Why we chose Santa Fe (and why you'll keep coming back).

In 1988, my grandparents moved from Fort Worth to Santa Fe. Lee and Noel Ice were retired by then, and the move surprised the family — they didn't have a Santa Fe story yet, no annual trip, no friends already there. They just kept driving west on long weekends until one of those weekends turned into a one-way moving truck.

What I remember from those years is the smell of piñon in the fireplace, walking the Plaza on Christmas Eve in a parka, and the way the light moves across the Sangre de Cristos in the late afternoon. We were Texas kids. Santa Fe was the place we drove to. Then it became the place the whole family circled back to — for summers, for Thanksgivings, for the kind of weekend that you don't plan, you just show up for.

Years later, when my brother Geoff and I were touring with our band and we needed a few days to disappear, we'd come here. When my wife Melissa and I started having kids, we wanted them to know it the way we did. That's the short version of how Casa de Camino happened, and then Casa de Ice. Two homes, both restored, both run by us — because we wanted somewhere our family could stay that felt like family had been there before. And somewhere your family could stay that felt the same way.

Santa Fe is small. You can eat a great meal on Canyon Road, hike a real mountain, soak in a Japanese bath, and be home for sunset. That's not a marketing line. That's just a Tuesday here. Most of our guests come for one specific thing — a 50th birthday, a yoga retreat, a multi-generational reunion. They almost all come back for a less specific reason: the way the place slows them down.

If this is your first trip, do these three things: drive Old Santa Fe Trail at golden hour, walk Canyon Road on a Friday evening when the galleries are open, and eat one slow dinner at The Compound. If it's your fifth trip, you already know what you'd add to that list. Tell us at check-in, and we'll add it to the guide.