A lot of it depends on your friend's interests. If she's primarily
interested in galleries, then she won't even need a car. She can take
the shuttle from Albuquerque to a hotel in Santa Fe, then use the
in-town shuttles to see galleries near the Plaza and on Canyon Road.
If she's more adventuresome, she may want to drive up and possibly
visit a few of the outlying attractions, such as the Galisteo Studio
tour in October, with a cocktail at the newly-remodled Galisteo Inn,
all about 30 min south of the Plaza, or a trip down the Turquoise
Trail, to visit the funky towns of Cerillos and Madrid, 30-45 min
drive S of the Plaza.

Or she can visit the Shidoni Foundry and the nearby glass works and
gallery in Tesuque, then stop at Bishop's Lodge for a cool drink. All
that is 10-15 mins north of the Plaza.

I really can't recommend the trip to Taos, unless she just wants to do
the drive and sightsee the small towns like Chimayo, Truchas, etc. Or
if she want to visit the Pueblo, or drive up to the bridge that
crosses the Rio Grande Gorge. As far as a Plaza and galleries, Taos
is more like a themed shopping mall.

Anmother thing to consider is when she's coming. If it's the weekend
of July 24-25, that's Spanish Market; and the weekend of Aug 21-22 is
even more busy because that's Indian market. There's still room at
the Holdiay Inn out on Cerillos, and at the Hotel Plaza
Real on thos dates.

I agree that the VLA is interesting, but if you're only here for 3
days do you want to spend one of them driving down there, or to
Roswell, for that matter.?

sOn Tue, 15 Jun 2004 13:26:50 +0300, Trevor Alt
wrote:

A friend of mine is traveling from Europe to Santa Fe, NM. She'll be
there for 3 days and was wondering what are good places to visit
around there. I know Roswell is good because the UFO stuff, but was
wondering is there are good tourist places. In other words, if you
were to be in SF for 3 days, where would you go?
And what about transportation?

Thank you much for your input!

DM