New Mexico is very near and dear to our hearts, because we lived there for years, have family there, and is where we met. But is it a good family travel destination? Check out this episode to find out the best things to do in New Mexico!
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Transcript
Jess: Welcome to the Jetsetting Family Travel Podcast. I’m Jess. And I’m Rod. And today we are coming to you with the beautiful state of New Mexico.
Rod: A place that is near and dear to our hearts for a variety of reasons. Yes, you can even call it The Land of Enchantment.
Jess: Yes, it is known as the Land of Enchantment.
And it is a place that’s near and dear to our hearts for several reasons. One, my family still lives. Two, I went to college there, go Lobos, and most importantly, New Mexico is where Rod and I met. We met in Albuquerque and that’s kind of where our love story and family began.
Rod: Yeah, so we wanted to spend this episode talking about not just Albuquerque, where we used to live, but the state of New Mexico in general.
I think it. What I would consider relatively underrated, and when it comes to family travel destinations across the US you don’t hear New Mexico in the discussion a lot. You hear a lot of California, national parks, going to see Florida, going to the Northeast. So we wanted to spend some time going over what would be best.
If you’re planning a trip in the area, or if you want to drive through New Mexico, where are the different cities you can go to? What kind of activities can you do? There’s a lot of natural beauty in the state. There’s a lot of great food and there’s a lot of fun events as well, including a very internationally renowned global event that happens every October, that we’re going to talk about.
Jess: Yeah, I think New Mexico is just so rich in both history and culture and just incredible architecture. It has a very large Native American influence. It has a very large Hispanic influence and that really trickles down to the way of life in New Mexico. It trickles down to the food, the architecture, and so many incredible things.
And I agree with Rod. It’s a very underrated place to visit overall. People who live there, I mean, we joke, I guess it’s called the Land of Enchantment. Locals call it the Land of Entrapment because most people don’t leave. Right? But we left and still love, love, love to go back because it is such a beautiful place to visit and so you should definitely add it to your list and we’re going to try to tell you why.
Rod: Yeah. I think we’re going to start with the city of Albuquerque itself. I think logistically, if you are planning a visit, you’re most likely going to fly into Albuquerque and, or you can drive in and do a road trip there, but Albuquerque really is pretty central in the state, and that’s the biggest airport there.
So, starting in Albuquerque, Jess, what are some of the main attractions and draws that people could sh should go and consider? So,
Jess: Albuquerque’s Jam-packed with attractions, and I will say compared to a lot of cities, I find Albuquerque to be an extremely kid-friendly city. There is a lot to do with kids in a very short like small city.
So it’s easy to get to each of the different activities with the kids. So I’m going to start with Albuquerque Bio Park, that’s what we call it. The Bio Park encompasses many things. You have your botanical gardens, your zoo, your aquarium, and something we call Tingley Beach. It is not an actual beach guys . We are not against the water.
But it’s a really cool area with like fishing ponds and a, a beautiful place to just have like a picnic. the Albuquerque bio Park has different ways you can visit it. You can either buy like. Trio pass where you get access to all three parks or you could just choose to go to the aquarium or the zoo that day.
There used to be this train that ran between the three parks that kind of made it easy to park hop. I know they took that down for renovation a year or two ago. And then in 2023, which we are now in, the new electric train is supposed to launch, but I don’t believe it’s launched quite yet. And I’m not going to guarantee it will be running when you get there, but hopefully that’s back up and running so that you can easily see.
All three of those parks, and what’s really cool is right down the street from that. Really in that close proximity, it’s kind of, we call it the Old Town area of Albuquerque. So it’s this beautiful old plaza. It’s the church rod and I get married at, so if you go to Old Town, send us a photo. You won’t miss the church, I promise.
But, the bio parks is near there. And then there’s also the Explora Children’s Museum, which is our kids’ favorite, and this Children’s Museum guys has so much to do. It is a really, really, really interactive and fun museum that you should not miss. Almost everything in there is hands on, whether you want to learn how wind works, how water works, how light works.
There’s different areas. Yeah. Even adults upstairs have these cool like. Problem solving puzzles.
Rod: Yeah, they got little logic puzzles. There’s a bubble station where you can like try to make bubbles of different shapes and sizes and the kids just wanted to spend forever there and it’s really cool too.
There’s this massive elevator and every time we go in the, the kids like that is probably the one thing they remember is the elevator that connects the first and second floor says gigantic. There’s a couch in. I think pretty sure was like an old industrial elevator that they are using as, you know, part of the museum there.
Jess: But I think that’s what’s really cool is if you go to Albuquerque and you decide, I think one of the nicest parts of Albuquerque to actually stay in is the Albuquerque historic old town area. It’s different than the downtown. It’s separate from that. Yeah.
Rod: Don’t go to. Yeah, downtown’s not our favorite.
Unfortunately, we cannot recommend going to downtown.
Jess: I don’t really recommend too much of downtown. But Old Town, it’s super charming. You have little boutiques, little cafes. The streets look like an old pueblo. It’s just beautiful. And like I said, from there you can walk to the Explora Museum, you’d have to drive to the, the zoo and Bio Park, but it’s really close proximity, so it’s like a really great place to have a base.
Rod: Yeah. Even in that area, there’s also a new place. It’s called the Sawmill Market, and it’s really cool. It’s one of those warehousey looking places where you go inside and there’s all kinds of food stalls. There’s a bar, there’s an outdoor area where you can play games and I think it’s pretty sure, pretty sure it’s within walking distance to Explora Museum so you can plan a day to drive into old town area.
Walk around there, see some of the souvenirs in the different shops. They have like a breaking bad themed the store over there. You can even get the, the Breaking Bad tour and the experience where you go see the different locations that they shot for the TV series and then have lunch at the Sawmill Market, go to Explora.
There’s another nice hotel right there that you can stay at too. So yeah, definitely a, a great destination for like a full day of activities and events
Jess: yes. Something else located in Albuquerque that I think is a highlight for families that shouldn’t be missed is the Albuquerque tram. This, oh, yeah, tram.
It takes you to the peak of our mountain that we have there. It’s Sandia Mountain. It’s a 2.7 mile ride to the top, and it is gorgeous. Just the views you get from the ride up of the city and of the landscape and the mountain is. Absolutely breathtaking. When you get to the top. Our kids, if it’s cold, love getting a hot chocolate or a little drink.
Because there’s a restaurant at the top. And you can kind of walk around and explore. Some people actually choose to hike to the top of the mountain. Yeah. And then ride the tram down. So that is an option.
Rod: Or you can drive around the backside of it. Right. If you have a rental car, I don’t know if I would recommend driving all the way back there.
Maybe if you’re trying to do some of the hikes in the. That might be something that you can look into, but yeah, I think the tram is easier, more fun than the, the drive up.
Jess: There’s actually, I don’t know if they promote that anymore, but there was like a small aircraft wreck against the side of the mountain and so like on your tram right up, sometimes it’s really fun because they, you like, I remember when we were young, we’d always be like, who can spot the airplane first?
Because it the remains of the airplane still were on the side of the mountain. So I think that is something that’s really, really fun in the city of Albuquerque and shouldn’t be missed. Albuquerque’s also really known for hot air balloons when we talk about this festival. Go ahead babe.
Rod: Yeah, the International Balloon Fiesta.
And we, every time we go, there’s a couple of different activities you do there at the very beginning of the day. So super early sunrise, that’s when the mass ascension happens. So think big, big grass field. Ton of balloons that was save thousands of them. They’re all getting inflated and you know, they all take off at around the same time.
And it’s this really gorgeous view. There’s like a county fair, state, fair looking area right next to it where you can get snacks, you can play little games. There’s usually live music there. So it’s a really great. And it’s also an event that I feel I am very cursed.
Jess: Don’t go with Rod guys. Whatever you do, don’t go to this
Rod: event with Rod.
I’ve gone maybe four times. We wake up at [3:00] AM it gets really trafficky to go park over there, so you have to leave really early. And every time that Jess and I have gone or gone with the kids that morning, there’s high wind or there’s weather, rain, that the mass ascension gets canceled. And this happened three or four times straight.
So this last time that we went, I was outside, Jess, I think I’m going to sit this one out. And I set it out and it actually happened.
Jess: I did. I’ve seen it happen. And it actually says around 500, it seems like thousands, but 500 billions go up. I’ve seen it, I don’t know, five or six times, and it is magical when all of these balloons go up in the air and you’re just, I mean, it’s a cloud.
It’s like a sky filled with balloons and there’s no way to describe the feeling. I just feel bad. Rod’s been very unlucky, so. If you’re ever there, don’t invite Rod. Cause we’ll get wind or rain. And it is super weather dependent due to the safety of all of these balloon pilots. The night event though, if you, I really recommend, that one’s fun trying to go to the morning event, but.
If you’re not an early person who don’t want to risk weather, the night event is typically a little a night glow. Yeah, it’s called a night glow. The balloon, it’s like, and it’s beautiful because at that one, the balloons don’t actually fly. They don’t take off, but they all blow up once the sun goes down and they twinkle.
So it’s like this field of twinkling balloons and it’s just beautiful. And then afterwards they do one of the most enormous firework shows. And it’s just a really cool event with kids. So you can go both the morning and night or just one or the other. The night show is canceled typically less often due to the fact that the balloons aren’t flying right than the morning.
But a lot of times. Like when Rod and I have gone usually the night before, it is questionable whether it’s going to happen the next day. So it’s just one of those events. If seeing the balloons go up is your absolute dream, I would definitely plan at least five days to be in Albuquerque, just to make sure you have
Rod: and this typically happens in like end of September, first week of October timeframe.
Jess: The first two weeks of October. Yeah. Okay. Every year. But if you aren’t there for the Balloon Fiesta, you could still ride hot air balloons almost year round. In Albuquerque, they go off really, really early in the morning, so you need to be there four 30 or five most likely. And Rainbow Riders is one of the big, big brands in the city.
And they will still go off. I mean, usually on a normal morning we only see five to six balloons, so it’s nothing like the balloon fiesta, but it’s something that if you plan in advance and want to see Albuquerque in that way and it’s very special to the city it’s something you should look into cause it’s a really cool thing to do while there.
Yep. Another cool place to see an Albuquerque that’s free and great for kids is a place called The Park Above. This is actually in a suburb of Albuquerque, but they’re kind of all connected, but it’s in a suburb called Rio Rancho, and the park above is just an enormous playground. But it’s super cool.
It was created by a mom and it’s huge. There’s a lot Oh yeah. Of sun cover. There’s a splash park, there’s like a sand pit area.
Rod: There’s all kinds of different swings and slides.
Jess: And the cool thing is it’s completely 80 accessible, so they have a different swings and different ways for children of all abilities to be able to interact with this park.
It’s a very huge sensory playground, so a lot of things make different noises and different textures and sounds, and it’s actually one of the most beautiful parks I’ve seen and a lot of our travels and Yep. So whenever we go back to Albuquerque, we definitely make sure that the park above is one of our stops.
The kids love going and I think it’s a beautiful place just to take the kids and to hang out and it’s free, so why not?
Rod: Yeah, and I think close by to that area too, if you want some more natural hiking types of activities. You have the petroglyphs there, it’s the Petroglyph Monument.
And there you have, it’s really cool. You have little, carved rocks that you go and you walk around and you see the different petroglyphs, which is, you know, the, the way that the people there used to communicate, I guess. And you see little images that are carved in there. And you have informational sessions where you can take a look at the pamphlets and read the history of the area.
And kind of the natives that live there centuries ago.
Jess: So yeah, if you like college basketball, you could always go cheer on the Lobos if they’re playing a Lobo.
Rod: Yeah. Sports, basketball, sports in general. I think it’s very underrated In Albuquerque, they have a couple of minor league teams there.
There’s the Albuquerque Isotopes, they’re the, the minor league baseball team. You have a pretty new team. It’s a soccer team. That’s the New Mexico United. And yeah, college basketball I think is huge in New Mexico, so the University of New Mexico, the Lobos there, I think that arena is very unique just because it gets super loud in there, particularly if the Lobos are doing well, which this year has been a little bit of a rollercoaster. It started off amazing, but we’ll see what happens.
Jess: If you’re in Albuquerque and want you can always go walk the University of New Mexico campus. And if you choose to do that, hit up my favorite restaurant. It’s called Frontier. Yep. Or their smaller location Golden Pride. And you should try some New Mexico food. It’s Adobada Burrito. It’s like a pork burrito with this red chile sauce with some hash browns and cheese, and it’s so much yummy yeah.
Rod: Chile in general in New Mexico is probably one of the biggest food staples there. I would say yes. It always comes in either green chile or red chile.
Or you can get both at the same time. They call it Christmas.
Jess: Yes, you can get a Christmas. And it’s, it’s interesting because you’ll even see at some of the fast food restaurants, they’ve adapted to New Mexico culture because we eat green chile on our hamburgers. And so you can get green chile added to your burgers.
Sometimes people get green chile added to their pizza. I mean, it’s breakfast burritos. You have it in pizza. Yeah, it’s everywhere. I mean, green chile. . If you are in New Mexico, there’s not all of it spicy. It doesn’t have to be really hot. I mean, normally there’s a little kick, but I feel like you have to try chile.
At least green chile. That’s what we’re famous for. That’s what we’re known for. I prefer red chile. Yep. But every time I go to Albuquerque, guys, I bring home a cooler on the plane of my green and red chile because that’s what I grew up cooking with. It’s what we grew up eating. And so I loved bringing New Mexico Green Chile home.
So when you’re there, think of me as you try a delicious green chile plate, whether it’s an enchilada or a burrito, or even a burger with some chile on it. Well, there’s so much more to do. An Albuquerque. It’s truly, truly, truly, a beautiful place. A drive through Corrales is beautiful just to see a different part of the city.
The last place I wanted to bring up was Los Poblanos. Oh yeah. It was a beautiful, beautiful place to see, that actually people say, I think it’s rumor, maybe because Chip Gaines from, the Fixer Upper is from Albuquerque. And a lot of people say that they think that the Waco market is inspired by, by inspired by Los Poblanos.
And what’s interesting is when I finally went to Waco last year on this girl’s trip, they sold Los Poblanos product at the market in Waco. But Los Poblanos is a really cool, it’s like lavender fields. It feels like a farm type. They have the silos there and you can either have a breakfast there, a coffee, yeah, it’s, it’s also an event venue, right?
It’s an event venue, but it’s kind of a fun place to go check out. It’s in a beautiful, beautiful drive. You drive down this gorgeous street to get there and it’s really cool cause it does remind me a lot of the silos from Chip and Joanna Gaines. So that’s something cool if that’s something that interests you to check out.
Right? But Albuquerque has tons and tons more to do. They have casinos and hikes and it’s just jam packed with fun. But it’s not the only highlight of New Mexico. Santa Fe, is another extremely popular destination for people to visit.
Rod: Yeah, Capitol City of New Mexico. It’s about an hour away, an hour north. So you can probably, if you’re staying in Albuquerque, you can do a day trip up.
It’s a pretty easy drive up I-25. And there’s a lot of good activities there too. I think similar to Old Town in Albuquerque, the plaza area of Santa Fe is super walkable. There’s a lot of different museums, restaurants, shopping that you can. Parks for the kids. You, there’s some really beautiful churches that you can take a look out there too.
Jess: Yeah. Santa Fe I’d say always say Santa Fe feels like, I don’t know if this is rude to say, but like the more luxurious Albuquerque , it’s like the, it’s, it has a more
Rod: intimate, I think, I’d say it’s more intimate.
Jess: Intimate and like trendy. Not trendy, because Albuquerque has a really cool trendy bar scene, but like Santa Fe feels more uppity. It feels more like, I don’t know. Yeah.
Rod: Yeah, I could, I could see that.
Jess: I think it’s more artsy. It’s a lot of high-end art. There’s a famous road there called Canyon Road where you can walk down the road and it’s gorgeous and you see different art galleries.
Rod: And it’s just, yeah, a lot of great wood and ceramic art too, and things that you can buy.
So I think when it comes to handcrafted goods, I think. Santa Fe is really well known for high quality art there.
Jess: Yes. In Santa Fe there’s a Santa Fe Plaza. The Cathedral Basilica of San Francis of Assisi is beautiful. You won’t miss it if you’re touring the plaza. And then we have a famous chapel called the Loretto Chapel that’s famous for its stairs because people are just marveled on how they’re made.
And then if you love art, there’s a Georgia O’Keefe Museum. There’s tons of galleries. But if you’re traveling with kids, which a lot of you who listen are traveling with kids and they might not love, touring churches and art galleries as much, you should definitely take them to a magical place called Meow Wolf.
Rod: Oh, yeah. I could talk forever about Meow Wolf just because it, it is very hard to describe the place. I think it, you’re not doing a justice if you’re just calling it like a creative art museum. There’s a story built into it. There is such creative work that is happening there. You’ve got neon colored things.
You’ve got a replica and mockup of this house that you’re touring, but you can walk through the refrigerator into this like space themed, funky looking area. You’ve got this like massive toilet that you can look into, and there’s stuff in there. If you’re interested in like really creative output and ways for people to just display different interactive scenes, there’s an area with like televisions that are all showing some different things.
There’s yeah. I can’t even describe everything that’s happening in there. You just have to go in there and check it.
Jess: Not too much further from Santa Fe. You could always head up to Taos Pueblo. Beautiful architecture, a lot of rich culture, a lot of rich history. And you have the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.
Just if you love history, architecture and art, the Santa Fe and Taos area are definitely going to be places you love and highlights of your trip along with incredible hiking. So those are areas that I love to explore. I feel like with kids, they enjoy it, but not days and days on end. I think as they get older, maybe that’ll be something that they enjoy, right?
But we try to mix our trips up. Maybe one day looking at churches in beautiful architecture and then one fun day at Meow Wolf where they get to run around and touch everything. Right. Another really cool place in New Mexico to stop at that is now in the opposite direction. So Albuquerque is in. Santa Fe and Taos are north of Albuquerque, and the next two destinations that are very well known are south of Albuquerque.
So one of those is White Sands National Park.
Rod: Yep. White Sands is famous because the sand there is really pristine and you’re driving across this National Park and there’s just mounds and mounds of this, like really pure white sand. The actual draw and attraction of it is there’s sand sledding available so you can rent little sand sleds.
They’re like these disc shaped things that you sit on. You wax ’em and you can basically surf or sled down these little Sandhills. It’s really fun.
Jess: But when we say like White Sands guys, it looks like snow. It is so white. Yeah. It looks like you are in this hot snow. It’s so bizarre. Yeah.
Rod: Take sunglasses because, it gets pretty blinding if it’s a sunny day, which typically in New Mexico, you’re getting, I think 250 plus days of like sunny weather.
So definitely go check that out. That’s about three hours south from Albuquerque. But also in the area and, and this is would be an interesting trip to plan because there’s a couple of other destinations there. The other big one is called the Carlsbad Caverns, and they’re world renowned. There’s different ways you can access them, so you can hike through the entrance where they were originally discovered. But since then, they’ve also built an elevator and it, I think it descends hundreds of feet below the, like the desert where it starts there and you open up the elevator and you’re in this like massive football field size, cavern. And you can do a guided tour there.
I think there’s like an hour and a half tour that you can take of, I think that’s called the King’s Palace. Or you can just walk around on your own through the open field areas and really just explore, everything there is pretty well lit. There are going to be some areas where you’re kind of descending up and down.
But the other cool event there is what’s called the bat flight program. And this one happens from late May to October. I thought it was pretty cool. Jess is looking at me like meh.
Jess: Well, I mean I love the Carlsbad Caverns. I think the Carlsbad Caverns are definitely worth a trip. It is so impressive.
They’re actually the big room in the Carlsbad Cavern is the largest in North America and it’s 32nd largest in the world. I mean, it is really impressive to be in there. Yeah, the bad experience. Meh, I, I mean, I think it depends on the day, first off. Yeah. Depends on, yeah, we probably got it that day. It depends on the day, it depends on the season.
But we sat out like, so you sit in this almost amphitheater outdoor like space. Yeah. And you just see the whole of the cavern. Like you see like, yeah, you’re overlooking the entrance and you just literally wait until the sun sets pretty much. And like a swarm of bats. It’s supposed to kind of look like the smoke cloud will come out of the cavern and kind.
Oh, like put on this show, not really a show, but like you get to watch them exit in this giant group of this dark looking cloud and it’s supposed to be extremely impressive. And I feel like maybe in my head I had watched Lost too much and like seen the Smoke Monster in that show, which I never understood.
It’s Rod’s favorite show and I feel like it was beyond my comprehension at times. I expected the smoke monster type thing to come out of this cave, and when it finally happened, I’m like, aren’t there more?
Rod: It was like a little trickle of bats coming out here and there. So, you know, at at Sunset, the bats are all leaving to go hunt for insects and stuff.
So during these summer months, I guess that’s when the large largest population of them are leaving. And if you want to get there early enough, I think they have a dawn program where you see them returning. But yeah, I think it’s. It’s going to depend definitely temper your expectations and don’t expect a smoke monster that is going to like completely overwhelm.
You know, you as it’s going by.
Jess: Y’all might go with the right season and be like, that’s exactly…
Rod: We saw some videos that were pretty cool and yeah, it’s just, I think we might have gone towards the end of the season. It was just like a couple of bats flying out here and there, and we’re like, all right, cool.
This is the start of it. And all of a sudden people were saying that it was over. So we’re like, what? It was still an interesting experience. I don’t think you can, you know, there’s a lot of places in the world where you’d see these like big bat migrations that are happening on a daily basis.
Jess: Something cool to note about the Carlsbad Caverns is since you are so far down below the earth surfaces, it stays cool down there.
So it’s, it’s a great place to go, I think, especially in summer when it’s like super hot outside. Yeah, you can go down into the caverns. You’re going to be nice and cool. I am a very cold. Person normally. So I would actually take a jacket. But it’s, it’s, that’s something that’s really cool. You’re in this like dark cave, hundreds of feet below the earth’s surface and the kids got to learn a lot about Cave systems, stalagtites and all of that.
Yeah, I remember they, Santi was fascinated by it. So I think it’s a really, really cool trip with kids. I think from Albuquerque you could stop at White Sands, and then go there and it’s just a fun way to explore.
Rod: And on the way back, this is, probably an honorable mention, but if it’s something that you’re into, you can drive through the town of Roswell, New Mexico, which is better known as like what Alien City USA or whatever.
Jess: Yes. Roswell is famous for aliens, guys, and Roswell is funny because you will see. They have like an alien museum. They have…
Rod: Oh yeah. You will immediately know when you’re in Rosswell because I think all of the street signs also have little aliens on them or some of the lampposts. Everything there is alien decorated, and the museum was interesting.
I don’t know if, I think it’s probably for older kids. There’s not a lot of interactive stuff in that alien museum. You get a lot of history of what Roswell, I think, I don’t know if it was the forties or fifties where strange things were happening. And you saw some like quirky images of things, and you’ve got all the souvenir shops that are selling you all the green alien souvenirs.
Jess: Well, it’s famous for like the 1947 UFO crash. And so that happened supposedly there. And then the city kind of took pride of that and made it their, they themed their entire city after it. I want to say, I mean, totally random fact, but in New Mexico we say Demi Moore is from Roswell. Oh, okay. For those who care, not that that’s going to enhance your stay, right?
In any way, shape or form, but yes. So supposedly this UFO saucer crashed there like 30 miles outside of the town. And then it just became their thing. And it’s cool, even though I think the Walmart there is green. Oh yeah. So they have fully embraced their history. I think if your kids really love UFOs and aliens and things, it’s,
I mean, you don’t need to spend a lot of time there. I’d say it’s a quick lunch stop and Yep. Tour through the city and head out. This isn’t like, I’m not recommending necessarily you a full day trip there. A full day trip there. Yeah. But it’s a great stop on your way tour or from
Rod: Carlsbad Caverns. Yep.
Jess: Yeah. But New Mexico as a whole, especially we haven’t talked too much about hiking, but you can. There’s beautiful hikes throughout the state. And there’s just beautiful places. One of the places that currently is my favorite, which is just a little bit south of Albuquerque, it’s actually a great day trip from Albuquerque, is the Acoma Pueblo.
I didn’t talk about it too much here because sadly, since Covid, they haven’t opened back up to the public. I hope they do one day. But it’s a beautiful, beautiful pueblo to go tour and to see this pueblo is still has people living there like they did hundreds of years ago, and it’s beautiful.
And to get a tour from a local who’s grown up there in their culture, so rich and deep is incredible. So it’s something to look at. I would not say plan it because as of now they’re still closed as far as I’m concerned. But Acoma SKy, it’s Acoma City Sky Pueblo, I believe. Sky City. Yeah, it’s Sky City, Pueblo is incredible.
And there’s tons of little places like that throughout the state where it’s just, Breathtaking. Yeah, I think the scenery’s breathtaking. And the people are kind. Yeah.
One more thing. For those that don’t know, I’m going to just put a disclaimer out there.
New Mexico is part of the United States, and I feel like if you are not from the US I can totally get the confusion. There’s a Mexico, which is a country, and New Mexico, that’s a state. But for a lot of Americans, I’m surprised when I say I’m from New Mexico, they’ll be like, you speak Spanish really well. And ironically, my family’s also from Mexico, so sometimes I think that’s the confusion.
Yeah. But New Mexico is a state. It is in the southwest of the United States. The primary language is English, although it’s a very mixed state, culturally, you will hear Spanish, you will hear different languages at times, right? Our language. There is English . We are a state and we are located in the United States of America.
No.
Rod: Yeah. I can’t recall how many times Jess has shown her ID somewhere and back then when she had a New Mexico driver’s license and someone would be like, oh yeah, sorry. I need a US proof of identity. We’re like, yeah, that is New Mexico is a New Mexico.
Jess: I’ll never forget too, I was in New York once and I randomly bought something and I wanted it shipped home.
And I kept giving her the address and she was very adamant. She’s like, Ma’am, we do not ship out of the United States . And I was like, had this whole argument with her. I’m like, I’m not asking you to ship, I’m asking you to go to New Mexico. She’s like, we don’t ship there. That is not in the United States.
And I was like, oh my gosh. Losing my mind. But New Mexico is a state and it’s a beautiful state that you should visit because it has a lot of beautiful gems. And my only other tip is more so in Albuquerque, not in Santa Fe or other areas. Albuquerque’s beautiful. My family lives there. My brother, my nieces, we lived there.
It’s a great city. But my disclaimer is, is Albuquerque does have a high, like auto break-in theft. Yeah.
Rod: It is a problem. There are some places that just look generally more rough than what you would expect. So yeah, I think in terms of safety, it’s, it’s a safe city.
Jess: Just don’t leave valuables in your car.
Rod: Don’t leave valuables in your car. Yeah. Don’t go downtown at night by yourself.
Jess: By yourself on like a random alley. I mean, it’s a safe city, but I think compared to a lot of cities, Albuquerque has a very high auto break in problem. So it’s not a place that I would leave luggage for extended periods of time in your car.
I would never leave any sort of valuable laptop or an iPad because you just don’t want something like that to ruin your experience in a city. And I think everywhere we travel has different things that we have to be aware of and I just think that’s something in Albuquerque. Yeah. I think to know, right.
But it’s a beautiful city. I hope if you go and you have questions on New Mexico, you can reach out to Rod and I, we’ve spent years of our lives in and around the area. And so would be happy to give you guys whatever insight we can.
Rod: Yeah, always feel free to reach out to us. You know, as always, you can find us @thejetsettingfamily on Instagram, shoot us an email [email protected], and subscribe to the podcast if that’s something that you’re enjoying.
We’re always happy to get feedback, get reviews, and that definitely helps the podcast get discovered a little bit more. So once again, thank you for listening and until next week Happy Jetsetting!
