American Eagle provides regular flights to Santa Fe from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and from Los Angeles International Airport, although many visitors and commuters choose to fly into the Albuquerque International Sunport and travel from there to New Mexico City via road, rail or bus. A shuttle service is available from the airport in Albuquerque to the Santa Fe Airport, while the New Mexico Rail Runner Express service has an extensive network and has several stations within the city. Cheap flights to Santa Fe are available twice a day from Dallas and once daily from Los Angeles, making either city a useful stopover point for international travellers.
Santa Fe flights are inexpensive and the airport and city are both easily accessible via public transport. Once in the historical city (whose name means, literally, 'holy faith' in Spanish), the compact districts and narrow streets lend themselves to exploration on foot, while local taxi services, charter vans and limousines are available for longer journeys. Santa Fe Trails operate a regular bus service that visits all the main historic sites and delivers passengers straight to the heart of the city's notorious art galleries. Several companies, such as Loretto Line Tours, offer open-air tram tours, which last about an hour and a half and give visitors an excellent introduction to the city.
Named originally, "La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asis', the city is well-known as a centre of multicultural artistic appeal and is a designated UNESCO Creative City. Both in and around the city there are many artists living and working and the city's Canyon Road is packed with galleries showcasing contemporary art from all over the world. As a result, serious art collectors, as well as tourists make the most of the reasonable airfare to Santa Fe, NM. In addition to the canvas creations, the city is well represented in terms of both classical and modern music and dance.
Like the rest of New Mexico, Santa Fe is known for its spicy style food and there are lots of good Southwestern style restaurants, including the high-end Coyote Café and the more mid-range Tomasita's. The traditional accompaniments to New Mexican dishes are the margarita and sangria and most restaurants in the city produce their own house blend of sangria, which is purported to act as an antidote should the hot food prove too much for the uninitiated. The shopping experience is similarly unique with handmade specialties such as cowboy boots at "Back at the Ranch', and the spiritual gifts at Monk's Corner. Whether eating or shopping, cheap flights to Santa Fe start the visitor on an intriguing odyssey that is filled with local flavour.