Hotels & Attractions in New Mexico

Settled in turn by Native Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans and Yankees, NEW MEXICO is among the most ethnically and culturally diverse of all the states in the US. Each successive group has built upon the legacy of its predecessors; their various histories and achievements are closely intertwined, and in some ways the late-coming white Americans from the north and east have had comparatively little impact. Signs of the region's rich heritage are everywhere, from ancient pictographs and cliff dwellings to the design of the state's license plates, taken from a Zia Indian symbol for the sun - the one near-constant fact of life in this arid land.

Northern New Mexico centers on the magnificent landscapes of the Rio Grande Valley, which contains its two finest cities: Santa Fe, the adobe-fronted capital, and the artists' colony and winter resort of Taos, with its nearby pueblo. More than a dozen Pueblo villages can be found in the mountainous area between the two, while to the west lie the evocative ancient ruins at Bandelier and Puyé. In wild and wide-open southern New Mexico, the deep Carlsbad Caverns are the main attraction, while you can still stumble upon old mining and cattle-ranching towns that have somehow hung on since the end of the Wild West.

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