Visiting Albuquerque without a car (sublet, hotels, neighborhoods)

[ApartmentNomad]

I am planning on making a carless visit to Albuquerque in mid-June. I'd like to stay somewhere that would allow me to get around on foot and public transportation (or using taxis, but I gather the taxi situation isn't going to be anything to what I'm used to here). Does anyone have any suggestion of which part of the city I should consider staying? Please consider that I would need to have a hotel (or bed and breakfast or whatever) nearby.

(It doesn't help that the Duke City Fix forum has disappeared right as I'm getting ready to make concrete plans for a visit.)

[surveyorusa]

I have only visited Albuquerque once and can't tell you much about it, but I think you should get SOME response to this...

First of all, it might help if you list some of the things you wish to do and see in Albuquerque. There are probably a lot of places that would work depending on what you want to do. Here's just one to throw out: try to get the Sheraton Uptown on Priceline or Hotwire. Take a shuttle there. It's only about a 1/2 mile away from the bus transit center in Uptown so presumably you could get anywhere via bus. But to me this would be too suburban.

I'd probably choose to stay over by UNM myself, because the neighborhoods to the south (University Heights and Nob Hill - just south of Central) are very walkable and not far from the airport. Of course, I can't recommend any hotels over there - didn't notice any. You could try to find some sort of sublet student housing, perhaps on the UNM website or Craigslist, instead of a hotel.

Downtown is an obvious choice in any city. Of course I didn't really GET downtown on my last visit. I hear it's no very exciting, but the buses and taxes ought to be very accessible. Priceline is my service of choice for booking hotels in places like that at good prices.

Perhaps the Albuquerque bus website is a good place to check to see where you could get good bus service in town:

http://www.cabq.gov/transit/tran.html

[ApartmentNomad]

Thanks, I realize I'm being very vague about what I am looking for.

I am actually less concerned with what I'm going to see and do than in just seeing what the air is like, whether the relative absence of mold really does make as big a difference to my sinuses as I am expecting (and also what kind of negative effect that altitude has). Of course, I still want to enjoy myself while I am there. I think the downtown area would probably be my best bet for this visit. I'd like to try to check out a Latin dancing night and maybe take in a concert or two. I'd like to visit UNM's campus. I'm not all that worried about keeping myself entertained, since visiting an unfamiliar city is always stimulating (but I have sent for a couple tour books anyway).

(It turns out that the Duke City Fix forums are back up, so I posted the same question there and have gotten some responses.)

[Vpuccetti]

Well we started up a newer transport system thats pretty good with buses. Its called "Rapid Ride" and is getting pretty good. We just got new railing systems to larger parts of the states. Taxi's are pretty easy to get by.

In my honest opinion, I hate the downtown area on Fri and Sat nights. Too many drunken a-holes and fights going on.

[devoe]

Stay in Old Town . Walking distance to many things with the charm of NM .

[ApartmentNomad]

Thanks for the further responses. I have plans in place now, staying in the downtown area and taking it from there.

[rotorhead]

Definately try the "Summer Nights" concerts at the botanical gardens (Thurs. nights) and at the Zoo (Fridays?). The cost is nominal and especially for the garden concerts the crowds are mostly families and they have a nice picnic-type vibe to them. Should be on the cities website, try referencing the "biopark". Both the zoo and the aquarium/botannical gardens are on main bus lines and well worth seeing, concert or not. I'd probably skip the rennovated Tingley Beach unless you like catching tiny stocked fish out of a man-made pond with dodgy water quality.

[mortimer]

I would change your plans and stay in the UNM area.
You can get to downtown and old town easily from there
since they are connected via the Central Avenue bus lines.

Also check out my post in [ University of NM ] thread on the busses.

Basically, the busses run about every 10 minutes along Central for
much of the day and every 30 minutes at worst.

The UNM area will provide you with the best variety of inexpensive
and good food in a walking radius of 1 mile.

Note that walking to the airport from UNM and to downtown from
UNM is also very doable. I've even walked to Old Town from there
and taken the bus back.

[gynico]

Do you where I can find the rates of Albuquerque Cab ?

[mortimer]

gynico wondered:

> Do you where I can find the rates of Albuquerque Cab ?

Do you mean these guys? Albuquerque Cab Company