Taos, New Mexico Travel Guide: Art, Culture & Adventure

Posted on September 22, 2025November 5, 2025 by jim

Taos New Mexico has been on our radar for quite some time, and we finally managed to squeeze it in to see if it lives up to our high expectations.
Spoiler alert – it didn’t.
We had talked about decoupling a Taos visit from summer RV travel, but the wrapup of the 14ers and our close proximity to the New Mexico border made an RV trip the best option.
Shelby and Tom also had planned on visiting Taos a few weeks after us, and were able to adjust their plans to be there at the same time.
After almost two weeks in a noisy RV park in town, is was a great break to have a long weekend with the kids in an amazing AirBNB that Colette arranged.
We watched many YouTube videos on things to do in Taos along with a ton of other internet research, and came up with a short list.

San Francisco de Asis

Taos Pueblo

Enchanted Circle Loop

Earthships

Wheeler Peak

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

Plenty of big checkboxes.

Taos is art.

These signs are everywhere downtown.
It’s a weird mix of aging hippy artists, Native Americans, and people who have been lured here by the art scene.
This leads to a hodgepodge of nice homes interspersed with completely junky rundown shacks, Subarus and muffler-less jacked up trucks, art galleries and pot shops.
The promise of Taos is Art definitely delivers, from the murals to sculptures to the myriad of galleries.
If that’s what you’re here for, you will find it in spades.
If you’re looking for anything else, you can see all of the highlights including the Enchanted Circle drive in a two-day weekend.
Taos Ski Valley is beautiful, as is the hike up to Wheeler Peak, but the entire ski town itself is completely deserted in the summer.
So deserted that Colette skipped sitting and having a beer the day she went up there because she didn’t want to be the only person sitting out.
Taos Pueblo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with historic pueblos and kivas, but it’s almost Disney-like with staged people ‘living’ in the pueblos then likely going home to their modern house up the road after hours.
Colette and I checked out the outside, but didn’t feel like we would get much for the $25/each to step inside. Tom and Shelby went when they came down the following week, and the Taos Pueblo photos below are all from their visit.
The Taos Plaza is a small square of stores, anything touristy you could possibly want to buy.
Not our jam, although we did enjoy browsing a rock shop with plenty of colorful geodes, and looking inside the historic Hotel La Fonda de Taos.
Worth a visit, but don’t plan your day around the Plaza.
The Enchanted Circle drive is a nice way to spend an afternoon, and highlights how quickly and easily you can go from high desert juniper scrub to densely wooded mountain terrain. Definitely do the drive if you have an afternoon free.
We also made the time to drive into more mountainous areas to hike, and the break from the juniper scrub is very nice with a few easy hikes within easy striking distance.
New Mexican food is different from Mexican food, heavy on local chilies. If you’re a foodie, sample around and see what you find.
We’re not big on art galleries or museums, and if that’s your thing then you probably need much more than a weekend with the huge amount of them here.
This is a great dark sky area if you’re outside of downtown, you can sit out and stargaze for hours. If you’re an astrophotographer be warned that there seems to be an inordinately high amount of airline and satellite traffic overhead that will bleed into your long exposure photos.
Taos Itch Scratched.
Would we recommend? We would recommend a weekend for the intrepid traveler, and a long weekend for an art buff.
On our return list? Definitely not. The highlight of our entire stay was hanging out with the kids, and there are a lot more convenient and interesting places we can do that.