Perfect 3 Day Santa Fe Itinerary - 72 Hours In Santa Fe (2024)

Looking for a Santa Fe itinerary? This three days in Santa Fe itinerary shares all the top things to do in Santa Fe, sights to see, and places to eat.

The first night you meet Santa Fe, you realize you’ve flung too far for a fling. One day in Santa Fe is not enough. You’re 7,000 feet above sea level, high on a city gleaming by the shadows of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains.

Two days in Santa Fe isn’t enough, either. You’re just getting to know Santa Fe’s tan lines, the bare browns that hold adobe illusions. You’ve tasted New Mexican food, felt the burn of green chile-smocked enchiladas, the citrus-cool of margaritas, and the sweet honeyed hit of sopapillas.

Three days in Santa Fe lets you breathe. You’re drunk on art, hot from tea, and ready to roadrunner-dash through the dusty, arid Northern New Mexico landscape on a day trip.

So, if you have just 72 hours in The City Different, here’s the perfect three days in Santa Fe itinerary to help you savor New Mexico’s capital.

Day One: Getting To Know Santa Fe

9:30 AM – Downtown Santa Fe

I can see The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi as I walk up E San Francisco St. The sidewalk narrows and widens, shifting from brick to concrete. Like many roads in Santa Fe, E San Francisco street slants slightly. It’s not quite straight, but Santa Fe’s landmark church remains in sight.

Sunlight escapes through two towers– one just a single brick layer taller than the other. The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi is massive, paler than the low-slung buildings that surround it, and looming.

Feathers of frost leave my lips as I step up a small flight of stairs towards the church. I wait, along with a few others, for Ana Pacheco. Pacheco’s ancestors arrived in Santa Fe in 1692, close to two centuries before The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi was built. She’s lived in Santa Fe most of her life (minus a brief escapade to New York), and now works as a Santa Fe historian.

For over a decade, she ran a quarterly magazine on New Mexican history. She recorded oral histories of Santa Fe locals. She authored three books on Santa Fe (and five more about New Mexico). No one knows Santa Fe better than Pacheco, so when I saw an open spot for a historic tour led by her, I knew I had to go (this is the tour I booked. It sells out quickly, so I recommend reserving early).

At 9:50 AM, Pacheco zips in with a big black binder. She speaks with the confidence of someone who has had years to dissect her relationship with Santa Fe, to grapple with its inconsistencies, and to frame The City Different in a way that fits battles lost and won. The photos in the binder are ones from her books; they show Santa Fe before. She raises them up, side-by-side against Santa Fe now.

As our group follows her around downtown Santa Fe, she points out Moorish influences in Santa Fe. She shows us a tourist-bustling chocolate shop, and lets us know that, in the mid-20th century, this building was a checkpoint for the Manhattan Project. She explains why New Mexico was a U.S. territory for over sixty years before gaining statehood. She unpacks the Zia Pueblo sun symbol, bright red against the yellow of the New Mexican flag.

There’s a personal touch to Pacheco’s tour. Santa Fe’s historic landmarks mean a lot to her; these are the places where she went to school, hung out after school, and went to church. Santa Fe is her city, and she invites us to know her home.

If you can’t get a spot on Pacheco’s tour, I still recommend blocking off the first few hours of your Santa Fe itinerary for a downtown stroll!

1:00 PM – Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

As I head from Old Santa Fe Trail towards The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, I see downtown Santa Fe at its peak. Chile ristras redden beneath the afternoon sun’s glare. Restaurant doors fling open, sneaking scents of warm tortillas and spice-sizzled meats into the air. Tourists hurry by chapped buildings, self-anointed fine art galleries, and every shopaholic’s balm: boutiques.

I walk until I see the face of one of the most photographed women of the 20th century—a powerhouse with a soft smile and creased eyes draped across adobe. Georgia O’Keeffe.

There’s a crowd outside the museum and a crowd inside. It’s hard to get tickets on-site. Even if you do, you might have to wait a few hours to see the exhibitions. Advance tickets are a must (this is the official website for booking tickets). Entry is timed (in fifteen-minute intervals).

But you can stay as long as you want, and I plan to. I pop my headphones into my ears and listen to an audio tour. Few of O’Keeffe’s iconic, unfurling petals are in view, so I pause at landscapes instead. Her vivid, slow-burns mostly influenced by New Mexico and the Southwest.

The museum itself is minimalistic and sparse, with white walls spotlighting pastels on paper. Start at Making A Life (on view until 2025), a snapshot of O’Keeffe’s creative processes. Then, stroll through the current exhibition (a themed collection of her works).

Restaurants

Henry & The Fish

My top pick for breakfast downtown! Coconut milk smoothies. Buddha bowls. Smooth matcha lattes.

La Plazuela

Santa Fe’s prettiest restaurant. Sharp mocktails, lightly seasoned enchiladas, and pillowy sopapillas.

The Shed

Won a James Beard Award over twenty years ago, and it’s still hyped for its New Mexican food. Add your name to the wait list at 4 PM.

4:00 PM – Tumbleroot Pottery

In the spring and summer, Santa Fe’s sky takes longer to deepen from blue to black. The sun is unhurried, slow to settle behind mountaintops, a reminder that I should loosen my grip on my Santa Fe itinerary.

I’m often my most ambitious in Santa Fe, but it’s not a city that demands ambitious travelers. Museums, shops, and restaurants don’t snap into focus as the minute and hour hands tick, and neither should you.

So, I settle into a barstool at Tumbleroot Pottery, at a communal table, in the company of strangers. I let my fingers sink into a pound of clay, plopped into a tin, and start…what do I do with this? My knees knock against a metal counter as I dump a lump of gray clay onto a disk. I press it down with my hands, then a spatula.

“Look, I made a snake,” a husband grins at his wife. He holds the snake, rolled leftover clay, in front of her. She smiles and continues working on her Southwestern-style pot. At another table, an older woman deftly carves a twisted trunk like those in O’Keeffe’s paintings. There are clay cacti, clay crosses, and clay chiles in progress, too. Everyone has been here for hours, making something that reminds them of Santa Fe.

We share tools (one big set per table). The mallets, stamps, and brushes pass from counter to counter. Mostly, we create in quiet. We laugh at the bumbles and missteps. When someone new walks in, they ask if we’re locals. We shake our heads.

Tumbleroot Pottery is a tourist destination. It’s downtown, on an easy-to-reach corner with heavy foot traffic. There’s a bar counter. Beer is served in charming, locally-fired pots (you can drink while working with the clay). There’s a gallery, too, with Mezcal cups and glaze-poured bowls by Santa Fe artists.

The clay self-dries. You’re given a pound to work with and a how-to starter sheet. All the instruments you need are included: wires to cut slabs of clay, fettling knives for sculpting, a spritz of water to keep the clay smooth, primary colors of tempera paints, and even a box (just ask) to take your DIY creation home. You might need to nudge your neighbor for a tool if they forget to put it back in the shared container, but beyond that, Tumbleroot stays social without being sociable. Everyone gets lost in their clay projects (I do, too), scoring memories of Santa Fe into bookends and jewelry holders.

Santa Fe Itinerary Day Two: The Artist’s Path

10:00 AM The Railyard

I remember how wide Santa Fe is at The Railyard. People shuffle between two lines of buildings spread so far apart that a train can easily run in between.

The first train arrived in Santa Fe at the end of the 19th century, signaling the end of wagons trundling into The City Different [source]. Santa Fe became more accessible. Tourists chugged in. Communities cropped up beyond platforms. The rail was on track to boost local jobs, activity, and gatherings. But, when the Interstate Highway gained traction, Santa Fe’s spotlight-bright rail stop lost its shine.

In 2008, The Railyard was revitalized into a commercial space. Now, The Rail Runner sits on tracks outside the revamped Santa Fe Depot. You can hear Rio Metro’s transit ($10 from Santa Fe to Albuquerque) arrive before you see it, wheels groaning like the starting tumble of a laundry machine.

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I sit on the patio of Sky Coffee with a cappuccino. Air nips my ears, but the drink warms my bones. People spill past the rail tracks; cars roll along Alcadesa Street. It’s been eight years since my last visit to The Railyard, and Violet Crown is still the prettiest building on the block, all sleek brown slabs like an unwrapped chocolate bar. The interior has aged quickly since the start of 2024 (supposedly not in connection to Violet Crown’s buyout by Elevate Entertainment Group), but the theater is well-loved for its indie showings.

When I finish my drink, I pop into the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market, a Saturday load of purpling cauliflowers and Looney Tunes-worthy carrots and turnips (so many turnips). The richness of garlic, butter, and yeast exaggerates as I rip apart a warmed-up piece of flatbread, green chile rubbed into its folds.

Travel Tip: Many vendors, like Intergalactic Bread Company & Space Sauce, are cash-only. Bring at least $10, but if you need more, there’s an ATM outside the Farmers’ Market.

Restaurants

Tomasita’s

A Margarita Trail stop. Sopaipillas are served with honey butter and raw honey.

Radish & Rye

American cuisine with a hint of Santa Fe. Reserve for a special date night.

Amaya

Native New Mexico inspired. Has one of the best happy hour menus in town (4-6 PM).

Read Next: 15 Traditional New Mexican Foods You Must Try

The Farmers’ Market grows until late spring when vendors burst past the indoor venue onto a platform by the rails. So, from May through December, there’s a Tuesday Farmers’ Market, too. On Sundays, the area transforms into an Artisan Market dedicated to New Mexico artists.

Across the street is SITE Santa Fe, a series of galleries that rise like phoenixes every quarter. Interior walls are torn down, and spaces are built anew to perfectly encase exhibits. SITE Santa Fe tries to rotate artists, re-engage, and make abstract works concrete.

“He’s a little obsessed with Disney. Stare at it long enough, and you might see the influence,” an attendant says as I fish for a pamphlet about Arturo Herrera. I see splatter paints and Mickey Mouse’s gloved hands; the Disney I know, straight-forward and animated, is lost in this story.

SITE Santa Fe tries to challenge the stories you know. A Carmen Herrera showing – tightrope straight lines made when Herrera was almost a centenarian (and then as a centenarian) – urges you to think about talent, ageism, and double standards. Erin Shirref’s Folded Stone tests how art is perceived and remembered.

Wonderfully enough, nothing about SITE Santa Fe feels highbrow. Guides stationed at each gallery answer questions earnestly, helping you tease out your feelings.

1:00 PM Canyon Road

It’s this modern museum-style approach Elaine Ritchel takes to Canyon Road. Ritchel is the founder of Santa Fe Art Tours, a company democratizing Canyon Road’s art scene.

I try to visit Canyon Road at least once every time I stop by Santa Fe. I’ve seen outdoor sculptures capped in snow and spring birds perched atop adobe roofs. I’ve walked here in the hot, unshaded summer heat and fallen in love with turquoise doors and grooved wooden entrances that creak under signs labeled fine art gallery.

Santa Fe is the third largest art market in the United States (after New York and San Francisco). Canyon Road is proof of that, with over eighty galleries packed as densely as an adobe brick.

There areclusters of galleries, and within those clusters, sub-clusters. Everything iswalkable, compartmentalized, beautiful, but also overwhelming. So, Ritchel pre-selects a few places to visit.Santa Fe Art Toursis her Ariadne’s Thread in Canyon Road’s tight network of home-style galleries.

You’ll unravel moods and unspool stories. Ritchel, in true Midwestern fashion, sets you at ease, then nudges you towards art appreciation.

Feel free to meander through Canyon Road unguided too! Just give yourself permission to wander and get lost.

Travel Tip: A short walk from Canyon Road is Kakawa, a specialty chocolate house known for its Mesoamerican elixirs. I recommend their hot chocolate flight (you can sample four different flavors)!

4:00 PM House Of Eternal Return

I’m not prepared for House of Eternal Return, and I’m not sure if there’s any way to prepare. House of Eternal Return is an interactive art installation built like a kid’s dream or nightmare (perhaps both—probably both). Little details from an eerie home appear like motifs once you tunnel through a laundry machine, squeeze past a fireplace, saunter into a refrigerator, and duck under a staircase.

There are thrills and trips, color-dunked chaos orchestrated by over a hundred local artists, and a Goa-psychotic haziness bleeped into a PG landscape.

Open all the doors. House of Eternal Return has over seventy rooms; when one door closes, another always seems to open. Skip past trees washed in neon, sneak off into a room of mirrors, and pad your shoes against bottle caps pressed into the ground. This is a maximalist fever dream, too imaginative for a quick two-hour pass-through and too labyrinthine-exhausting for three.

Editor’s Note: On April 15, Meow Wolf (the art production corporation behind House of Eternal Return) announced that over 100 employees will be dismissed. I visited House of The Eternal Return before the mass layoff, so I’m not sure if Meow Wolf’s company restructuring and reorganization will change the quality of this experience in any way. Just want to give y’all a heads up!

Santa Fe Itinerary Day Three: A Getaway

7:00 AM Bandelier National Monument

Eight years ago, I arrived at Bandelier National Monument at 7 AM on a spring Sunday. There was a small wooden box with red maps to borrow. I grabbed one and headed onto Main Pueblo Loop Trail. Snapped twigs and leaves brushed the early part of the path. I heard Frijoles Creek, its water gliding over rocks.

Sunlight fragmented, falling golden on tufts of grass carpeting tuffs of rock. One million years ago, a volcanic explosion heaped ash onto this ground. The ash cooled and compacted into porous, igneous rocks (tuffs), later carved by Ancestral Puebloans. Wind eroded the tuffs, piercing little holes like Swiss Cheese.

Eight hundred-something years ago, Ancestral Puebloans turned those gaps into shelters known as cavates. The rugged dwellings rising stories high (picture an apartment building in rock).

You can scale wooden ladders, enter cavates, and be engulfed in darkness. I only made it up one! My fear of heights led to a panic attack, so I chose not to continue up to Alcove House, which lies 140 feet above Frijoles Canyon (I hope you understand).

But Bandelier is worth driving to; its human history rewinds 10,000 years, and you can feel how ancient this space is as you see the dry cracks, creases, and folds of rock.

Know Before You Go: Between May to October (exact dates here), a mandatory shuttle bus wheels you off to Bandelier’s main entrance (you board at White Rock Visitor Center). The bus service is free, departing in twenty(ish) minute intervals between 9 AM to 3 PM. All visitors still need an entrance ticket. America The Beautiful Passes are accepted. You can find more details about the shuttle bus here.

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Now, almost a decade later, I’m on the same road. I’m heading toward Bandelier National Monument, but stopping in Pojoaque first to visit The Poeh Museum & Cultural Center.

The complex is beautiful, with adobe brick and mud climbing towards clouds. Nah Poeh Meng is the exhibit to start with. Six immersive rooms blend art, history, and storytelling, conveying Pueblo people’s pathway (their emergence, their everyday, their anguish) through the seasons.

Past Nah Poeh Meng is a room of stories. The stories are told by Tewa pots, stacked in four corners, shining on tiered displays. No pot hides behind another. They have waited long enough to return; now, they speak.

Tewa representatives spent years trying to bring these pots home from The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian [source]. A long-term loan was negotiated. Now, the pots are back in Northern New Mexico, 5800 feet above sea level, gleaming under the bright lights of Poeh Cultural Center. They’ve come home.

Did you enjoy this Santa Fe itinerary? Let me know in the comments below! Please feel free to adapt this Santa Fe itinerary in any way to meet your travel needs.

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