Travel Information for New Mexico Hotel Guests
If you are searching for an inn, hotel, motel or resort near a New Mexico attraction, amusement and theme parks, or close to shopping, cultural events, historic sites, museums and performing arts centers, or nearby zoos, a festival, a golf course, a New Mexico state park, this is where you will find it.
From dinosaurs to volcanos to Native American Anasazi ruins, NEW MEXICO is famous for its natural beauty and ancient past. Its mountains, deserts, lakes, and forests offer endless recreational opportunities. The remains of the ancient civilizations that preceded the European settlers by many centuries offer an evocative glimpse of the lives of centuries past. New Mexico's monuments and museums chronicle these historic events.
ALAMOGORDO is home to Trinity Site, the spot where the world’s first atomic bomb exploded; the Space Center is a museum complex which includes a Space Museum, Planetarium, IMAX Dome Theater, and the International Space Hall of Fame. Nearby is White Sands National Monument with its white gypsum sand dunes.
ALBUQUERQUE is New Mexico's largest city and the entryway for most visitors; attractions include the National Atomic Museum, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, which has major dinosaur specimens, and the American International Rattlesnake Museum; for children there are Cliff’s Amusement Park, The Beach Waterpark, and the Hinkle Family Fun Center; others include the new Explora Science Center & Children's Museum, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, and The Turquoise Trail, a designated a Scenic Byway between Santa Fe and Albuquerque; just minutes from the heart of Albuquerque, the world's longest aerial tramway lifts visitors to the breathtaking top of Sandia Peak.
ANGEL FIRE is a tranquil, year-round resort smack dab in the middle of wooded wilderness and a high mountain valley.
Visitors to AZTEC can take a self-guided tour of the Aztec Ruins National Monument which reserves the structures and artifacts of Anasazi people from the 1100's through 1200s; the Aztec Museum includes the Pioneer Village.
The CARLSBAD Caverns National Park, with over 85 known caves, is one of the largest caves in the world.
At CHAMA visitors can ride the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, a 64-mile trip on the longest and highest elevation narrow-gauge steam railroad in the country.
CORRALES has the Casa San Ysidro: The Gutiérrez/Minge House with its collection of Colonial and Territorial period artifacts.
Visitors to DEMING can re-live in their minds the hardship and danger of early frontier life on the four-day loop Butterfield Trail; there are free take-home samples at the Rock Hound State Park.
Surrounded by major cultural treasures and landscapes, FARMINGTON offers several attractions including the experimental farm, ranch and wildlife preserve at B-Square Range, and the oddly sculpted, eroded shale and sandstone in Bisti Wilderness; the Four Corners Monument is a slab which designates the site where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet. Northeast of Farmington at Crownpoint is the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a remote canyon that contains 13 major ruins; also nearby is Shiprock Pinnacle, a rock formation that rises 1,700ft. from the desert floor and which the Navajos call "Tse Bit'a'i'" – rock with wings.
Billy the Kid was killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in FORT SUMNER on July 14, 1881 and the Billy the Kid Museum is filled with historic relics and Kid memorabilia; Fort Sumner State Monument is the site of Navajo and Apache confinement in the 1860s.
GALLUP is a fountainhead for original, authentic Indian arts and crafts; east of town, Red Rock Museum in Red Rock State Park interprets the unique cultures of the Native Americans of the region; Red Rock State Park is the site of Gallup's annual balloon rally.
There are three Ghost Towns near GLENWOOD.
At GRANTS visitors can probe the wonders of the New Mexico Museum of Mining and walk through a replica of an uranium mine, see the volcanic cone at Bandera Center/Ice Caves, and enjoy the beauty of lava beds, ice caves and volcanic craters in the “Badlands” at El Malpais National Monument. Southwest of Grants is El Morro National Monument where the soft-surfaced rocks contain the etchings and carvings of both historic and ancient indigenous peoples. Southeast is Acoma Pueblo, North America’s oldest continuously inhabited Indian Pueblo, nicknamed “Sky City” for its position on top of a mesa.
The Original Townsite Historic District of LAS CRUCES has small abodes in green, pink and blue; attractions include Fort Selden State Monument, the former home of the Buffalo Soldiers who protected the Mesailla Valley from Indian attacks, and the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum which chronicles the 3,000-year history of New Mexico's agricultural and rural life. Nearby is Mesilla, a village which is much the same as it was one hundred years ago; this is where Billy the Kid was tried for murder.
LAS VEGAS has over 900 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places; Fort Union National Monument in Watrous was built to guard the Santa Fe Trail.
The Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument in MOUNTAINAIR is the backdrop to the ruins of three Spanish missions and ancient pueblos.
NATIVE AMERICAN NEW MEXICO is rich in pueblos and reservations: Acoma Pueblo is situated on a 367-foot-high sandstone rock, Cochití Pueblo is perched on conical spires, Jémez Pueblo is surrounded by colorful red sandstone mesas, the Navajo Reservation is known for Navajo rugs, sand paintings, jewelry, and other traditional crafts at trading posts, Pojoaque Pueblo is where the Poeh Cultural Center preserves and nurtures the traditional arts of the Tewa-speaking pueblos, Taos Pueblo is the most scenic and northernmost of all the pueblos, and Zuni Pueblo was the first stop in the infamous search for the "Seven Cities of Cibola" by the Spanish in 1539. PECOS National Park contains both mission and pueblo ruins.
At the foot of Raton Pass on the Historic Santa Fe Trail, RATON is the home of the NRA Whittington Center, the most comprehensive shooting facility in America, and Sugarite Canyon State Park. East of Raton is the Capulin Volcano National Monument. Adjacent to Albuquerque.
40 minutes south of Santa Fe, RIO RANCHO offers an exciting line up of attractions, events, history, culture, sports, outdoor activities, and a wide choice of affordable lodging,dining, and shopping.
ROSWELL is said to be the “UFO Capital of the World”; the International UFO Museum and Research Center is ideal for the serious and curious wanting to know more about the Roswell incident of 1947.
The first stop in RUIDOSO is the Billy the Kid National Scenic Byway Visitors Center probably followed by the Anne C. Stradling Museum of the Horse. Nearby are the Fox Caves where Billy the Kid hid.
SANTA FE, the capital of New Mexico, has a variety of museums including The Museum of New Mexico which oversees four museums in Santa Fe, among them the Museum of International Folk Art, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, and the Palace of the Governors which chronicles history with exhibits that reflect Spanish colonial, Mexican and Territorial period lifestyles.
TAOS is rich with art and steeped in history, all preserved in seven museums including the Kit Carson Home and Museum; the picturesque, multi-storied adobe Taos Pueblo, the most scenic and northernmost of all the pueblos, just north of Taos, inhabited for more than 700 years, is still a thriving community.
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