As of today, we have exactly three months till our Road Trip to New Mexico!  October 3rd is the big day that the "travelin' cousins" meet in Albuquerque.  So I thought it would be a good idea to do a review of our ToDo list for this trip and see what we can check off and what is left to still finalize:

• Plan Cities to Visit  - DONE (Albuquerque, Taos and Santa Fe)
• Book Accommodations - DONE (Hotel in Albuquerque and Private home Rentals in Taos and Santa Fe)
• Elisa's Rental Car - DONE
•  Tanya's Rental Car - DONE

So, that is what's is done - here is what we still have to do:

• Elisa to book airfare NY to Albuquerque (well, you've read my saga with this, so this is still a work in progress)
• Tanya to book Dave's airfare for both weekends (let's hope Tanya has better luck with airfare rates than her East Coast-based cousin!)
• Map out Driving Routes - We will be working on this together during the coming week
• Select restaurants for all three cities
• Purchase Balloon Fiesta Tickets
• Finalize Sites and Activities in all three cities and places along the driving route

This would pretty much finish off the trip!  But, as you can see, we have a ways to go.
Today, I want to talk about Sites and Activities!  That's the really fun part of any trip.     We created a very long list of possibilities, broken down by each city and those along the way.  Of course, we know that we will not have enough time in 8 days to see everything, but, for now, we are just reflecting on each and will narrow down the list over the coming weeks.  If you have any thoughts or experience with any of these, please comment and let us know. We would love the input!!
Albuquerque:

• Balloon Fiesta 

This is obviously a definite and the whole inspiration for the trip.  We are planning to go the first two days.  Balloon Fiesta is a LONG day. Up early, arriving by 4:30-5:00 AM to see the balloons take off; and then a fun, filled night with a fireworks show lighting up the night sky.  So, we've allocated two full days for this spectacular event.

Here are the other possible sites for Albuquerque:

• Albuquerque Biological Park
• Sandia Peak
• Petroglyph National Museum
• Tinkertown Museum
• Giant Red Arrow
• Hinkle Family Fun

On the Way from Albuquerque to Taos

• Bandelier National Monument
• Kasha Katuwe Tent Rock National Monument

Taos

• Rio Grande Gorge Bridge
• Kit Carson Home & Museum
• Taos Pueblo
• Manby Hot Springs
• Tree of Human Kindness
• Sants & Sinners Sign
• Ghost Town Museum

So There you have it - some fun options for things to do on our road trip.  Till next "Travelin' Tuesday" and Part 5, 
~Elisa & Tanya

Welcome back to our little Road Trip planning Blog!  This whole "cousins" road trip came about as a result of Tanya's taking the lead on deciding to go to Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque in October (2014).  Her plans were clearly going to include a fun road trip as she started our in Anaheim and headed through Arizona to New Mexico.  But...after her dear old cousin (yours truly) decided to come along with her two kiddies, the trip took on a larger than life dimension, since we were now six instead of three...and...it is now a cousins caravan!!

It was relatively easy deciding on the "where to go" and which major cities to see.  We had limited time that my gang could be away since my kids are not home schooled like Cosette and Dominick, so a week was the maximum amount of time I could realistically take them out of school. As we were building this trip around the timing of Balloon Fiesta, it just so happened to work out that the weekend following the start of Balloon Fiesta is Columbus Day weekend, so that gave my side an extra day with which to play!!

In Part 2 we had finalized our accommodations -  3 nights Albuquerque in a hotel, 2 nights each in Taos and Santa Fe, both in a private houses.  I was initially planning to talk about the activities we are going to be doing throughout the trip and the sites we want to visit in this segment, but I really thought I would talk more about our accommodations.  Tanya and I spent a great deal of time working on this aspect of the trip and I wanted to share more of what went into our decision with you.  The biggest question was "Hotel" or "Private House" for all three cities.  We both became a little obsessive with this step (which is not hard for either of us on any given subject). In fact, right before my trip to Prague and during, we were still going back and forth with each other, sending links and information about possible options.  What we did decide immediately, was to just book a few "Pay Later" hotels in both Albuquerque and Taos.  We figured, if we don't have luck finding a private residence to stay in, at least we would not be "homeless."  And if settled on a private home, we could always cancel the hotel reservation with no penalty.  Albuquerque was tough because of Balloon Fiesta.  Hotel rates were relatively high and owners had not yet posted their rates for October.  I guess knowing the demand for this time of year in Albuquerque, they want to get as much as they can for their properties.  We decided to just commit to the Pay Later hotel, which by the way, we got a great deal on through Booking.com and the hotel has great amenities! On the downside, we are slightly more than 5 miles from town, but on the upside, the property has a pool, a gym and a business center, making the kids and the adults happy.  Additionally, the rooms have mini kitchenettes, which is always a plus on a road trip! We also decided this past week to book an extra night in our hotel in Albuquerque at the back end of the trip, for night before I take off back to NY with my girls and Tanya heads on with the road trip south to Carlsbad Caverns.  For Taos and Santa Fe, after days and days of searching VRBO, we found two spacious two-bedroom homes!  Each of these has a living room pull-out couch option, which we thought would be great for the girls to bunk up together!  We couldn't have asked for better locations either -  both near the center of each respective town!  We figured it would also make life easier on the meal front.  We didn't have to feel the pressure of eating out all the time and with some of the dietary restrictions , the full kitchen would give us more flexibility and clearly save us some money.  And even more important, we know that the kids are going to absolutely love  staying together under one roof the majority of the trip!! On average, we are paying about $100 per night for our accommodations, which we were both very pleased about.

Now, I still have to get my airline tickets.  When we started planning, I found a great fare of $242 round trip.  I really don't know what I was thinking.  I was being picky because the flight times were not ideal.  So, I thought - "Oh, I'll just wait."  Yeah, well, almost two months later, the rates have doubled and do not seem to be coming down for October.  Yikes!  So, I am currently on several alerts - one with Trip Advisor and the other with Travelocity for when the rates drop. This time, I'm not going to be so cavalier. Thank goodness I got my rental car early - $150 for the entire stay! 

More planning this week - Tanya and I are going to start plotting out our driving route.  We especially like using Roadtrippers.com. If you plug in your trip, it gives you all kinds of helpful information for your drive including places of interest to see, restaurants, various driving options and more. 

So, we are well on our way!  More in Part 4. Stay tuned!!
~ Elisa
 

Our New Mexico Road trip is still in its infancy, but we have made some great strides in two major areas.  First, our itinerary is all set:  Arrive in Albuquerque (Tanya by car from Anaheim via Sedona, Arizona and Elisa by air from New York).  We will stay in Albuquerque 3 nights, specifically for the Balloon Fiesta, which was the inspiration for this trip; on to Taos for 2 nights; onward to Santa Fe for 2 nights; and returning back to Albuquerque for one night.  Elisa will then leave to go back home to New York and Tanya will continue the road trip heading to Carlsbad Caverns NP and traveling through White Sands National Monument, both in New Mexico and to Saguaro NP in Arizona and then back to Anaheim. 

We made some good progress with the accommodations.  For Albuquerque, we will be staying in a hotel.  We thought it would be great for the kids to have access to a pool for the beginning of the trip, especially since our days will be starting literally at the crack of dawn at Balloon Fiesta. We thought they would enjoy unwinding at the end of the long day with a fun filled swim.  After a great deal of researching, Tanya and I settled on the idea of doing private rentals through VRBO for both Taos and Santa Fe.. We actually had alot of fun checking the various properties and found two that would fit our needs just perfectly!   We know the kids will LOVE the idea of us all staying together under one roof and we are sure the girls will bunk up together every night.  The other benefit of staying in homes with fully equipped kitchens is that it will allow us flexibility to cook which is really an advantage for Tanya and her kids since they are vegan, and great for me since my Kelsey is an extremely picky eater.  Additionally, it will save us some money from constantly eating out; and lastly, we thought it would be alot of fun to cook together and have relaxing breakfasts and dinners at "home."  
Check out Part 3 of our Road Trip and the many sites we have planned to see in each city!!
~E