Tauck New Mexico, May, 2024
We just returned from this tour. This was our second Tauck tour and our first US tour with anyone. We have lived on the left coast for decades but NM was our least explored state. We thought this would be a good and relatively easy way to see the highlights, and we were right. A fellow once told me at this age (mid 70’s) there are three types of people: the go-go’s, the slow go’s and the no go’s. We like to think we are among the first group and there were mostly kindred spirits in our group. But, there were a few of the slows and at least one gentleman transitioning into the last group. He kept up mostly, but held up the bus on at least one occasion when he missed the boarding time.
We enjoyed this tour. But, I don’t see any tours posted for 2025 and 2024 dates are mostly available. One artist we met told us this tour was being eliminated. So, all this may be moot. But here goes:
We flew into Albuquerque a day early. From where we live it’s a short hop on Southwest. We had requested rooms with a tub and our TA verified this with Tauck twice. When we arrived the Hotel Albuquerque had no record of that and no such availability. Our room was shower only and very dark. The hotels on this tour are owned by one company, Heritage, and the lack of lighting in the room was a constant. The toiletries were good quality and were the same in each hotel. Hotel Albuquerque put an $850 charged on my card. When I went back to the desk they admitted it was a mistake but nobody had the authority to remove it. Each trip resulted in similar answers ands I needed to see a specific supervisor who was either 1) in a meeting, 2) on a meal break, 3) out for the remainder of the day. Took my TA calling Tauck and then it was solved. Since we were on our own we explored Old Town and had dinner at Campo at Los Poblanos. This was a 15 minute Uber from the hotel. It’s a lavender farm with a really nice outdoor seating area. There was a peacock in full bloom for entertainment. The meal was one of our favorites. The meals on our own, overall, were much better than the group meals.
We visited the Albuquerque Museum the next day, worthwhile and not on the tour. My wife had a spa treatment at The Hotel Chaco. We met our terrific TD, Gideon that evening and he said he’d be sure and take care of the bathtub request going forward and he did. There were 26 on the tour and this was supposedly a small group. The Hotel Chaco next door is owned by the same company, appeared much nicer and I recall reading the small groups stayed there. Guess not. We met our fellow tourists and had a mediocre meal. (Same for breakfast at this hotel)
The next day we took a coach tour of Albuquerque. Our TD is a native so he had many insights. We visited the National Museum of Nuclear Science. This was a very good museum and we had an excellent docent. Later we visited a Native American cultural center. Another great docent. I bought a copper bracelet from a craftsmen. Still waiting for my arthritis to go away. Dinner was at the Sawmill a food courts next door. We had vouchers and enjoyed it although it’s overrun with teens. We delayed returning to teh hotel as our TD told us there would be a noisy wedding. Man, was he right! The band was about 30 feet from our balcony. Earplugs helped some and fortunately they quit earlier that we expected.
Day 3 we left Albuquerque en route to Taos. We made stops at several sites including the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi at Bandelier Nat’l Monument. We lunched at Rancho de Chamayo. This place draws quite a crowd. Our menu had no prices and looking around, our plates were much smaller than other patrons. Many of us thought the hyped up food was just fair. My wife and I had margaritas which helped. The Hotel El Monte Sagrada in Taos was a moderate walk from the city center. We enjoyed it but it’s a bit rustic. Dinner that night was in the restaurant. Service was scattered but the food was good.
Day 4 we visited the Taos Pueblo after a morning spent with a lovely Native American couple. The tour was breathtakingly brief and we walked around taking pictures and visiting the omnipresent vendors. Our lunch was at a hole in the wall place La Cuervo and had the best guacamole and fish tacos ever. That night we had our best meal of the trip at Lamberts which we (luckily) had booked ahead.
Day 5 was supposed to be a float trip on the Rio Grand. The winds were blowing and it was deemed not safe. So, a coach ride along the river with a guy who told great stories. Then to a visitors center where we had several rambling Native American speakers and a mediocre home cooked meal. This was not a great day up until then. But the hotel in Santa Fe (Eldorado) was very nice. And the Tauck dinner was at The Coyote Cafe and was excellent.
Day 6 we had a great guided walking tour of Santa Fe. We had a cooking demonstration at the Santa Fe School of cooking and lunch there. The teacher was excellent and the food very good. We learned several recipes we will try at home and bought some goodies at their gift shop. We had dinner on our own at The Shed which was touted but just fair.
Day 7 we visited a sculptor in his home and studio. This was terrific. His apprentice makes much more affordable pieces and we ordered one. Our final dinner was at the hotel in a large room with dreadful acoustics. The kitchen could not keep up and some tables had not gotten their mains (ours) while others were finishing dessert. Our mains were lukewarm with congealed gravy. Not a great ending dinner.🥘
Flaws and all we enjoyed this tour. We got to see places we had never visited, met some nice folks and had a few good meals (on our own). We have two Tauck tours booked, N. Italy this fall and the new Aegean tour fall of 2025. Greatly looking forward to those.
Comments
Sorry to hear some aspects of the tour fell short of your expectations. My husband was born and raised in northwestern NM and I acquired my undergraduate and graduate degrees there. Santa Fe is special to us since we were married there and are working on relocating back there.
Anyway, touring the state is quite easy to do on your own in my opinion. The benefits of a formal tour are that you get to experience some of the local culture and Native American heritage. Visiting in October is quite remarkable with the hot air balloon festival.
Hopefully you were able to have some Hatch, NM chile...although the fresh crops are not harvested until Aug/Sep.
Thanks for your review.
We visited NM Years ago using the Tauck tour for ideas. One day, I can’t remember whether it was for dinner or lunch , but we went to the Tauck hotel and joked about saying we were with Tauck for a free meal 😀
We stayed outside of Sante Fe at the famous Ten Thousand Waves. We took a Viator Tour with a guide/driver to Taos, stopped on the way to see other sites and visited the Georgia O’Keefe museum , etc. we always talk about going again.
I do find the domestic Tauck tours expensive and the hotels only so so, but tours like to the Western National Parks, they can’t be beat over going there yourselves.
Thanks for posting this review. This trip has been on our list for a few years as it's an area we've not been to. If they end up cancelling it - we will certainly do it on our own one day. One of our fav USA tours to this day was one that was cancelled called MAJESTIC COLORADO -- it was also our very 1st Tauck tour almost 20 years ago. We still wonder why it was canceled - it was better than the Tauck Canyonlands and Yellowstone tours for us. Your next 2 Tauck trips sound fantastic.
We also loved that Colorado tour!
Yes, we could have done this on our own. But, as they say, life gets in the way. We have grandchildren care responsibilities and could only get a limited time away so the length of this tour was perfect. We did get to the Georgia O’ Keefe museum. A very good docent once again and a fine, small museum. We had green, red and Christmas chile galore. Learned to ask for it on the side as a few times we were caught unaware by the heat! One thing I neglected to mention is the elevation and lack of humidity. You need to drink a lot more water than you would think. Wait until you are thirsty and it’s too late! Also, you need extra skin lotion from housekeeping. And that raises another issue-we all had problems with housekeeping in all three hotels. But, we travel a lot and are finding that is unfortunately becoming common. We had days at the Four Seasons in Kona last year where we were missed entirely.
Folsomdoc, thanks for the review and I'm sorry our great state wasn't featured as well as possible. Tauck has certainly made changes to that tour over the years. They used to start the tour at the Tamaya resort which is lovely but is actually on the Santa Ana Pueblo far from most sights. Then they were using the Chaco hotel which is nice and well placed near old town.
We actually met a TD on a Rhine cruise who used to do the NM tour when it included southern NM.
It is a pretty easy state to travel on your own. Other than spring windy season the weather is pretty good especially the fall. And yes water and moisturizer a necessity. It took my husband awhile to get used to that.