Santa Fe, New Mexico: A Desert Town We Keep Falling For
Santa Fe is a town steeped in history and culture, synonymous with the Southwest. It leans into its Mexican and Native American heritage in a way that feels woven into daily life rather than staged for visitors. We've been twice now, both times drawn back by the art, the food, and (if we're being honest) Meow Wolf.
It's easy to wander the day away here. Bars, galleries, restaurants, and markets fill the downtown core, and even if you never stray far from the Plaza, you're in for a delightful time. The main tourist areas are easily walkable, and the city itself is simple to navigate.
Where to Stay
La Fonda on the Plaza was our home base for our first visit, and it's a beauty. The current building went up in 1922, but there has been a hotel on this corner since 1607, making it the oldest hotel corner in the country. You can't beat the location if the Plaza district is your focus.
Las Palomas is where we stayed on our second, more relaxed trip, just outside the Plaza district. Passing through the gate for the first time, we meandered down a curvy flagstone walkway lined with slate blue doors, fountains, artwork, and landscaping that made the whole place feel like its own little world. Our room had a turquoise-painted fireplace, a kitchenette, and a big leather sofa.
Mornings started with birds singing in the quiet courtyard outside. Breakfast, served in the lobby, went well beyond bagels and cereal: a small menu of cooked-to-order dishes included a breakfast burrito, blue corn pancakes, egg white omelet, and breakfast tacos, plus specialty coffees.
We got the rundown on the property from Eddie, the manager: it was built in the mid-1900s as a cluster of family homes and grew from there. The owner, Neil Rosenshein, is an art lover, and it shows: sculptures, paintings, and statues are tucked into corners, mounted on walls, even hung overhead throughout the grounds. Las Palomas has been described as a sanctuary, and that's about right. It's a few short blocks from the Plaza, close enough for an easy walk after dinner.
Where to Eat
Santa Fe is a genuinely great food town. The fusion of Mexican and Native American cuisines is obvious everywhere you look, and the depth of flavor is a treat for any foodie.
La Plazuela, the restaurant inside La Fonda, was an immediate favorite. A large fountain anchors the center of the room, flanked by trees strung with white lights, and the surrounding walls are made of hand-painted glass panes, each one unique and colorful. The food matched the room: a highlight was my first taste of huitlacoche (corn smut), served in a tamal. It's a Mexican delicacy, and it's the kind of find that makes trying new things worth it.
Herve is a small gem down an alleyway off San Francisco Street, lined with barrels and tables under colorful shade cloths. Past the doors, wine bottles line the left wall and the dining room opens to the right, an atrium-like space with seating ranging from tables to stuffed leather sofas. The restaurant was founded by the owners of D.H. Lescombes winery and highlights their vintages. Service and food were as good as the wine. It's a place we make a point of returning to.
Coyote Café has been around since the 1980s and is worth the splurge. Highlights from our meal included blue corn gnocchi, a bunuelo with huitlacoche cream cheese and chives, elk tenderloin, and a sweet corn flan. I also got introduced to hoja santa (the Mexican pepperleaf, or root beer plant, often used to wrap tamales, fish, and meats in Central and South American cooking), served here in an ice cream over pinon butter cake. The rooftop bar, Coyote Cantina, runs a separate, popular menu.
Art and Culture
Art was the focus of our first visit, and Santa Fe delivers: galleries throughout the Plaza and surrounding streets cover a huge range of styles, mediums, and subjects. This is a city that supports its artists, and it shows.
The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum focuses less on her well-known flower paintings and more on her broader body of work, life, and history. It's a solid collection that gives a fuller sense of the artist, including items from her home and details on her time at Ghost Ranch. Display cases with her handwritten recipe notebooks added an unexpectedly human touch to an artist with such a towering reputation.
Meow Wolf started in Santa Fe, and it's still an experience unlike anything else. The installations are immersive, sensory, and built by local artists brought in for each room around a central theme. That theme isn't always obvious, but ask around and you might find one of the behind-the-scenes staff willing to share some real insight into the project.
The Loretto Chapel is gorgeous on its own terms, with stained glass windows, a carved altar, and statues of various Christian figures. But it's known for the "Miraculous Stairway," an exquisite wooden spiral staircase with dark spindles lining tight curves. According to the story, the chapel had no way to access its loft, so the sisters prayed to Saint Joseph, patron saint of carpenters, for help. A man arrived looking for work, built the staircase over several months, and left without payment. The staircase makes two full rotations, uses no nails (only wooden pegs), and has no visible means of support. Whether or not you buy the legend, it's a striking piece of construction.
Markets
If you're in town on a Saturday, the farmers market is worth planning around. It's a treasure trove of local produce, chilis, homemade goods, and honey. I found a whole selection of dried beans (pinto, black, Peruvian) along with dried hominy for posole, dried and roasted chilies, herbs, and squash. It's not hard to walk out with the makings of several meals.
Right next to it is the art market, with vibrant paintings, turquoise and silver jewelry, pottery, and textiles filling the booths. Many of the artists are happy to talk about their work if you ask.
Final Thoughts
Both times, we didn't want to leave. I didn't expect to fall in love with a desert town, but Santa Fe won both of us over and has become one of our favorite destinations.
Santa Fe treats tradition and art with equal respect, and that combination gives it a charm that's hard to find elsewhere. It's an easy city to explore and an easy one to fall for. Add it to the list.
