So our family loves to visit Santa Fe and we make it there a couple of times each year. We have some favorite places to eat, sleep and shop. Many friends have asked for recommendations so I’m including our Hartley Family List of Favorites:

1. One of the most affordable and consistent places to stay is Santa Fe Motel and Inn. Always clean and the breakfast featuring local fare and incredible bread from the Sage Bakery is just part of the deal. The location is ideal as it is just south of the Plaza.
2. Now if you want to do the historic/romantic hotel deal, we always choose La Fonda. The pool is refreshing in summer and a massage is a good idea any time of the year.
3. On our last two visits we’ve rented houses and those were both good experiences. You can visit Vacation Rentals by Owner or VBRO, or visit Two Casitas and talk with Wendy Kapp.
4. We love eating our way through this town. Our favorites for New Mexican include Maria’s (awesome margaritas), The Shed, La Choza and Cafe Castro (near Jackalope – I’ll get to that later). We recently discovered Mucho Gusto and were impressed with the service and blown away by the new take on Mexican favorites. Breakfast is great at Tia Sophia’s on the Plaza – locals flock to it and that’s always a great sign.
5. For drinks and snacks we would count the Coyote Cafe Rooftop, the bar at La Fonda, and Del Charro as our favorites.
6. Shopping is a necessary part of any trip to SF. Leave plenty of room in your car for wine from Trader Joe’s. Yes, they sell Two Buck Chuck but they also have a great assortment of other wines at unbeatable prices. There’s also a wonderful World Market in the Sanbusco area where you can get fun home stuff and more wine……BUT the best place to shop and play is at Jackalope out on Cerrillos road (Cafe Castro is just across the street). There are at least eight buildings to visit – you’ll buy some things, but it’s just fun to check out the outlandish furniture and to watch the glass blowing demonstrations.    

And we made another trip to Santa Fe, this time for a ski trip between Christmas and and the New 2012 Year. We added some great new spots to our list and here they are:

1. The Pantry on Cerillos Road – so we’ve driven by this place for years and our daughter has wanted to go there many times but it just looks so blah from the road, not much curb appeal. But we wanted to go somewhere for breakfast on a Sunday morning so we tried it. WOW – I’ve never had anything quite as good as the cheese omelette stuffed with a chili relleno, covered in more cheese and red and green chili sauce. The side of potatoes, which are boiled, then sliced and fried in butter with paprika are like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Service was outstanding!

2. We also had drinks at the new Ore House right on San Francisco street in the Plaza area. What a lovely open space with live music. We didn’t have dinner but we did look at the menu and eyed dishes being delivered to tables around us. Everything looked and smelled yummy!

3. Late one afternoon while the boys were watching more football, we headed over to the Sanbusco area and really had fun meandering from store to store. There are some really cute local places as well as some favorites like Chico’s.

4. And this time we rented a condo at the Fort Marcy Complex because it is right on the road up to the ski area. We’ve stayed at Fort March before, but this two-story condo with a fireplace and great views of the Sangre de Cristo mountains was perfect for the five of us. And the price was was less than $225 per night.

Enjoy your travels!