Paseo Retreat
Dusk over Santa Fe from the hill above the property: adobe rooftops and treetops running out to the ridgeline, with the last of the light along the horizon. The sun going down over Santa Fe from a stone-walled overlook, cloud lit orange and gold across the whole width of the sky. The Sangre de Cristo foothills under a tall sky of broken cloud, ridge after forested ridge running back toward the high peaks. The whole Santa Fe valley from a granite outcrop on the ridge, pinon and ponderosa falling away to the plain and the far range on the horizon. The white rock cliffs at Plaza Blanca standing over green scrub under a deep blue sky. Fresh snow over the canyon cabins, spruce and frosted cottonwood running back up the hillside. Trail country outside town: pinon and juniper rolling away under a tall sky.
The guide

Our Santa Fe.

Everything here is somewhere we go ourselves. No filler, no sponsored picks. Walking and driving times are measured from our front gate on Paseo de la Cuma.

Eat & drink

The places we send people.

This is the list we have been emailing guests for years, not a search result. When a menu asks “red or green?”, the answer is “Christmas.”

Every pin on this map is a place we go ourselves. Colours group them by how far they are: walkable, a short drive, or worth leaving town for.

Walk to it

  • La Boca

    Spanish tapas. Boquerones, chorizo, croquetas, and drink sherry with them.

    0.5 mi · 10 min walkDirections →Website →

  • The Shed

    Red chile enchiladas and posole. The benchmark every other plate in town gets measured against.

    0.7 mi · 14 min walkDirections →Website →

  • Plaza Cafe

    The diner on the Plaza, serving since 1905 and run by the Razatos family since 1947. New Mexican and American plates, and a proper pie case.

    0.7 mi · 14 min walkDirections →Website →

  • Il Vicino Wood Oven Pizza

    Wood fired pizza. The calzones and the salads are as good as the pizza.

    0.7 mi · 14 min walkDirections →Website →

  • Cafe Pasqual's

    Breakfast is the move. Smoked trout hash, mole enchiladas. At dinner, the chile glazed shrimp.

    0.7 mi · 16 min walkDirections →Website →

  • Horno

    Small plates that do not behave like Santa Fe, from a kitchen that clearly enjoys itself. Book ahead, the room is not big.

    0.7 mi · 14 min walkDirections →Website →

  • Del Charro

    Green chile cheeseburger, nachos, a margarita. Where you go when you do not want an occasion.

    0.9 mi · 18 min walkDirections →Website →
Five to ten minutes in the car

  • Radish & Rye

    Southern food and a serious whiskey list. Buttermilk fried chicken, pork belly with a bourbon glaze.

    1.1 mi · 5 min driveDirections →Website →

  • The Pink Adobe

    New Mexican and French in the same room, which should not work. Steak Dunigan, then the apple pie.

    1.2 mi · 5 min driveDirections →Website →

  • Joseph's Culinary Pub

    Joseph Wrede cooks local and inventive. Lamb sliders, duck breast, desserts worth ordering. The special night out.

    1.2 mi · 5 min driveDirections →Website →

  • Paloma

    Duck carnitas tacos and green chile posole. The margaritas get ordered twice.

    1.2 mi · 6 min driveDirections →Website →

  • Tomasita's

    Green chile, sopapillas, margaritas. Get the enchiladas on blue corn.

    1.3 mi · 5 min driveDirections →Website →

  • Vinaigrette

    Salads that are a whole meal. The Eat Your Peas is the one. Steak or salmon if you want heavier.

    1.3 mi · 6 min driveDirections →Website →

  • El Chile Toreado

    A food truck, and the best tacos in town. Carne asada or al pastor, with the salsas.

    1.7 mi · 7 min driveDirections →

  • Leo's

    A recent find. Thai with real heat and real balance. Loud, energetic, a little New York about it.

    2.1 mi · 7 min driveDirections →Website →

  • Paper Dosa

    Also a recent find. South Indian, crisp dosas, proper chutneys. The best vegetarian eating in town.

    2.1 mi · 8 min driveDirections →Website →
Worth leaving town for

  • Tesuque Village Market

    Green chile stew, enchiladas, wood fired pizza, and a bakery case you will not walk past.

    6.1 mi · 9 min driveDirections →Website →

  • Harry's Roadhouse

    Big breakfasts, green chile cheeseburgers, and a pie case that empties fast.

    5.5 mi · 14 min driveDirections →Website →
Coffee and pastry

  • Dolina Bakery & Cafe

    402 North Guadalupe, a block up from the Allsup's. Slovak pastry, chocolate croissants, cream puffs, and a full breakfast under it. The closest good coffee to the gate.

    0.6 mi · 13 min walkDirections →Website →

  • Henry & the Fish

    A block west of the Plaza. Coffee and baked goods in the morning, then a short seafood leaning menu through lunch. Breakfast and lunch only, and closed Sundays.

    0.9 mi · 17 min walkDirections →Website →

  • Iconik Coffee Roasters · Guadalupe

    They roast their own, and this is the one we go to. It sits in a onetime Catholic school on Guadalupe, which is a better room than that sounds. Walkable if you want the walk, three minutes if you do not.

    1.2 mi · 3 min driveDirections →Website →

  • Iconik Coffee Roasters · Lena

    The original, in the Lena Street Lofts, and further out on purpose. Worth the drive on a morning you are not in a hurry.

    3.8 mi · 9 min driveDirections →Website →

Every place here links out to its own site, so you can check the menu and the hours before you go.

Trails & outdoors

The mountains are the amenity.

You can be on dirt within ten minutes of the front gate. Start easy at Fort Marcy, graduate to Atalaya, and time Aspen Vista for late September.

A dirt footpath running beside a small creek, willows and cottonwoods closing over it. A mountain river running high with spring melt, pines and cottonwoods along the bank under a deep blue sky. Pale eroded rock towers and cliffs rising against a blue sky of scattered cloud.

  • Fort Marcy

    Our morning default, and the closest thing we have to a back yard. A big grassy field for the fetch session before coffee, a short hilltop walk above it past the Cross of the Martyrs with the whole city and the mountains laid out below, and a recreation complex at the base with a full gym, a 25 yard indoor pool, basketball, table tennis and drop-in yoga, all on cheap city day passes.

    0.4 mi · 5 min walkDirections →Website →

  • Dale Ball Trails

    Nearly twenty-five miles of well-marked foothill single-track for hiking and mountain biking, empty on weekday mornings. Dogs on leash. The Sierra del Norte trailhead off Hyde Park Road is the one with real parking.

    3.3 mi · 7 min driveDirections →Trail maps →

  • Atalaya Mountain

    The town benchmark hike: about six miles round trip, a real climb, and a summit view over all of Santa Fe. Park at St. John's College and pick up the trail from the lot. Earn your green chile.

    3.0 mi · 10 min drive to trailheadDirections →Trail info →

  • Aspen Vista

    A wide, gentle trail through one of the largest aspen stands in the Sangres. In late September it turns solid gold.

    13.6 mi · 26 min driveDirections →Trail info →

  • Ski Santa Fe

    A proper 12,000-foot mountain a half hour from the front door. Ski in the morning, margarita on the Plaza by four.

    15.6 mi · 31 min driveDirections →Website →

  • Ten Thousand Waves

    Japanese-style mountain spa in the pines, with an izakaya restaurant at the top of the drive. The post-hike or post-ski soak here is a Santa Fe ritual for good reason. Book the tubs ahead.

    4.3 mi · 9 min driveDirections →Website →
Red dirt single-track winding through pinon and juniper on the foothill trails.
Foothill single-track
The whole of Santa Fe spread out below the summit, Sun Mountain in the middle distance under a big blue sky.
From the summit
A white rock spire at Plaza Blanca rising into a mackerel sky, junipers at its base.
Plaza Blanca
The long white cliff wall at Plaza Blanca over a green scrub meadow.
The white place
The Pecos running high past a log lodge with a stone chimney, spruce towering over the bank.
The Pecos
Snow on the pinon hillsides under a bright winter sky.
Winter in the foothills
The pagoda tower at Ten Thousand Waves against bare spring branches and blue sky.
Ten Thousand Waves
Looking up through the open timber roof at Ten Thousand Waves, a ponderosa overhead.
Under the timbers
A snowy road at dusk, pink light on the drifts and the pinon.
Winter, late in the day
Ten Thousand Waves in the pines, lanterns and dark timber.
Lanterns in the pines
A tiled roofline set among tall ponderosa pines.
Up in the pines
Dogs

Bring the dog. Seriously.

This corner of Santa Fe is about as dog-friendly as it gets: an off-leash wilderness six minutes away and neighbors who all seem to have one too.

A curly haired dog in a red harness pausing on a pine forest trail, looking back down the path. A deer picking through fresh snow along a coyote fence at dusk, pink cloud overhead. Rumi running through a field at sunset, backlit, ears up and tail going. Rumi up on the rock at the top of the trail, the whole valley spread out behind him.

  • Frank S. Ortiz Dog Park

    138 off-leash acres of arroyos, piñon, and trails. Less a dog park than a dog wilderness. It is not fenced, so it suits a dog that comes back when called. Your pup will sleep the rest of the day.

    1.8 mi · 6 min driveDirections →Website →
Errands

Errands, and how far they really are.

Nobody books a trip for the pharmacy, but you will want one. These are measured from our front gate, not from downtown.

Short drive

  • CVS

    195 Paseo de Peralta. Pharmacy, and the closest place for the thing you forgot.

    1.0 mi · 4 min driveDirections →

  • Sprouts

    199 Paseo de Peralta, right next door to the CVS. Do both in one stop.

    1.0 mi · 4 min driveDirections →

  • Whole Foods

    753 Cerrillos Road. The big shop.

    1.5 mi · 7 min driveDirections →

  • Walgreens

    1096 South Saint Francis Drive. Open later than the CVS.

    2.3 mi · 8 min driveDirections →

  • Trader Joe's

    530 West Cordova Road. Not near the Whole Foods, despite what everyone says.

    2.4 mi · 9 min driveDirections →
If someone gets sick

Nobody plans for this either. Worth reading once before you need it.

  • Railyard Urgent Care

    The one we send people to. Walk-in, unhurried, and they will tell you honestly if you need the emergency room instead. Faster and far cheaper than an ER for the things that are not emergencies.

    1.6 mi · 7 min driveDirections →Website →

  • Pharmacies close early here

    This catches visitors out. The CVS on Paseo de Peralta shuts at 7pm. If it is later than that, the Walgreens at St. Francis Drive and Cordova Road is open until 10pm and is the one worth the extra few minutes.

    2.3 mi · 8 min driveDirections →

  • CHRISTUS St. Vincent

    The regional hospital and the nearest emergency room. For anything serious, go here or call 911.

    2.5 mi · 8 min driveDirections →
Culture

The reason people fall for this town.

Four hundred years of art, markets, and opera under one very big sky. Most of it is a walk from the front gate.

  • The Plaza

    The four-century-old heart of town: the Palace of the Governors, Native jewelry vendors under the portal, and people-watching for days.

    0.7 mi · 10 min walk / 5 min driveDirections →History →

  • Canyon Road galleries

    Roughly a hundred galleries in half a mile of adobe. Go on a Friday evening when openings spill onto the street with wine and music.

    1.3 mi · 30 min walk / 6 min driveDirections →Gallery list →

  • Railyard farmers market

    Saturdays 8am to 1pm, year-round. Roasting green chile in the fall, local honey and bread always. Come hungry, leave carrying too much.

    1.4 mi · 6 min driveDirections →Website →

  • Meow Wolf

    The immersive art fever dream that started here. Allow two to three hours, book ahead in summer, and don't read spoilers first, just go.

    5.3 mi · 14 min driveDirections →Tickets →

  • Santa Fe Opera

    A world-class open-air house with the desert as its backdrop. The season runs July into August. Do it like a local: tailgate in the parking lot at sunset before the curtain.

    6.6 mi · 11 min driveDirections →Tickets →
Downtown Santa Fe from the hill at dusk: adobe rooftops in the trees, the last gold light on the horizon under a big grey sky. Inside the Santa Fe Opera house before curtain, the sweeping wood ceiling over rows of seats as people find their places.

Sound like your kind of week?

Check availability