Santa Fe

The 'Ranch of the Swallows' (El Rancho de las Golondrinas) was originally a ranch founded in the early 1700s, but today offers an entertaining and educational attraction about 15 miles (24km) south-east of Santa Fe's central Plaza.The ranch was once the last stopping place on the thousand-mile El Camino Real (Royal Road) between Mexico City and Santa Fe. It has been fully restored as a living village with costumed villagers portraying life in early New Mexico. The first weekend in June brings the Spring Festival, and the first weekend in October is devoted to a Harvest Festival, highlighted on the ranch calendar. Other special events include a Rennaissance Festival and Wine Festival.Every day visitors can explore the hacienda, village store, schoolhouse, chapels, kitchens, and other buildings on the ranch, pet farm animals, and watch operations in the working molasses mill, blacksmith shop, shearing and weaving rooms, and winery.

Address : 334 Los Pinos Road

Website : www.golondrinas.org

Telephone : (505) 471 2261

Opening times : Wednesday to Sunday 10am-4pm (June to September). Tours can be organised from Monday to Friday by prior arrangement only from April to October.

Admission : $6 adults, children under 12 are free. Concessions available.

The museum dedicated to the work of artist Georgia O'Keeffe opened in 1997, eleven years after the death of the artist who loved the state of New Mexico. Since then the museum has welcomed more than 1.3 million visitors, who come to enjoy the exhibition of the works of one of the most important artists of the 20th century.Georgia O'Keeffe was a leading member of one of the avant-garde art movements in New York in the 1920s, creating art that expressed wideness and wonder. She featured the high deserts and dramatic cliffs of New Mexico frequently in her work. The Santa Fe museum in a former Baptist church containss a permanent collection with more than 130 O'Keeffe paintings, drawings and sculptures. This makes it the largest concentration of her work in the world and it is the only museum in the United States dedicated solely to one woman's work.

Address : 217 Johnson Street

Website : www.okeeffemuseum.org

Telephone : (505) 946 1000

Opening times : Daily 10am-5pm, Fridays until 7pm; closed on Wednesdays between November and May.

Admission : $13 adults, children under 18 are free. Other concessions available.

Although the Loretto Chapel on the Old Santa Fe Trail is no longer used for worship, it nevertheless remains a place of congregation, mainly for tourists who come to marvel at the chapel's 'miraculous' spiral staircase. The chapel, copied from Sainte-Chapelle Church in Paris, was built in 1873 to serve as chapel for the Sisters of Loretto's school for young women.When the building was close to completion workers discovered the design had not left sufficient room for the proposed staircase to the choir loft. The only answer appeared to be a cumbersome ladder, which was not an attractive proposition for the Loretto sisters who decided to pray about the problem to St Joseph. Their prayers were answered in the form of a carpenter riding a donkey, who arrived and offered to build a spiral staircase. He accomplished this with only a saw, hammer and T-square, manufacturing a miraculous staircase, which is held aloft by no visible means of support.

Address : 207 Old Santa Fe Trail

E-mail : info@lorettochapel

Website : www.lorettochapel.com

Telephone : (505) 982 0092

Opening times : Monday to Saturday 9am-5pm, Sunday 10.30am-5pm.

The most important and comprehensive collection of cross-cultural folk art in the world is housed in the Santa Fe Museum of International Folk Art, about two miles (3km) southeast of the city's central Plaza on the old Sante Fe Trail.Fascinating for tourists, and a treasure trove for researchers, scholars, and contemporary artisans, the collection of the museum runs to about 125,000 pieces, divided into categories. Of particular note are the Spanish Colonial collection, the south-western Hispanic Art collection of 20th century works, and collections of international textiles and costumes. There are examples of folk art from more than 100 different countries.

Address : 706 Camino Lejo, Museum Hill

Website : www.moifa.org

Telephone : (505) 476 1200

Opening times : Tuesday to Sunday 10am-5pm, closed Monday.

Admission : $12 adults, free for children under 16.

Opposite the Governor's Palace on Santa Fe's historic Plaza stands a prime example of Pueblo Revival architecture, built in 1917, which houses the state's oldest art museum, home to more than 20,000 works of art. The distinguished collection spans the historic art colonies of Taos and Santa Fe of the past 100 years, right up to contemporary art, focussing on the southwest region. There is also a collection of photographs and two sculpture gardens housing traditional and abstract works.

Address : 107 West Palace Avenue

Website : www.mfasantafe.org

Telephone : (505) 476 5072

Opening times : Tuesday to Sunday 10am-5pm, closes 8pm Fridays. Closed major holidays.

Admission : $12 adults, free for children under 16.

To begin sightseeing in Santa Fe, start where it all began on the city's historic central Plaza. It is dominated by the adobe structure known as the Palace of the Governors, the oldest public building in the United States. The palace was built in 1610 as Spain's seat of government for what is today the American Southwest. It still bears the scars of having survived Indian revolts and occupation and Mexican Independence; it was later occupied by Confederate forces when they attempted to take New MexicoFittingly, in 1909 the building was converted into the Museum of New Mexico and is now the principal of Santa Fe's four museums, preserving 400 years of the state's history from the 16th century Spanish explorations through the frontier era to modern times. Exhibits range from a stagecoach and kitchen utensils to paintings on bison hide and a state seal made from spoons, quills and tacks.

Address : 105 West Palace Avenue

Website : www.palaceofthegovernors.org

Telephone : (505) 476 5100

Opening times : Daily 10am-5pm. Closed Mondays (May through October).

Admission : $12 adults, free for children under 16. Free on Fridays 5pm-8pm.

The laid-back mountain resort town of Taos, about 70 miles (113km) north of Santa Fe, is in the centre of New Mexico's most sparsely populated region, serving as a popular ski resort in winter and artist's colony all year round. Aside from the slopes, the main attraction at Taos is Taos Pueblo, the largest of northern New Mexico's Indian pueblos where life has changed little since ancient times.In the town, which sits between the majestic peaks of the Rocky Mountains and the deep Rio Grande Gorge, the old Spanish plaza is full of shops and museums and an unusual community who live in half-buried houses and reject materialism. The arts scene is particularly lively, and there are some excellent restaurants. Some of the diversions on offer include llama treks, hiking, biking and white-water rafting.

Website : www.taos.org

Telephone : (575) 758 3873