four lift tickets thrown in if you're there to ski that starts at $224 per person if traveling in a group of four people. Rooms at the hotel are quaint starting around $90 per night from May 13 to October 15, 2005 with the sixth night free. Jacuzzi suites are available to relax your tired feet after a day of hiking or sightseeing at the many museums around town.
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