Solo Travel for Introvert Ratings
Sensory Calm 
(5 / 5) – Santa Fe is a very quiet and peaceful city.
Solo-Friendliness (5 / 5) – Very solo-friendly.
Commute Friendly 
(4 / 5) – A car is needed, and Uber was banned from the city when I visited.
Predictability 
(3 / 5) – The museums stay closed on many days of the week, hence, plan your trip around that. Also, make sure the Native American nations are open to outsiders. When I visited, some nations were closed due to covid-19.
Safety (5 / 5) – Extremely safe place.
Nerdy stuff – (5 / 5) – Lots of history, old churches and museums. Native-American and Spanish Colonial history going back to 1600s, and cave-paintings going back to pre-historic age.
What / Where?
Santa Fe is the capital of New Mexico. The largest nearby airport is in Albuquerque, and it is a small car-ride from there. Surrounding Santa Fe, are several other places of interest, such as the ancient pueblo of Taos, the Bandelier national monument with prehistoric cave-paintings, and Los Alamos, where atomic weapons were first researched.
Architecture
The most striking aspect of Santa Fe was its Pueblo Revival architecture. I immediately fell in love with this part of the United States which embraced its Native American heritage and proudly displayed it, instead of European aesthetics.
The revival happened in 1950s when the Historic Zoning Law was passed. This mandated all buildings in the city to be in the “Old Santa Fe Style” and the pre-European Pueblo architecture was reborn.
The Pueblo style is named after a group of Native American nations in the area collectively known as Pueblo people. The style constitutes sloping walls with rounded edges mimicking Adobe (mud) structures. These walls are stuccoed and painted in muted earth tones, and often have dried-chillies hanging by their doors. They are supported by criss-crossing wooden beams called Vigas. The multi-level stepped look is also reminiscent of the original pueblo buildings like in Taos.
Entertainment
The evening entertainment of my first day was Meow Wolf. This was an immersive psychedelic experience with many rooms in a maze, each with beautiful colors and patterns.
There is a story to be explored here, of a fictional family who disappeared. The game requires deciphering their diaries and putting together clues in the maze.
While this was a bit of a break back to the modern world, I went to bed early as I was more interested in returning back to the historical period of Santa Fe with more explorations on the next day.
Coming Up in Future Posts –
Various Native American Museums
Local Foods & Drinks
Historic Churches & Palaces
Day Trip to Alamos Site
Prehistoric Cave Drawings
Love Santa Fe!
Wow, I had no idea Santa Fe looked like this – it seems so unique to me, and I love that they embraced the Native American heritage! The Meow Wolf also seems very entertaining for sure!