DAY 1:
Arrive Albuquerque, NM anytime today and transfer on own by complimentary airport shuttle to your hotel. Evening free on own.
Lodging – Fairfield Inn Airport, Albuquerque, NM (or similar)
DAY 2:
Depart Albuquerque, NM at 8:00 am and travel to Acoma Pueblo, one of the oldest continuous pueblo communities in the Southwest. Explore Acoma Sky City Pueblo on a guided tour. Learn about the history of the pueblo from when they first came to the Mesa to their interactions with the Spanish to their current day lives. Visit El Morro National Monument and walk on the same trails of the Spanish Explorers who traveled through here in the 1540’s, including their signatures carved into the rocks.
Lodging – Thunderbird Lodge, Chinle, AZ (or similar)
Meals: B, L
DAY 3:
Experience Canyon De Chelly on a guided tour with a local Navajo. Learn about the history and traditions of those who live in the canyon currently and those who lived in this area anciently. After lunch travel to Monument Valley and enjoy a guided Back Country Tour of Monument Valley. Along with enjoying the timeless landscape with its views and vistas, you will continue to learn about the Navajo culture with a visit to a Hogan and a discussion with one of the locals still living inside the valley.
Lodging – Desert Rose, Bluff, UT (or similar)
Meals: B, L,
DAY 4:
This morning you will explore Valley of the Gods and the historic Moki Dugway enroute to Natural Bridges National Monument. Here you will explore three of the 10 largest natural bridges in the world located within 1 small area. After a picnic lunch, you will travel to Hovenweep National Monument to explore and learn about the ruins of the Ancestral Pueblo people and culture that inhabited this region over 1000 years ago.
Lodging – Holiday Inn Express, Cortez, CO (or similar)
Meals: B, L
DAY 5:
Explore Mesa Verde National Park today. Visit the many Ruins, overlooks, and the Spruce Treehouse Museum while there. Afterwards travel to Aztec National Monument and explore those ruins including a fully restored giant kiva and learn about its significance to the Ancestral Pueblo Culture.
Lodging – Presidential Inn & Suites, Aztec, NM (or similar)
Meals: B, L
DAY 6:
Today you will travel south to Chaco Canyon National Monument to the heart of the Ancestral Pueblo culture and explore ruins like Chetro Ketl, Pueblo Bonito or Pueblo Alto. You will learn first-hand about the massive influence this area had on the entire southwestern US and see the different architectural influences that started here and spread throughout the area.
Lodging – LaFonda on the Plaza, Santa Fe, NM (or similar)
Meals: B, L
DAY 7:
Enjoy the morning at Tent Rocks National Monument and the afternoon and evening relaxing and exploring historic Santa Fe.
Lodging – LaFonda on the Plaza, Santa Fe, NM (or similar)
Meals: B, L
DAY 8:
Visit Bandelier National Monument for your final day before returning to Albuquerque by 1:00 for lunch at El Pinto! Arrive at your hotel by 5:00pm, evening free on own.
Lodging – Fairfield Inn Airport, Albuquerque, NM (or similar)
Meals: B, L
DAY 9:
Transfer to the Albuquerque Airport on own by hotel shuttle.
Meals: B
*Itinerary subject to change.