This place is like a little Eden in the desert, and Arnold is its quirky presiding angel. The main house is a wonderful rambling old adobe estancia, which Arnold learned classical adobe techniques to add onto. If you can, choose a room in the main house -- they feel quite private, garden access is easy from all, all have those wonderful little beehive adobe fireplaces, and everything is spacious, beautiful, and serene. One large room has a kitchenette as well. Even if you're a non-breakfast eater like me, you'll be beguiled by Arnold's sourdough waffles -- plan on eating more breakfast than you thought you would!

We really enjoyed staying here. The location was peaceful and very pretty. The guest house worked very well for a family of four since everyone had their own room (our son was comfortable on the porch). Our daughter enjoyed the pool and met a neighbor to swim with there. Arnold was gracious and the food was excellent.

Please ignore the negative reviews. Those people did not understand this type of B&B. No, it's not a spa and it's not a five star hotel. If you want one of those, then choose one! This is a very enjoyable, charming, authentic B&B that is a great place to visit in Albuquerque.

Gosh, I'm a little perplexed by the negative reviews. It's always important to figure out if it's your kind of B&B. We are B&B'ers. I've stayed in B&Bs in California, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico. Casita Chamisa is, to date, #1 on our list.
Casita Chamisa is a B&B in the European sense - it's authentic. It's real adobe (not stucco) and a home. If you want to be pampered and give the white-glove treatment to the place while you're there, then don't make reservations for CC. If, however, you want to stay somewhere quiet and private in a country setting, CC is it. Quiet, private, conveniently located and country settings are hard to come by in any city, even Albuquerque.
The place is wonderful and very interesting due to Arnold's affable nature, his stories and the archeological dig the place sits on. The oldest artifacts found there go back to 700 BC. The next door neighbors have horses, and CC occupants include 2 dogs, several cats and a parrot. Arnold will spend as little or as much time with you as you like.
Also featured there are pottery items made by Hector Trillo - what a find. This guy is a master. Every piece is signed, different and every piece has a story. The workmanship is truly amazing. Plus Hector is just getting started...which means you can afford beautiful collector items at a bargain basement price.
Yep, they have an indoor pool (rare-to-nonexistent at most B&Bs), and yes, you have to pull the cover off. The cover ensures the pool temperature stays warm and consistent.
If you want to feel at home in a real New Mexican environment, Casita Chamisa is your kind of place. Sounds like the folks giving these negative reviews should have stayed in a hotel.
--B.Martindale

I am an Albuquerque resident. I booked an overnight stay at Casita Chamisa after seeing some pictures on their website. The pictures made the place look gorgeous. I and three girlfriends wanted to have an overnight retreat before a spa day the next day and were looking for a place where we could make dinner and spend some quality time together in privacy.

When I got to the grounds of Casita Chamisa I was dismayed to see a lot of old junk and junk cars littering the grounds. We had booked the two-bedroom casita, which the website said has a kitchenette and can accommodate 4 people. The casita is fine; the decor is old and it's somewhat shabby-looking, but it is kind of charming in its own way. The biggest drawback is that the living area is extremely small and the kitchenette is a tiny old lab kitchen built into the wall and hidden by louvered doors. The owner told us that at one point the front bedroom and living area of the casita had been one large room and he subdivided it into two; I am not sure that was the best idea as it leaves almost no living space to speak of next to the front fireplace. Since we are close friends we didn't mind it, but it's not ideal for an extended stay and much to our disappointment, there wasn't a nice outdoor patio on the casita we could sit in either (the grounds are not well kept, so even if there had been a nice patio we still would have had to look at the shabby grounds). The pool is located in its own building, and if you want to use it you have to pull the cover back yourself and then put it back when you're done. The "hot tub" is a joke; it's more like the kind of hot tub you would see in a bathroom in a house than a hotel hot tub. The pool room was cluttered with junk and wasn't very clean. Needless to say, we didn't swim.

Arnold, the proprietor, is a nice older gentleman and was relatively good when it came to giving us privacy. He is kind of a talker and likes to tell stories, which is fine except we were more interested in talking to each other. However, he never knocked before walking into the casita which irritated me - with four women in the guest house, I think it is just courtesy to knock before you walk in on someone. We all had early spa appointments the next morning and none of us wanted to eat heavily before our appointments, something I had mentioned to Arnold when I booked the room. Apparently he forgot about that, and was very put out when he found out no one was going to want breakfast.

In a way it's kind of a shame; the property itself is gorgeous and the guest house could be very charming if the decor was updated and the living area was expanded back to a normal size. There are much nicer places to stay in the Albuquerque/Santa Fe area; Los Poblanos Inn is beautiful and I would have much preferred to stay there if that had been an option. I would pass on Casita Chamisa.