Top pic: Hotel Chimayo Inn & Spa at Loretto
Hotel St. Francis
Flamenco at Hotel Albuquerque
Clyde Hotel
Stay & Play
Heritage Hotels & Resorts of New Mexico
by Randy Mink
You’re getting a genuine New Mexico experience when you stay or dine at a member of the Heritage Hotels & Resorts collection. From architecture and interior design to cuisine and entertainment, the 10 culturally distinct hotels artfully blend the region’s Native American, Mexican, Spanish and American Western influences.
In Santa Fe, I based myself at Hotel Chimayo de Santa Fe, located just steps from the shops, eateries, galleries and museums clustered around the city’s historic Plaza. My balcony overlooked a linear brick courtyard where the columns are festooned with ristras, the pretty hanging arrangements of sun-dried red chile peppers used as decoration throughout New Mexico. The lobby and guest rooms feature art and furnishings created by more than 70 local artists; many have links to the northern New Mexico village of Chimayo, home to a famous pilgrimage church and nearby sacred sites.
A free amenity offered by the 56-room boutique hotel is a “low and slow” cruise around town in a silver 1964 Chevrolet Impala. A reflection of Chicano youth culture that emerged after World War II in the Southwest, customized vintage cars with a lowered body—called lowriders—are symbols of Mexican-American identity and an expression of community pride. Hotel Chimayo’s Low ’n Slow Lowrider Bar sports lowrider photographs, hubcap accents and tables made of chrome chain-link steering wheels.
Heritage Hotels’ 138-room Inn and Spa at Loretto, a short walk from Hotel Chimayo, was built in 1975 to resemble Taos Pueblo, the multi-storied adobe complex in northern New Mexico that has been inhabited for more than 1,000 years. The rambling luxury property shares a city block with 19th century Loretto Chapel, famed for its “Miraculous Staircase,” a spiraling phenomenon with no visible means of support.
Public areas in the 1920s Hotel St. Francis, the oldest hotel in Santa Fe, are furnished with religious artifacts, statues and paintings. One-hour history tours showcase the 76-room hotel, a Mission Revival-style gem graced with majestic archways.
In Albuquerque, I set up camp at downtown’s 386-room Clyde Hotel, a 20-story tower named after Clyde Tingley, who served as the state’s governor and the city’s mayor for many years between 1925 and 1953. The lobby features Art Deco touches and a mural chronicling Tingley’s career as a mover and shaker. Recorded music from the ’30s and ’40s serenades guests in the lobby’s sunken atrium lounge, a posh skylit space with marble tables, a grand piano and faux palms.
The 118-room Hotel Chaco and neighboring 188-room Hotel Albuquerque lie just north of Albuquerque’s Old Town, a tourist magnet brimming with shops, restaurants and historic sites. Hotel Chaco’s Level 5 rooftop restaurant offers panoramic views of the city and Sandia Mountains. The building is modeled after New Mexico’s Pueblo villages and 11th century ruins at Chaco Canyon. Enhancing the guest rooms are fabrics with Navajo-inspired geometric patterns and handmade Navajo rugs. At Hotel Albuquerque, flamenco shows are staged on weekends.
The Heritage Hotels & Resorts portfolio also includes hotels in Taos and Las Cruces.
