This year my birthday was on a Friday which was the perfect excuse for a weekend getaway celebration. I decided to celebrate my 24th birthday in Santa Fe New Mexico. This past August, my family and I traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico for the first time and fell in love. (Read post here) For such a small town, Santa Fe is a charming, quiet, and friendly town that is full of art, culture, and food options. The best thing about it is that it’s relatively small, everything is within a 5-10 minute drive giving you plenty of time to sightsee and more. Last year, Conde Nast voted Santa Fe of the best small cities in the US!!
While in Santa Fe:
We rented a little casita on Airbnb in a neighborhood about 5 min from downtown off of Cerrillos Rd. The casita was warm, inviting, and had everything we needed including a full kitchen and living room. The neighborhood even had a little library pictured above!
We ate at:
Vinaigrette– We grabbed quick meals (Clam chowder and Mac and Cheese) right after the 5 hour long drive to go because we were starving but wish we could have sat down to eat a full meal here. It’s a very modern lunch spot offering healthy, hip meals in a bright atmosphere.
L’Oliver French Restaurant: Picking a restaurant to celebrate my birthday was tough with so many great options available in Santa Fe but L’Oliver was AMAZING! The menu is being constantly changed by the chef’s creations, so we didn’t know what to expect before going other that We enjoyed tuna tartare, which is a blend of raw tuna, lime juice and lots of spice, as an appetizer, duck for the main course, and for dessert I had Ile flottante, a classic French dessert also known as floating Islands, which was by far better than any birthday cake! bitting into the meringue tasted like clouds! The entire experience of eating here was so memorable and delicious!
Terra Cotta- On Saturday night we had dinner at Terra Cotta Wine Bar, which was the other option of eating for my birthday! If you are a wine aficionado like we are, definitely visit Terra Cotta! They have a book full of wines for every taste, fantastic and friendly service and the food is amazing! I feel like I might be exaggerating but I’m really not. We had Butternut Squash and Truffle Lasagna, unfortunately, I was too busy enjoying it that I didn’t snap a picture of it but trust me it’s amazing!
Iconik Coffee: On Saturday, we woke up early, had vanilla lattes, granola with yogurt and fruit at a very hipster-esc coffee shop, Iconik Coffee. Almost everyone was in the mac book writing on their blogs and sipping on freshly brewed coffee.
Sweet Water
Before heading back home we had brunch at Sweet Water Harvest Kitchen.
Shopped at:
Santa Fe Farmers Market then headed to the farmers market, which was a bit disappointing since I was expecting the same amount of vendors at the summer farmers market. Nonetheless, we enjoyed delicious apple cider and dried apples
Collected Works. The headed downtown, to shop at collected works a local bookstore with which also had an Iconik coffee shop with live music
Bon Marche- is an authentic French store offering home goods.
Chocolate and Cashmere- As we were perusing downtown, Chocolate and cashmere caught my eye. They sell (you guessed it) chocolate and cashmere! They have a glass box filled with beautiful chocolate that is almost too pretty to eat. I had to buy a box.
Modern General- Santa Fe is filled with unique stores with out of the box concepts. Modern General is such a cool store! It is that small town store that sells everything for the garden, home, and kitchen. Everything is artistically displayed.
Sightseeing:
Botanical Garden: On Saturday, we checked off everything on our list so decided to check out the botanical garden, which was not the smartest idea since all of the flowers were dead and filled with snow. However, if you go to Santa Fe during the summer, the botanical garden is a must see!
Canyon Road Arts District
Canyon Road is a street completely dedicated to art galleries! This is such a great place to go “gallery hopping” and see impressive works of art and price tags!
Downtown Santa Fe
Santa Fe is a beautiful town filled with culture, adobe architecture, and historical landmarks, like the Cathedral Basilica of St Francis and the Lorretto Chappell that is famous for their Miraculous Stairs. Downtown Santa Fe is great for a peaceful walk, window shopping the art galleries, and soaking in all of the native American inspired culture.
