Rancho de Chimayó
01Chimayó, NM (about 35 minutes)
Authentic New Mexican dining in a beautiful setting. Lunch and prickly pear margaritas on the patio or in the sunroom — and don't miss the historic chapel next door.
DAY TRIPS
When you want to drive.
Northern New Mexico opens up if you have a car and a full day. These four are the loops we keep doing.
THE BIG PICTURE
What you should actually know.
The country between Santa Fe and the Colorado border is some of the most beautiful and historically dense in the American West — old Spanish villages, Pueblo lands continuously inhabited for a thousand years, and a couple of New Mexican restaurants that quietly serve some of the best food in the state.
Our four favorites below run from quick to all-day. Chimayó and Española are 35-minute lunches — go for the food, and in Chimayó, stay for the historic chapel next door. Albuquerque is the family card, an hour south, with the Tramway and the Saw Mill Market food hall. Ghost Ranch is the full day: 1.5 hours each way, and the light on the cliffs makes the drive feel short.
THE ONE PLACE WE'D BOOK FIRST
Ghost Ranch
Abiquiú, NM (about 1.5 hours north)
Georgia O'Keeffe's home country. The drive alone earns the day — Highway 84 north through Abiquiú, the cliffs going red and gold as you climb — and there are almost no crowds compared to the famous parks. Book the guided O'Keeffe landscape tour if you want the stories behind the paintings, and try to be on the ranch around 4 PM, when the light on the cliffs does what she spent forty years chasing.
El Paragua
02Española, NM (about 35 minutes)
Same family as El Parasol. Incredible traditional New Mexican dishes and margaritas served by the pitcher. It doesn't look like much from the outside; the food is among the best you'll ever taste.
Ghost Ranch
03Abiquiú, NM (about 1.5 hours north)
The full day. Hike Chimney Rock — a steady climb to a mesa-top view of the whole Piedra Lumbre basin — or ride horseback through the badlands. Lunch at Fire and Ice or Café Abiquiú & LaTerraza. Full write-up above.
Albuquerque
04About an hour south
Family-friendly attractions: the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, the Explora Science Center, and the Sandia Peak Tramway. Pair it with lunch at Saw Mill Market food hall.
FROM OUR FAMILY ALBUM
Real photos. Our trips.
"Some of the best food in New Mexico is a thirty-five-minute drive from your kitchen."
KEEP EXPLORING
Nine more chapters of Santa Fe.
Restaurants, hikes, galleries, spas — every category has the family's full take.