Albuquerque: You can bet on cheap vacation
It might be uncouth to say how much one spends on vacation, but for Albuquerque, I have no shame.
Here’s a sampling of my budget:
• Petroglyph National Monument: $1.
• Pumpkin empanada at Golden Crown Panaderia: 85 cents.
• Tango dancing at Kelly’s Brew Pub: free.
AAA wasn’t kidding when, a few months ago, its annual vacation costs survey ranked the central New Mexico destination as the least expensive American city in which to spend your recreational dollars. With an average hotel room rate of $97.41 and an average food cost of $67.64 for a family of four, the daily expenditure comes to $165.04. (Honolulu topped out as the most expensive locale, with an average daily cost of $583.66.)
Great views, reasonable cost
“Anyone traveling on a middle-class budget can still afford to treat themselves, without breaking the wallet,” said Sean O’Loughlin, a 24-year-old Marylander I met on the Sandia Peak tram. The quick ride up the conifer-carpeted mountain offered us priceless views of Albuquerque and its environs - without having to dig too deep into the purse.
O’Loughlin, a cash-crunched student in town for a job interview, was floored that his hotel lunch - “chips, salsa, appetizers, the full meal” - ran less than $10. Yet, while Albuquerque is cheap, it’s more than generous with its attractions.
For many visitors, Albuquerque is merely a landing pad for Santa Fe. The Turquoise Trail/Highway 14 is rutted from rental wheels hightailing it 65 miles to that overpriced city, where silver-bedizened tourists snap up Southwestern art at SoHo gallery prices, then boast of their finds over hyped-up New Mex-Tex cuisine. But don’t be so quick to follow the northeast-bound caravan: Albuquerque may not have the cachet of Santa Fe, but it possesses many of the same cultural and aesthetic attributes, minus the pretense and price hikes.
Urban-design-wise, Albuquerque appears to have been planned by a roomful of real-estate developers and one conspiracy theorist. Strip malls junk up many roads leading to the foothills, while not too far away abandoned plots seem ripe for UFO abductions. Yet flashes of rough beauty cut through the extremes: the tawny Rio Grande, which curlicues through the flats; the blackened volcanic mounds and tribal rock sketches of the Petroglyph National Monument; the Sandia Mountains, whose rock face changes with each passing cloud.
Downtown, the midsize buildings defer to the bright blue sky, and after dark, restaurants and bars bathe the area in a neon glow. Farther along on Central Avenue, the old strip of Route 66 goes retro, with such time-capsule establishments as the Stardust Inn and the Standard Diner. The road eventually passes by the University of New Mexico and its colony of cheap eats, and the hipster-in-training neighborhood of Nob Hill, where on Sunday nights amateur dancers tango in a renovated Ford dealership.
The city’s tourist center, however, is in Old Town, a packed grid of stores, eateries and museums, open squares and claustrophobic lanes. The “village” harks back to the first settlers, who in 1796 built homes and livelihoods along the river banks. The central plaza is ringed by the 18th-century San Felipe de Neri Church, an unadorned adobe structure surrounded by flowering cacti, and shops selling Southwestern standards.
Along a section of shaded sidewalk abutting La Placita restaurant, a handful of artists squat on low chairs and blankets while passers-by browse their designs. To display here, the artisans must create their own works - nothing mass-produced or stamped by Asian factory workers. “The shops can buy from China,” said jewelry designer Lisa Carrillo, referring to the touristy trade in Old Town. “They are not regulated.”
Albuquerque discount
But while the craftspeople are tightly monitored, the prices are hardly fixed. “It’s $98,” Carrillo said about a multistrand silver and turquoise necklace, “but I’ll sell it for $45.”
Albuquerque is that rare city that can claim three ethnicities - Anglo, Hispanic and Native American - of equal standing.
New Mexico is home to 19 living pueblos, and although other Native American communities appear on local maps, they are either deserted or buried under crusted earth. The villages are scattered across the state, though a somewhat large concentration falls between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, which is run by the pueblos, provides a quick overview of the different reservations, displaying a slice of each pueblo’s working and artistic life. The institution also stages weekend tribal dances that often celebrate the harvest, rains or hunting.
“Albuquerque is realizing that our relatives left these areas to us,” said Wilton Niiha, a Zuni who leads the Doya Dance Group, which frequently performs at the cultural center. “We still have our traditions, our way of life and our religion. It’s just modern, going with the flow.”