Let’s Compare Pricing and the Actual Experience, Shall We?
As you probably know, Doug and I went to New Mexico a couple of weeks ago to complete the final interview stage for Global Entry. We haven’t done a road trip in years and years other than on a Globus or CIE tour, so an independent, self-drive experience was eagerly anticipated.
We flew into Albuquerque, short flights and short layovers, easy peasy. We had no problem picking up our Budget rental car, which was clean and in good condition.
We checked into our hotel very near the airport and boy were we disappointed. I won’t bore you with the details.
We head out immediately to the Albuquerque Museum of Natural Science and History. We loved it. The exhibits were terrific and there were two short video productions that we found fascinating.
We enjoyed a great dinner that night at El Pinto, a 25,000 square foot authentic southwest cuisine restaurant. It was delicious.
The next morning we headed to the Owl Café for a breakfast of huevos rancheros that were fantastic. Next it was back to the airport to complete our Global Entry interviews. That took all of 30 minutes total. Then we moved on to the Albuquerque Aquarium and Botanical Gardens, which are next door to each other. Both were affordable and thoroughly enjoyable.
It was a hot day, so a stop at Baskin Robbins was a necessity, then back to the hotel for a little work “catch up” before going back to the Owl Café for their famous green chili cheeseburgers. All in all a wonderful day.
The third day we checked out and headed to Santa Fe. Even with Google maps I was having a difficult time following the bouncing blue dot. We ended up missing a turn on the way to Santa Fe, but we figured it out after going down several side roads, and ended up at a Holiday Inn Express that was in much better shape and had a much friendlier staff than our first hotel.
Off to Town Square we went. After more following of the bouncing blue dot, we finally made it to the main area and parked. We went to the Loretto Chapel, saw the Miraculous Staircase, had a great lunch, did a little browsing, and after two hours had enough. We are neither one into shopping, but we did see some amazing artwork and met some incredibly talented artists.
Dinner that night at Olive Garden. We had met our quota in green chilies; it was time for some lasagna.
The next morning we headed out to Los Alamos, one of my favorite spots on the trip. It’s a truly lovely town, friendly people, great visitors’ center and museums relating to the Manhattan Project.
From there we headed to the Georgia O’Keefe Welcome Center and home. The café there was fantastic; the tours of her home were unavailable due to Covid.
From there we headed off to Taos. Basically Santa Fe in miniature, we didn’t stay 30 minutes.
The drive from Taos back to Santa Fe was grueling. The road was under construction, cones everywhere, for miles and miles. You’d think we’d be used to that living in Oklahoma City, wouldn’t you? The road was extremely rough. By the time it was over Doug and I both realized how spoiled we've become. We’ve been going on escorted tours for over 15 years. We found we no longer have much tolerance for self-drive trips, for self-navigating trips, etc. As we were bouncing along that horrible highway Doug said “Just think, if we were on a Globus tour right now we’d be leaned back, relaxed, just coasting along enjoying the scenery”. True statement.
Several of the museums I wanted to experience weren’t open on the days that were advertised due to Covid. Where was my Globus tour director who scheduled all of these things in advance???
We were supposed to come home Thursday afternoon. On Wednesday night I called American Airlines and changed to an earlier flight home. We got up early Thursday, headed back to Albuquerque, had a great breakfast at The Village Inn near the airport, and breezed through both Albuquerque and DFW airports for an easy trip back home.
Total cost, almost $2300. For that price we could have had 5 days at a nice all-inclusive resort. No bouncing ball, no disappointing rooms, personalized service, great pools and beaches. The biggest decision on those trips is which wonderful restaurant is going to be our host for dinner. All in all it was a great lesson for us. We are no longer road trip people. Good to know, right?
Your travel experiences change you as you go along. You don’t know what you don’t know, until you try it. We had no idea we no longer enjoyed going it alone. I never really understood why any American would go on an escorted tour here in the USA. We are agreed, if we go again, it will be on a Globus tour.