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Travel guide
Santa Fe
4 days · 8 things to do
Best time to go: May to June, September to October
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Welcome
Santa Fe, in a few days
The oldest state capital in the United States, founded by the Spanish around 1610, allows only earth-coloured adobe or Territorial-style façades in its centre, at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. People come for a density of galleries and museums that is rare for a city of 90,000, a cuisine of green and red chile unlike any other, and the pueblos and canyons of New Mexico an hour's drive away.
- Day by day
- D1 Day 1 3 things
- D2 Day 2 2 things
- D3 Day 3 2 things
- D4 Day 4 1 thing
- Worth sorting before you go
- Words that help
- The practical page
- Packing checklist
The trip
Day by day
Map of the sights (numbers follow the suggested order). It prints with the base map.
D1
Day 1
3 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Santa Fe Plaza free · about 1 hThe heart of the city since its founding, a tree-shaded square at the end of the Santa Fe Trail, ringed by adobe arcades and hosting free summer concerts and August's Indian Market.
- Afternoon · Palace of the Governors · about 2 hBuilt around 1610, the oldest continuously used public building in the United States, now part of the New Mexico History Museum, with Native American artisans selling jewellery under its portal.
- Late afternoon · Georgia O'Keeffe Museum · about 1 h 30The world's largest collection of works by Georgia O'Keeffe, from enlarged flowers to bleached bones and red Abiquiú hills, with guided small-group tours of her home and studio.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hotel St. Francis ↗ · All places to stay by budget →€190 a night
D2
Day 2
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Loretto Chapel · about 30 minA Gothic Revival chapel completed in 1878, famous for its wooden spiral staircase making two full turns with no visible central support, nicknamed the miraculous staircase.
- Afternoon · Canyon Road free · 2 to 3 hA narrow kilometre-long street climbing east of the centre, its adobe houses turned into more than a hundred galleries, lit by thousands of paper farolitos on Christmas Eve.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hotel St. Francis ↗€190 a night
D3
Day 3
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Museum Hill · half a dayFour museums facing one another on a hill south-east of the centre, including the world's largest folk art collection and its dioramas of toys, dolls and figurines from Alexander Girard.
- Late afternoon · Meow Wolf · 2 to 3 hAn immersive art installation in a former bowling alley, where a Victorian house opens through a fridge or a wardrobe onto more than 70 rooms of fluorescent forests and spaceships.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hotel St. Francis ↗€190 a night
D4
Day 4
1 thing to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Bandelier National Monument · half a dayFrijoles Canyon, where Ancestral Pueblo people lived until around 1550, with a loop past the ruins of Tyuonyi and cliff dwellings reached by ladders, up to Alcove House.
Before you go
Worth sorting before you go
📶 eSIM data
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
🛡️ Travel insurance
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
💳 Fee-free card
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
🚐 Airport transfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
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Good to know
Flavours & local habits
🍽️ Worth tasting
- Burgers and barbecue: brisket and ribs cooked low and slow, done differently in every state.
- Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl: the classic lunch on the San Francisco waterfront.
- Mexican food: tacos from a truck in Los Angeles, a Mission burrito in San Francisco.
- Pancakes and weekend brunch: a national habit, generous to the point of excess.
- Craft beer, and California wine from Napa and Sonoma.
⚠️ Best avoided
- Tipping is not optional: add 15 to 20% in restaurants and bars.
- Prices on menus and in shops exclude sales tax, which is added at the till.
- Do not plan more than four or five hours of driving a day: the distances are larger than they look on the map.
- Never travel without health insurance. A night in hospital can cost thousands of dollars.
- In summer, do not hike down into the Grand Canyon in the heat of the day: the climb back out is where people get into trouble.
Getting by
Words that help
🗣️ English is the main language here, so there is nothing to learn by heart.
The essentials
The practical page
CurrencyUS dollar (USD, $)
BudgetAbout €175 a day, mid-range
Best seasonMay to June, September to October
PlugA/B · 120V
Tap waterSafe to drink
Tipping15 to 20%, expected
Emergency911
EntryUK, Australian and most EU passports need an ESTA, applied for online before departure, for stays of up to 90 days; a few EU countries sit outside the Visa Waiver Program and need a full visa. Canadians need neither, only a passport. Anyone who has been to Cuba since January 2021 cannot use an ESTA and must apply for a visa.
HealthNo vaccination required. Keep tetanus, diphtheria and polio up to date; hepatitis A is worth considering if you eat well off the tourist trail. In the desert parks, the heat is the real risk.
Scan to open this guide online, always up to date.
https://offwegooo.com/en/guides/santa-fe
Don't forget
Packing checklist
Have a good trip.
Guide made on offwegooo.com · Photos via Pexels · Details are indicative, check before you leave.