Corrales

Understand

History Albuquerque was founded in 1706 as a small Spanish settlement on the banks of the Rio Grande and was named for the Duke of Alburquerque (hence Albuquerque's nickname, "The Duke City"). In the 1880s the railroad came to town, and almost overnight a new city grew up around the train tracks a couple of miles away from the original settlement. This "New Town" became the hub of commerce for the state, and the city grew exponentially (eventually the "New Town", which today is Downtown, and the original "Old Town" settlement were joined to become part of the same city). In the 1920s the federal government designated a series of highways that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles as Route 66, and Albuquerque was one of the towns "The Mother Road" passed through. Starting in the 1950s, Albuquerque grew exponentially given federal investment in the local military bases and a massive influx of visitors and new residents, and for the most part it hasn't slowed down. Today, Albuquerque is still the hub of commerce and transportation in the state. While Santa Fe is the state capital and the principal tourist destination of New Mexico, Albuquerque is the state's only truly urban area, with a city population of over 500,000 and a metropolitan population of nearly a million people. This is where you'll find the headquarters of the state's businesses, the University of New Mexico, and the Albuquerque International Sunport, the only major airport in the state.

Climate

Albuquerque is in the high semi-desert [35.11N −106.64W (Elev. 4989 ft/1521 m)] and has a generally warm, dry climate with four distinct seasons. Spring is sunny and windy, although temperatures at night can be unexpectedly cool. Summers are hot (highs average around 93 °F (34 °C), lows 68 °F (20 °C), and it's not unheard of for highs to climb upwards to 100 °F (38 °C) with lows of 73 °F (23 °C) or above) and still mainly dry, but monsoonal conditions develop in July or August and produce furious if short-lived t

Getting there

By car Two interstate highways pass through: I-40 goes east–west and I-25 goes north–south. Where they meet is a large intersection called "The Big I". Albuquerque's Central Ave. is part of old Route 66. A minor note of caution: I-25 south of the city is a "safety corridor" in which state law mandates higher fines for traffic violations. Enforcement is spotty, but take the speed limits seriously anyway.

By plane 1 Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ IATA). The major air hub for all of New Mexico. Alaska, Allegiant, American, Delta, JetBlue, and United serve the Sunport with limited service from their respective major hubs, but it's Southwest Airlines that operates most traffic into ABQ, with direct service from most western cities and from some of Southwest's hubs in the Midwest and eastern United States. One tip: If you're prone to airsickness, try to get flights into this airport that arrive either before noon or after sundown, particularly during late spring and early summer. The high elevation, hot sun, and spring winds combine to produce thermals that can make afternoon arrivals an extremely bumpy proposition. There are no major safety issues (the airport's runways are long, owing to the adjacent Air Force base, with no nearby obstacles to run into), but try telling your stomach that! The rough ride is less of a problem with outbound flights. Incidentally, this airport has a number of attractive displays of New Mexican arts and crafts, and is a more pleasant place than most airports to kill time while waiting for a flight. The Sunport also has charging stations for electronics and free wireless internet access. The major car rental companies are nearby, with a shuttle from the airport to the large rental center. The airport is served by a number of shuttle services and by local bus #50 on the lower level at the west end of the shuttle island.

By train

Albuquerque is a layover stop along Amtrak's Southwest Chief daily train route. The station is

Getting around

Albuquerque is a heavily planned city. In much of the city, the major roads are lined primarily with businesses with residential mazes on the insides. The city is divided into four quadrants, with street addresses taking the form "12345 Main St. (NE/NW/SE/SW)" in which the NE/NW/SE/SW suffix denotes the quadrant of the city containing the address. The railroad tracks, which run parallel to I-25, are the east–west dividing line, and Central Ave. is the north–south dividing line. Thus, the street address 3600 Menaul NE would be north of Central and east of the railroad tracks. This nomenclature, while useful in helping you with maps and directions, has the drawback that you can't tell whether a street runs north–south or east–west simply by looking at the address. By and large it's difficult to get truly lost in Albuquerque, thanks in large part to the looming presence of the Sandia Mountains to the east. If you can also remember that I-25 runs north–south, I-40 runs east–west, and the Rio Grande runs along the bottom of the valley in the western part of the city, you should be able to make your way around the city without too many problems. Here are some basic terms that will come in handy when asking for directions or looking at a map:

Central Avenue is a principal east–west artery, running roughly parallel to I-40 and through Downtown just west of I-25 and past the University of New Mexico (UNM for short) just east of I-25. The Heights are the eastern part of town closest to the Sandia Mountains. You may also hear reference to the Foothills, which are the most extreme eastern part of the city, right at the base of the mountains. Uptown is a business and shopping district in the Heights at I-40 and Louisiana Blvd. The North Valley and Los Ranchos de Albuquerque (which is a separate municipality from Albuquerque) encompass the area north of I-40 between I-25 and the river. The South Valley is the area south of Central Avenue west of I-25. The Westside is all the su

See

Albuquerque Biological Park, ☏ +1 505 768-2000. Includes the city's aquarium, botanical garden, zoo, and Tingley Beach (see below under Do). Combo tickets for the Biological Park can be purchased and include the price of train rides on a small narrow-gauge train running between the Aquarium/Botanic Garden and the Zoo. The train runs Tu–Su from around 10AM–4PM at 30-min intervals. 1 ABQ BioPark Zoo, 903 Tenth St SW (just SW of downtown). 9AM–5PM daily, except major holidays. It may not be as big as your average big city zoo, but this zoo is surprisingly comprehensive for its size, with most of the popular species you can expect to find at any good zoo: polar bears, lions, zebras, tigers, giraffes, elephants, gorillas, etc. And like any good zoo, the animals are in nice, naturalistic exhibits. The highlight exhibit areas are the seals, the polar bears, a large Africa area, and a large elephant enclosure. Every day there are scheduled feedings of the seals and the polar bears; during the