The Ultimate New Mexico Travel Guide
New Mexico: Home to several National Monuments, sites preserving rich heritage, and some awe-inspiring natural wonders, New Mexico really lives up to its nickname “The Land of Enchantment.” Here is my New Mexico travel guide outlining major New Mexico attractions!
To make it easy for you to navigate the content, I have organized my New Mexico travel guide into two sections. (1) A brief introduction to New Mexico, a little history, some geography, commute, and weather. (2) Major New Mexico attractions, if you wish, you can skip the introduction and move on to the next section, New Mexico Attractions.
History: The name “New Mexico” is an anglicized version of “Nuevo Mexico,” named by the Spanish for the upper region of the Rio Grande. “Mexico” is an Aztec term meaning “place of Mexitli” (Mexitli, an Aztec god). The area today known as New Mexico was ceded to the United States by Mexico after the Mexican American War. New Mexico was added to the Union as the 47th State on January 6, 1912.
Geography: New Mexico borders Arizona in the west, Colorado in the north, Oklahoma in the northeast, Texas in the east, Utah, in the northwest. Santa Fe is the state capitol, and these are some large cities in New Mexico – Albuquerque, Santa Rosa, Roswell, Las Cruces, Alamogordo, and Carlsbad.
Getting There
Flight: Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) and Santa Fe (SAF) are the major airports in New Mexico, ABQ being the busiest.
Train: Amtrak offers passenger train service on the Southwest Chief that runs between – Chicago and Los Angeles, stopping at following New Mexico stations – Albuquerque (ABQ), Gallup (GLP), Lamy (LMY), Las Vegas (LVS) and Raton (RAT)
Drive: You can drive to New Mexico if you live in any of the neighboring states, but please be advised that you will have to drive a lot within New Mexico to get to the main attractions, so please plan accordingly.
Climate: In New Mexico, temperatures vary significantly across seasons and between day and night. Summers are hot, with temperatures often exceeding 100°F. Winters are cold, with temperature often dropping below freezing. Check current weather conditions in New Mexico.
Time zone: GMT -7
Getting around: Even though New Mexico offers a light-rail system, the Rail Runner, and Greyhound bus services that connect major New Mexico cities, I would still recommend renting a car while in New Mexico.
Best Places To Visit in New Mexico
Petroglyph National Monument protects and preserves one of the largest petroglyph sites in North America. Petroglyphs are ancient rock carvings/drawings created by the early dwellers of the region.
Bandelier National Monument protects a gorgeous canyon with evidence of human presence going back over 11,000 years. Petroglyphs, caves, pueblos, hiking trails, wildlife, and a lot more.
White Sands National Park is known to be the largest gypsum dune field in the world! The glistening white gypsum sand spread over 275 square miles of desert, with wave-like structures, a must-see.
The Blue Hole is a natural wonder that you must see while you’re in New Mexico: Truly, a deep blue pool of water appears amid the desert like a blue gem emerging from the earth’s surface.
Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument is famous for its spectacular cone-shaped formations. These structures were formed through volcanic explosions, which are pristine and unparalleled.
This is one of the oldest and very famous cave system in the world, well-known for a large number of stalactites and stalagmites. There are around 120 known caves in the park and the number keeps growing.
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