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Sprawling at the heart of New Mexico, where the main east-west road and rail routes cross both the Rio Grande and the old road south to Mexico, ALBUQUERQUE is, with half a million people, the state's only major metropolis. Though many tourists dash straight from the airport up to Santa Fe, without a thought for Albuquerque, the " Duke City " has a good deal going for it. Like Phoenix, it's grown a bit too fast for comfort in the last fifty years, but the original Hispanic settlement is still discernible at its core, and its diverse, cosmopolitan population gives it a rare cultural vibrancy. Even if its architecture is often uninspired, the setting is magnificent, sandwiched between the Rio Grande - lined by stately cottonwoods - and the dramatic, glowing Sandia Mountains . Specific highlights for visitors include the intact Spanish plaza , the neon-lit Route 66 frontage of Central Avenue and the excellent Indian Pueblo Cultural Center ; while every October Albuquerque hosts the nation's largest hot-air balloon rally, attracting upward of 100,000 people to its mass ascensions.
Old Town
Once you've cruised up and down Central Avenue , looking at the flashing neon and 1940s architecture of this twenty-mile stretch of Route 66 (Sun Tran buses do it all day for 75?), most of what's interesting about Albuquerque is concentrated in Old Town , the recently tidied-up old Spanish heart of the city. As the billboards on the interstate nearby rightly proclaim, "it's darned old and historic." The tree-filled main plaza is overlooked by the twin-towered adobe facade of San Felipe de Neri church , and circled by horse-drawn carriages that you can hop on for a short tour ($5). It's a very pleasant place to wander or have a meal, even if there's not a whole lot otherwise to do. One of the more bizarre of the many knickknack shops is the Rattlesnake Museum southeast of the plaza at 202 San Felipe St NW (daily 10am-6pm; $2), which has live rattlers on display. Nearby, Gus's Trading Post, at 2026 Central Ave NW, is one of the best-value shops in the Southwest for buying the perfect bolo tie or other pieces of Indian jewelry .
Still on Central Avenue, in the Old Town Shopping Center half a block west of the plaza, the intriguing little Turquoise Museum (Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm; $2) may look like just another mall store, but turns out to be more of a fortified bank vault, filled with rare and beautiful turquoise nuggets. The New Mexico Museum of Natural History , four blocks northeast of the plaza at 1801 Mountain Rd NW (daily 9am-5pm; closed Mon in Jan & Sept; $5), has full-scale, animated models of dinosaurs, a simulated volcanic eruption and a replica of an Ice Age snow cave, as well as an engaging, touchable collection of fossils and dinosaur bones.
Albuquerque's International Sunport is four miles southeast of downtown. All the major car rental chains have outlets here, while a taxi into town with the Albuquerque Cab Co. (tel 505/883-4888) costs around $10, and Airport Express (tel 505/765-1234) runs door-to-door shuttles at similar rates. Many hotels and motels also have their own free shuttles, while both Gray Line (tel 1-800/256-8991) and Twin Hearts Express (tel 1-800/654-9456) send regular shuttle vans on the 70-minute drive north to Santa Fe, costing around $25.
The modern Greyhound/TNM&O bus terminal, 300 Second St SW, is located in an otherwise deserted area, five easy minutes' walk south of downtown. It's used by long-distance east-west services, as well as four daily buses up to Santa Fe ($10) and Taos ($22), and has good-sized left-luggage lockers. Amtrak trains call in at a small temporary station immediately behind, at 214 First St.
Maps and free listings magazines are available from the tourist office down town in the Galeria mall, 20 First Plaza at Second and Tijeras (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm; tel 505/842-9918 or 1-800/284-2282, ). Further information kiosks can be found in the Plaza Don Luis on Romero NW in Old Town (daily: April-Oct 9am-5pm; Nov-March 9.30am-4.30pm), and at the airport (Sun-Fri 9.30am-8pm, Sat 9.30am-4pm).
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