Field Report No. 01 · Family trip
Santa Fe New Mexico, USA
Our home base, in every sense. Jamey's grandparents lived here for thirty years, and we've been back hundreds of times since. This is the one we could plan in our sleep.
Field Report
No. 01
Family trip
Santa Fe New Mexico, USA
Worth the flight.
- Coordinates
- 35.6870° N, 105.9378° W
- Traveled
- Every season
- Kid-readiness
- Built for it. Whitewater rafting, a children's museum, private hot tubs, Meow Wolf, and more hiking than you can fit in a week. There's cactus everywhere, so keep closed-toe shoes on the kids.
- Where we stayed
- Our own two places: Casa de Ice, a 6-bedroom 1950s adobe estate on 17 acres, and Casa de Camino, a design-forward home that sleeps 14.
- The non-negotiable
- A private hot tub at Ten Thousand Waves after a hike, then tori no karaage at Izanami. Plus a slow morning on the Plaza and a walk up Canyon Road, window-shopping the galleries.
- What we'd skip
- Nothing in town is a trap. But the Loretto Chapel staircase is a 15-minute stop, not an afternoon.
- Best season
- Fall, when the aspens go gold at the ski basin. Summer for the hiking. Christmastime is pure magic. We go year-round.
- Points & hacking
- Fly into Santa Fe (SAF) or Albuquerque (ABQ, about 50 minutes south). One easy hack: happy hour at Bishop's Lodge. Affordable, with amazing drinks and big views, and the kids can run the grounds while you sit.
35.6870° N, 105.9378° W
Santa Fe is the trip we’ve taken more than any other. Jamey’s grandparents, Lee and Noel Ice, moved here from Fort Worth in 1988 and stayed thirty years. He grew up on Christmas Eves on Canyon Road, his grandmother’s green chili stew, the smell of piñon smoke. We’ve been back hundreds of times, every season, snow included. So this isn’t a trip we researched. We just know it.
If we only got to take one trip a year, it’d be this one.
We build the days around the mountains and the food. Breakfast at Café Pasqual’s on the Plaza, and wait it out, it’s worth it. A morning up Alamo Vista, our favorite hike, gold with aspens in the fall, or the cave ladders at Tsankawi. Then up the mountain to Ten Thousand Waves, steam coming off the water, our own cold plunge and cedar sauna, and a big chirashi bowl at Izanami after. The Teahouse on Canyon Road is our favorite lunch. The Shed, Sazón, and Pink Adobe are the dinners worth calling ahead for. El Parasol has the best tacos in town, maybe anywhere. And Meow Wolf for when the girls need to be turned loose.
A few more that are part of the rotation. In the summer the Plaza runs free concerts at night, and that’s one of our favorite things we do here. The lazy night is Upper Crust Pizza brought back to the house. Our favorite happy hour is SkyFire, the restaurant at Bishop’s Lodge: the best chips, guac, and queso in town, and the drinks run much cheaper than they do at dinner. And save one dinner for the drive out to Rancho de Chimayó, about 35 minutes north; get the prickly-pear margarita, and the historic chapel just up the road is worth the stop.
35.8633° N, 106.2233° W
35.6870° N, 105.9378° W
Save a day to drive out to Ghost Ranch. It’s gorgeous country, they’ve shot a stack of Westerns out there, and the Chimney Rock hike is a fun one. The mountains right above town are full of trails, and when the snow comes, Ski Santa Fe is easy, cheap, and short on lines. If you’re anywhere close in early October, the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is something to see at least once. Fair warning: you get there early and parking is a pain, and it’s still worth it.
Where we stay is the easy part: our own two houses off Old Las Vegas Highway, Casa de Ice and Casa de Camino.
It’s not a checklist city, and that’s the point. Adobe walls, dirt roads, nobody in a hurry. Which is exactly why it works with kids, and why we keep going back.
Stay with us
We host here, too.
Casa de Ice and Casa de Camino are our two homes off Old Las Vegas Hwy. The same Santa Fe we just walked you through, with a key waiting.
See the houses
