Your Weekend Getaway Guide to Santa Fe

I recently had the opportunity to visit Santa Fe with Tourism Santa Fe. It was a lovely weekend trip where we learned all the best food spots, shopping, places to stay, and other fun activities to do in the city. From their famous Margarita Trail to Meow Wolf, we got to explore everything the city of Santa Fe had to offer. Here’s my full itinerary from the weekend.

Our trip started at Sunrise Springs Spa Resort, which is a bit outside of the city. In 2017, the resort was voted the #3 Top Destination Spa in the U.S. in Travel + Leisure‘s 2017 World’s Best Awards. We were given free time to explore everything the resort had to offer, from petting silkie chickens to meeting the service dogs in training and soaking in their private ojitos. Some other activities offered included catch-and-release fishing, visiting the greenhouse, and expressive arts. For our meals, we dined at the wonderful Blue Heron Restaurant onsite at the resort. I only wish we had had time to get a spa treatment!

After breakfast at the Blue Heron Restaurant, we headed to El Rancho de Las Golindrinas for a photo stop. The historic rancho is a living history museum dedicated to preserving the traditions and culture of New Mexico’s Hispano heritage. It’s also frequently used as a filming location, with movies filmed here including The Missing, Jane Got a Gone, MacGruber, and many more.

Next, we went to my favorite stop of the weekend: Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return. It’s hard to describe what this place is like, but really, it’s like a dive down into Wonderland. The House of Eternal Return was created by an art collective of over 100 artists based out of Santa Fe, and together, they created this interactive maze of otherworldly insanity. Once you enter the main house, you can find a portal to the multiverse and spend hours exploring all of the rooms Meow Wolf has to offer. Make sure you spend a lot of time here so that you don’t miss the hidden rooms!

For lunch, we visited the Santa Fe School of Cooking for a hands-on tutorial in the art of North New Mexico Cuisine. The chef showed us the preparation of three different types of tamales: chicken, duck, and apple for dessert. We also learned all about the importance of green chile in the local cuisine and how to properly cook one.

After lunch, we checked into our accommodations for our last two nights in Santa Fe. Keri and I were placed at La Posada de Santa Fe, a luxury property in the heart of the city. One of the most interesting things to note about La Posada is that it is a haunted hotel. The property is home to the ghost of Julia Staab, who lived in the original house until her death in 1896. It wasn’t until the 1930’s that the Staab family mansion was turned into a hotel, with the original house left intact and the rest of the property built around it. Today, you can still book a stay in Julia’s suite in the main house – don’t worry, she’s a friendly ghost!

After settling to our rooms, we took off for a stroll down Canyon Road, which is the art district of Santa Fe. The whole half-mile street is lined with over 100 galleries, making it a premiere destination to visit and buy art for one’s home. After perusing some of the art on offer, from huge garden sculptures to canvasses and wind spinners, we headed to El Farol for dinner and a flamenco show. 

For our last day in Santa Fe, we started off our morning with some shopping in the historic Plaza area. I had time to visit two shops: Shiprock Santa Fe and Malouf on the Plaza. Both stores had an amazing selection of fine rugs and jewelry. The rug room at Shiprock Santa Fe was like the Instagram room of my dreams, while the turquoise pieces at Malouf on the Plaza were just stunning. 

For lunch, we visited Museum Hill and spent a bit of time at the Museum of International Folk Art. We took a behind-the-scenes tour of an upcoming exhibit being put together and then saw the Girard Wing. If you have the time to see it, the Girard Wing houses part of the collection of Alexander Girard and showcases folk art, toys, and textiles from more than 100 countries. From there, we took a short excursion out to the Santa Fe National Forest to take in some nature and photograph some viewpoints.

To celebrate our last night in Santa Fe, we started out at Santa Fe Spirits to sample some of their local creations, including the Slow Burn Liquer, Silver Coyote Pure Malt Whiskey, Colkegan Single Malt Whiskey, and the Wheeler’s Gin. After spending some time in their tasting room, we headed to the Coyote Café and Rooftop Cantina for one last dinner on the Santa Fe Margarita Trail. 

I was invited to Santa Fe on behalf of Tourism Santa Fe. As always, all opinions are my own.

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