You can spend a small fortune visiting Santa Fe. Or not.
While an elegant downtown hotel suite, a four-star restaurant and a $2,000 silver-studded souvenir concha belt might have cachet, you don't - as they say - have to go there.For starters, the best things about this town are free: the brilliant sunshine - about 300 days of it a year - the dazzlingly blue sky, the clear air, the mountain views, the sense that you're someplace dif-fer-ent.
It's a great place to walk, people-watch, window-shop, gallery-hop or just sit on a park bench under a tree - and nobody's figured out how to charge for those yet.
Fall is a good time to visit. Many hotels lower their rates - at least until the December holiday season - and the exotic scent of burning pinyon logs is already in the air.
Downtown Santa Fe, anchored by the Plaza, is the most historic, scenic, tourist-oriented part of town. A budget-minded traveler, then, must stop a few miles short of it when searching for lodging.
Many of the more affordable motels are on Cerrillos Road, a main artery into the city from Interstate 25 that looks like a commercial strip in Anytown, U.S.A.
Some of them have banded together to advertise and provide a central number to call for budget lodging.
"We have rates as low as $50 a night," says Mark Brown of New Mexico Central Reservations, which handles the calls for Affordable Properties of Santa Fe. Weekly rates make some places cheaper.
Other budget motels that don't participate in the joint advertising can be found by cruising Cerrillos Road.
And for the seriously frugal, there's the Santa Fe International Hostel, with its $15 dormitory rooms, shared kitchen and morning chores.
The most charming of the older, non-downtown lodges is the El Rey Inn, a 1930s motor court that combines Southwestern-style character and modern comfort on five beautifully landscaped acres.
While a couple of the more affordable motels are an easy walk from the Plaza, the El Rey and others are a few miles out. Visitors can save the cost and hassle of downtown parking by taking city buses, which operate daily except Sundays.
One of the best deals in town is a $10 pass that gets visitors into four state-owned museums and the private museum devoted to painter Georgia O'Keeffe. The pass is good for four days.
Even better, the three that are downtown - the historical Palace of the Governors, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum - are free on Friday evenings.
The Museum of International Folk Art - with its extraordinary display of 10,000 pieces of folk art from around the world - and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture are well worth the two-mile drive along the Old Santa Fe Trail from downtown, and they're part of the $10 deal.
The Institute of American Indian Arts has a downtown museum that features contemporary Indian artists. The charge is $4 for adults, $2 for elders and students.
Kids under 17 are free at all six museums.
Art galleries, of course, are free - and plentiful. They often host openings for artists' shows on Friday nights and offer refreshments to those who stroll in.
The sprawling, new Gerald Peters Gallery is a must: 8,500 feet of exhibition space, plus a sculpture garden. It features 19th- and 20th-century art of the American West - Frederic Remington, for example - as well as work by contemporary artists. A Picasso exhibit can be viewed through mid-No-vem-ber.
The nearby state Capitol is a showcase for the best of New Mexico's arts and crafts, traditional and contemporary. A gallery just outside the governor's office offers changing exhibits. Visitors can wander at will or take a free tour.
For shoppers, the portal of the Palace of the Governors, on the downtown Plaza, is the place to find reasonably priced, genuine Indian crafts - jewelry, handmade pottery, weavings, carvings, drums and sandpaintings. Artists and craftspeople from New Mexico's nearly two dozen tribes have been spreading their wares on brightly colored blankets under the portal for generations.
The Frito pie at the Five & Dime General Store on the Plaza is a local institution - $3.50 for the combination of ground beef, red chili, and chopped onions poured over corn chips.
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Additional Information
If you go
Associated Press
Getting there: Santa Fe is about 60 miles northeast of Albuquerque, just off Interstate 25. Fly to Albuquerque, then rent a car. Or take the Shuttlejack, a bus service from the Albuquerque airport to downtown Santa Fe hotels. The bus will stop at Cerrillos Road motels at the request of passengers who are registered at those motels. Shuttlejack costs $20 each way. Phone (505) 982-4311. Amtrak service is available daily at Lamy, 18 miles south of Santa Fe. A shuttle takes passengers to hotels, motels and rental car agencies for $14. Phone (505) 982-8829. Greyhound and TNM&O Coaches stop at the Santa Fe bus station.
Climate: At an elevation of 7,000 feet above sea level, Santa Fe generally has a dusting of snow by late October. Average high and low temperatures are 63/38 in October, 50/27 in November and 41/20 in December. Sunscreen and a hat are always in season. Some visitors may need a day or two to adjust to breathing the thinner air. They should take it easy, drink plenty of fluids and go light on alcohol.
Lodging: Santa Fe has 4,700 rooms in hotels, motels and bed-and-breakfast inns, with downtown accommodations generally more expensive. For budget accommodations, call Affordable Properties of Santa Fe, (800) 559-9846.
Activities: Museums, galleries, historical sites and shops provide plenty to do in the city. Walking tours and bus tours are available; pick up brochures at hotels or motels. There's hiking nearby in the Santa Fe National Forest. The Santa Fe Ski Area generally opens around Thanksgiving. More than a dozen Indian pueblos are within easy driving distance. Most have galleries and shops, and some have casinos.
For more information: Santa Fe Convention & Visitors Bureau, (800) 777-2489 or (505) 984-6760. Or get up-to-date information from the city's Web site, (www.santafe.org).