3 Best Hotels in Day Trips from Santa Fe, New Mexico

After sitting vacant for more than 70 years and undergoing a painstaking restoration, this remarkable 1898 hotel—the first of the famed Fred Harvey company's railroad properties—reopened with 16 individually decorated rooms, a large and bustling high-ceilinged lobby, a convivial bar with a terrace, and a dapper dining room. Steps from the similarly stately railroad station, the hotel is within walking distance of the shopping and dining of Las Vegas's Victorian downtown and a little over a mile from Old Town and the Castaneda's sister property, the Plaza Hotel. The spacious guestrooms each have their own sometimes quirky layouts, and there are numerous nooks and sitting areas—inside and out—where guests can relax and socialize.

Accommodations in this three-story Italianate hotel, which has hosted the likes of Doc Holliday and Jesse James, balance the old and the new—they're not overly fancy, but they and the hotel's common areas, restaurant, and bar exude historic charm and personality, and the central location can't be beat. Rooms offer plenty of space, painted moldings, high stamped-tin ceilings, and a sprinkling of charming antiques, along with modern baths, coffeemakers, and flat-screen TVs. About half the rooms are in the adjacent and similarly historic and also Italianate Ilfeld Building. The old-world ambience carries through to the hotel's Prairie Hill Café, which serves consistently good gastropub fare, like truffled mac and cheese and charcuterie platters. Enjoy a creative cocktail or local craft beer in atmospheric Byron T's Saloon, with its tall windows overlooking the plaza.

In the serene Chama Valley amid the red-rock scenery that inspired Georgia O'Keeffe, this inn, located beside the Welcome Center for tours of the artist's home and studio, contains casitas, suites, and rooms brightly decorated with Southwestern accents that may include woodstoves, kiva-style fireplaces, wood-beam ceilings, verandas, and screen-in porches. This is an excellent base for exploring the trails and museums of Ghost Ranch, and amenities include a great little restaurant and an excellent art gallery.