One travel writer’s case for visiting a favorite city again and again, when you just can’t get enough.
Swapping gas station protein bars for the green chiles and drab clavus of Santa Fe was a very necessary decision . After half a year on the route , traveling full - time in an recreational vehicle , I needed to draw over . A lifestyle that once felt release can , at times , become suffocating and lonely . But Santa Fe emerge in advance of me like an adobe - adorn mirage in the sun - scorched desert of New Mexico . The city felt like a refreshing sanctuary against a backdrop of rugged purdah .
Santa Fe was the proper lieu to hit the brakes — and it became a place to reroute to many times over the years . Some destinations are n’t stand for for just a passing coup d’oeil , some places become a family away from home : a vacation you’re able to put on repeat .
It seems more people arefalling in beloved with holiday spot they can return to again and again , whether in a swelled city on another coast , a tropical island swaddle in sunshine and sea atmosphere , or a cosy bungalow in a woods . For me , it ’s the desert city . I ’d travel much of the USA in my RV since 2018 , fall in love withnational parking area , Disney World , andunexpected metropolis from coast to coast . But few places connect with me likeSanta Fe .
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The New Mexican city has so many vast and petite discoveries that take time to research . Pint - sized doughnut shopsserve up fleeceable chile fritters and lavender - glazed blue corn . coevals - old turquoise and leather boot store fill up the historic adobe edifice of downtown , preserved in metre thanks to hard-and-fast architectural codes . TheGeorgia O’Keeffe Museum putsthe modernist creative person ’s love for New Mexico on full floral display . Meow Wolf hover likean otherworldly inner ear that feels part escape room , partWonderland , and part haunted theater , where laundry machines turn into slides and treehouses radiate with plants that look directly out ofAvatar . Gnarly , cacti - straw desert are border by the types of dusty communities you typically only try about on truthful crime podcasts . Panoramic hiking trails meander through the piñon - scented Santa Fe National Forest . And views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains hover above it all . Whether it ’s your first clip or your whole lifetime , Santa Fe has an undeniable shimmer .
Appreciation for vacation spot like these only increment over metre , which was exactly my experience . In some ways , it was golden I was already in my RV when , a few year subsequently , the COVID pandemic smasher . When I slammed the brakes on my road stumble plans to hunker down someplace that sense comfortable and good , there was Santa Fe again . While I could n’t go out to restaurants or museums , I could hole up for a mates months in myfavorite RV park , orgy Agatha Christie book in my hammock , or hike up Atalaya Peak , whose arduous climb never lay off to climax with jaw - dropping views of the adobe - fill valley . The urban center was quick to be my refuge during unsealed time .
That protective feeling is n’t just pandemic related — it ’s a view that often resonates in deep ways for queer citizenry , who ’ve historically struggled to find a sensation of home . More than scanty - minimum comforts and inclusion , the urge to connect with a place that feels as secure as it does inspiring becomes pivotal .
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As a festal man who wears his Pride on his sleeve ( and in his pink - dyed tomentum ) , this impulse for homey sanctuary has been a struggle as long as I can think of , driving through rural mount that made me feel like I was wear out a bullseye simply by being me . But with its inclusive residential area , where even non queer - centrical spaces like the El Rey Court motel featurerecurring Pride events , it ’s decipherable that The City Different indeed hits different .
My repetition holiday office was a thrill as a fortunate - eyed tourist , a reprieve from long travelling twenty-four hours spent whitened - knuckling an RV I just learned how to drive , a much - needed siesta from aweary route trips , then a sanctuary during the pandemic , and eventually a city that ’s held me through my eventual divorce .
Many of my initial memories here were connect to my ex - husband . Some were glistening and unvarnished , others were hard . But the city goes on , and shows me how to as well . I ’ve since been able-bodied to come back afresh , creating my own retention and feeling regenerate as someone who has not only subsist in Santa Fe , but thrived .
Visit Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe aliment me during solo travels , solace wounds and connecting me to myself — and now it ’s a place to celebrate unexampled import of my life with my fresh groom-to-be . succeeding Santa Fe is now a place for my mini - honeymoon , horseback horseback riding , divvy up green chile and bison meatballs , and basking by the fire pits , beckoning a beautiful young era for a plaza I can stay on to share with my shortly - to - be husband .
Repeat vacation destination transcend mere R&R or bucket - inclination goal . They ’re place that feel both nostalgic and exciting , at once providing heart - warming procedure while being refreshingly faraway , where you could feel like a part - sentence house physician and someone looking to go bad novel boundaries . There ’s always room to make new storage , to grow with the city . Repeat vacation destinations like this , when they continue to inspire and comfort through all of liveliness ’s journey , just off dissimilar .
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