Traveling to Taos, New Mexico for Christmastime Festivities
We used to spend every Thanksgiving in Taos, New Mexico but one year by a happy accident, we went late and found that it was the best time ever to go. So now for the past few years, we've done our holiday trip to New Mexico the day after Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving crowds are gone and the town is pretty much just inhabited by locals getting ready for Christmas. It has such a fun small town holiday feel and we absolutely love it! Plus, it helps that since it's slow for tourism, you can score some pretty good deals on jewelry;) I haven't really done a recent round-up of my favorite spots in town so I thought I'd give you a run down of our Christmas activities so that if you want to plan a trip next year, you can use this! If you want a full guide to our favorite local spots, you can use the one I posted over on Gunn & Swain.
LANDING IN ALBUQUERQUE:
We usually drive but this time were short on time and wanted to maximize our vacation time so we flew into Albuquerque. First, we stopped for a coffee at one of our favorite spots, Humble Coffee, for coffee, quiche and homemade pop tarts!
We always like to take a little bit of time to wander around Old Town Albuquerque.
Strolling around town in our
! Seriously the greatest invention ever.
TENT ROCKS PIT STOP:
This time, we decided the perfect pit stop on our drive would be a quick hike and exploration time at
. It's an insane landscape to check out and there's a quick and easy hike to explore. Our 2.5 year old had a blast running along the trail and wore himself out, which made for a nice long nap the rest of the drive!
DRIVE TO TAOS:
The second half of the drive from ABQ to Taos takes you along the Rio Grande and the views are breathtaking. You might want to stop to snap some photos along the way if it's not too cold.
Photo by
from our Spring trip.
HOME:
Here's a little peek at our family home in Taos and the views around the casa.
Photo by
from our Spring trip.
RIO GRANDE GORGE BRIDGE:
We always like to make a quick trek out to the
. It can get pretty windy and cold out there so hold onto your kiddos and hats!
Photo by
from our Spring trip.
TAOS CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES:
One of our favorite activities during the week after Thanksgiving is the Annual Christmas Tree Lighting at Taos Plaza. There's also a super cute little parade that goes around the plaza with a vintage fire truck and all kinds of other locals pitching in to get in the spirit. I don't have any pics because it happens in the dark! Check out all of the
Taos Christmas activities here
.
Cozy Christmas-ing in our
!
Meet Santa at the
Christmas Party. Plus you can make crafts and partake in the free hot chocolate and cookies!
Christmas fun at our favorite toy store ever...
! Check their monthly schedule to see what activities they have going on the month you're there. They had some fun Christmas crafts happening while we were there, Santa came to visit and we always love their music classes too!
Other Taos favorites:
The Taos Drums teepees!
Photo by
from our Spring trip.
And a couple of food faves too...
I talked about it in the post in linked to above but a couple of our favorite spots to eat around town are Eske's for veggie green chile stew & the Taos Mesa Brewery. This past time we ate dinner at the new Taos Mesa Brewery Tap Room in town and it was great! This preggo gal was stoked to also have options for ginger beer and root beer!
Photo at Eske's Pub by
from our Spring trip - before I was preggo!
So I pretty much covered our stops on this trip. If you ever have questions about traveling to Taos, feel free to email me via the contact form on the site or leave them in the comments!
Special thanks to our friends at
for making travels so much easier with our new stroller*! We're super stoked that our
converts to a double so baby sister can hop in for a ride when we're back in New Mexico next spring!
*Bugaboo provided us with a stroller but the opinions are our own and we seriously love it.
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