AndiMy daughter and I had a short last-minute weekend getaway to Albuquerque New Mexico! My son had to come here for an audition, so we explored the city while he did his thing. Here’s what we did in two days in this fun city.
Coming from Dallas, it was surprising to see it snowing on our way in! Albuquerque has a little bit of everything: museums, restaurants, animals, great food and amazing outdoor adventures.
Day 1 in Albuquerque-
We started the day off at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & Industry. Great exhibits about the atomic bomb and World War 2. We saw replicas of the bombs Fat Man & Little Boy. Kinda crazy the size of these things when you consider the damage that was done! Lexi’s favorite was seeing the Back To The Future Car and Flux Capacitor. You can easily spend a couple hours here and longer if you’re really into history and/or science.
ABQ Bio Park was next on the agenda which included an aquarium, zoo and botanical garden.
Aquarium
The Aquarium is very small but had a couple great features. The first is the touch tank with sting rays, so cool! The walk-through tunnel where you are surrounded by water is awesome too! You can easily see everything here in under an hour.
Botanical Gardens
The Botanical Gardens are located right by the aquarium, so it’s a quick walk. I didn’t expect to enjoy this place as much as I did. The Fairy Tale garden reminds me of the movie Honey I Shrunk The Kids, everything is enlarged! Beautiful Japanese gardens and a Bug- arium were some of our favs. We spent about an hour roaming around.
Zoo
Some of my best zoo memories are from this zoo! We watched the Hippo Feeding and Polar Bear Feeding. Both were phenomenal! The hippo exhibit had a new baby hippo at the time we were there, and it was amazing to see the mom interacting with it!
Watching polar bears jump off a cliff for fish, unreal! Great experiences and I highly recommend watching all zoo animal feedings now. We spent a couple hours here mostly waiting on the feeding times to start.
It was afternoon by this time, and we were hungry! Standard Diner was featured on Diners, Drive In’s and Dives, so we had to go! The food was great! I had Mac N Cheese and Lexi claims she had the best burger she’s ever eaten!
Petroglyph National Monument
Petroglyph National Monument was next up on our to do list. I was looking forward to hiking off the huge lunch we devoured! This is one of the largest Petroglyph sites in North America. Stop at the visitor center to get information on the different hikes available for your time frame. The volunteers were very informative.
It was a cool experience wandering around and checking out all the unique drawings on volcanic rocks from hundreds of years ago. If you hike to the top of the canyon, you’ll be rewarded with a great view of Albuquerque. We stayed here for around an hour.
Sandia Peak Tramway
Sandia Peak Tramway is the longest tramway in North America so of course we had to ride it!! Not gonna lie, it was a little scary heading up the mountain and 2.7 miles seems to take a long time! The views were beautiful.
The weather was sunny and decent at the bottom, then frigid and windy at the top! Completely worth it though! Once at the top, you can head right back down or stay and enjoy the area.
We played in the snow for a few minutes before seeking warmth indoors. This was one of our favs! We stayed around an hour.
I’m always looking for the best chocolate chip cookie, so we stopped at Rude Boy Cookies for a quick snack. Worth the stop!
And then we did something that I NEVER do while I travel…go to a mall! An ordinary mall on top of that. But when you travel with a teen sometimes you have to sacrifice for the greater good. We were worn out, so after leaving here we called it a night and went back to the hotel for some much needed rest!
Day 2 in Albuquerque-
Sunday, we woke up bright and early with a craving for Rebel donuts. YUM!! Such unique flavors!
After we picked up Austin, we only had one thing on the agenda today before driving back home… Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument! This is one of the most awesome hikes I’ve ever done.
You start off going through a slot canyon. If you haven’t hiked through a slot canyon before, it’s one of the coolest things ever! There are no words to describe how awesome an experience this is.
You eventually make your way through and then slowly start climbing up the canyon. It is steep in some areas. The elevation here is around 6000 ft and I could feel it climbing! Did not affect the other two at all, but they are in better shape than me.
When you finally reach the top, the view is breath taking! The rock tent formations are so cool. It’s unreal how they were formed. We spent a couple hours here and enjoyed every minute! My two teens had a blast! It’s a 3-mile hike round trip and a bit of a drive from Albuquerque.
Summary
Overall, we had a great time in Albuquerque. We were able to accomplish almost everything we wanted to see.
We look forward to returning and doing things we didn’t have time for on this trip. I love unique museums and I missed seeing the National Rattlesnake Museum. Old Town neighborhood looks like it would be fun to explore. I’m also a Breaking Bad fan, so driving around to see the sites would be cool. I don’t let my teens watch it though, so that may need to be a hubby and me only trip, lol.
The big thing I want to come back for is the Balloon Fiesta! It’s on my Bucket List along with actually riding in a hot air balloon! How cool would that be?!? One day….
What are your favorite things to do in Albuquerque?
