At Los Campos de Santa Fe you can walk to nearby shops for specialty coffee, groceries, electronics, video rentals, books, restaurants, and more. You'll also be right on the bus route and just 4.5 miles to the historic plaza.
Getting here:
By plane
Commercial air service into the Santa Fe airport exists but is distinctly limited. If entering New Mexico via the larger Albuquerque airport, simply rent a car and drive.
By car
Santa Fe lies along Interstate 25, which skirts the city. Santa Fe is nearly 1500' (half a kilometer) above Albuquerque, and on I-25. North of town, I-25 goes over a moderate pass along the southern end of the Sangre
de Cristo Mountains before heading out into the plains.
If conditions are good and you're not in a hurry, consider using back roads as an alternative to I-25 if coming from Albuquerque. State road 14 passes along the east side of the Sandia Mountains and through the quaint little towns of Madrid and Cerrillos before joining the interstate just south of Santa Fe.
Travelers following the Route
66 itinerary should note that Santa Fe was on the "original"
Route 66, although it was bypassed during the 1930s as a result of some
curious political shenanigans and the much shorter, "modern" Route
66 doesn't go anywhere near here. See the "Original
alignment in New Mexico" section of the Route 66 article for tips on
how to get here "authentically." Coming from points east, you might
also consider entering town via the Santa
Fe Trail itinerary, which shares roads with the Route 66 itinerary
near Santa Fe.
Santa Fe has a small but
vibrantdowntown that is not only walkable, but walked, often, by many people
late into the nights, particularly in summertime when the tourists flood in.
Parking can be a significant problem during the summer and is not exactly easy
to get at any time of year, but look for parking lots (fee) near St. Francis
Cathedral, Sweeney Center, and between Water and San Francisco Streets west of
the Plaza. If in town for the Santa Fe Indian Market, plan on parking a
loooong way from downtown and taking a shuttle, e.g. from De Vargas Mall.
Limited, but improving, public transportation is available at other times via Santa
Fe Trails, the city's bus service [1] .
The main roads through town
are St. Francis Drive (US 84/285) from north to south, Cerrillos
Road (NM SR 14) from the downtown area southwest to I-25 and beyond, Old
Santa Fe Trail and its offshoot Old Pecos Trail from downtown
southeast to I-25, and St. Michaels Drive and Rodeo Road and its
offshoots, both connecting Old Pecos Trail and Cerrillos east to west. Most
outlying attractions are accessible via one of these roads. The downtown area
is a remarkable rat's warren of small roads that you really don't want to
drive on; park your car and walk. Streets there tend to wander (Paseo de
Peralta, one of the main roads in the downtown area, almost completes a
loop) and, even when apparently rectilinear, are not necessarily aligned to
true north/south/east/west.
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