New Mexico Spring Break Itinerary--review?

[nicolewi]

I have drafted a rough itinerary for our spring break trip next week to Albuquerque, White Sands National Park, and Santa Fe. I posted in the past and it seems like there were several people who had been to or lived in New Mexico. I'd welcome any advice. The Trip Advisor board for NM doesn't get much action.

Kids are 15, 13, 11, 9 and they have high expectations for a really interesting, cool trip! Pressure's on me! They like everything...nature, history, culture, etc and I planned a mix of things some more specifically for different kids. 

Please let me know if there are any tween/teen favorites I might be missing. Or any other thoughts/changes! Or any must-do dining/shops that they would love. I could still swap out some of the activities for something else if I have a dud in there. Thank you!

Day 1
Flight arrives mid-afternoon ABQ
Get settled at VRBO & explore Old Town a bit
Rattlesnake Museum if time??? open 11:30 to 5:30 (for sure we will fit this in somewhere; DS loves snakes)
Dinner at Church Street Cafe

Day 2
Golden Crown Bakery stop
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
Lunch at Pueblo Kitchen
BioPark Aquarium & Garden (includes "Bugarium") (2 hours?)
Sawmill Market snack
Sandia Tram--time for sunset-ish
Late dinner at Old Town Pizza?

Day 3
Petroglyph National Monument
Get lunch or maybe drive 15 minutes to large play park "A Park Above" and have picnic
New Mexico Museum of Natural History afternoon
Dinner--66 Diner?

Day 4
Hit the road to Alamogordo
Lunch San Antonio NM--green chile cheeseburgers?
Shoot for early check in at hotel and buy sandwiches (Brown Bag Deli?) and get sleds from hotel
3:00ish arrive WSNP--go to Visitor Center (9-6). Dune Life Nature Trail or Interdune hike. Dunes drive and stop for sledding (8 mile circle drive). Picnic dinner? Sunset ranger hike or our own hike
Caliche Custard? If desired
Swim at hotel

Day 5
Aim to leave hotel 10 or earlier
PistachioLand
Drive to Santa Fe--check in to Inn on the Alameda
self-guided walking tour app??
Dinner--Ranch House?

Day 6 (Easter Sunday!)--long range forecast looks bad but hopefully will improve??? 40s, chance of snow in the am
Breakfast at hotel
Mass at Basilica
Maybe try to see Museum of International Folk Art briefly? not open Mondays but called and they said "probably" open Easter.
(Lunch plan-?)
Nambe Pueblo (stop for dances; have read rules re: visiting pueblo) and Nambe Falls if open
Bandelier--get there 2:15 or so?? (stop at White Rock overlook)
Dinner somewhere
Ice cream at La Lecheria (or another time)?

Day 7 Mon
10 to 12 Josefina tour arranged at Rancho de las Golondrinas
Return trip--stop at Kakawa Chocolate House
Lunch somewhere
--likely have some time here?--
Meow Wolf--thought we could do a later shift b/c there's not a ton going on at night

Day 8
Rtn flights 4ish
Breakfast at hotel. Last-minute shopping or whatever. Check out 12.
Rtn via Hwy 14, Turquoise Trail, supposed to take about 1:40. Or could go shorter route about 60 minutes. Decide based on timing? How worthwhile is it to go the longer way?

Thanks for any thoughts/advice.

[arehopsveggies]

Your receipt for white sands will get you in the next day also…. My kids are younger but I’m always amazed when we budget 2-3 hours for white sands and they are never ready to go when we need to! We often go back a second day.

The little museum in the visitors center doesn’t take long to see, but definitely do that first so you don’t risk it closing.

We’ve never done the guided hikes, my kids have always just wanted to walk around on their own.

PistachioLand only needs about 15-20 minutes unless you’re doing the tour. We haven’t done the tour (hmmm maybe that’s something I want to do this week…). The line to pay or get ice cream can look long but moves pretty fast

We just taste all the pistachio samples, buy the same ones they always want (cocoa and cinnamon) and then take a picture in front of the giant pistachio

If you’re going to Alamogordo anyway, think about the space museum? It’s pretty quick. We go a lot, and my kids don’t want to read every single thing, but you could get through it all in 2 hours (more if you want to really read everything or see the movie)

[nicolewi]

arehopsveggies, thank you! Great info. I did consider the space museum, but I wasn't sure if we'd have time. Good to know that it doesn't take very long if we decide to try it out.

[arehopsveggies]

This part probably isn’t super important but just good to know-
I have almost no cell service at white Sands or on the highway white sands to Alamo. Just a good FYI to know!

[taffy]

The space museum is pretty cool. Also its where Ham, the first chimp in space is buried. For sure get the green chile burger at The Owl bar. Also, I'm sure you know but even if its cold wear sun screen at white sands. I had some gnarly burns growing up from sledding. And arehopsveggies is right about cell service on that stretch. We mostly came from Las Cruces so I don't know if its true for Alamogordo but we used to have to make sure they weren't misslile testing because they'd shut down the highway.

[Wallflower]

Nothing to add but I was going to suggest seeing if any pueblo dances were open to the public, so I'm glad you've already got that on the list. And the Pueblo museum is a nice one - my parents used to docent there.