New Mexico & the AVA Walking Convention
Late April / Early May 2025 • 10-12 Days • Price TBD
February 24, 2024
2025 Adventures, including New Mexico & the AVA Walking Convention, are currently in the initial planning phase. Travelers who wish to hold their spot on this tour are encouraged to submit a refundable $100 pre-registration deposit by clicking the green PRE-REGISTER button below.
Tours popular in the pre-registration phase will be finalized with firm dates, updated itineraries, and final pricing. The tour is then released for full registration. Pre-registered travelers have one week of priority access to full registration, which requires an additional $200 ($300 total registration). Registration deposits are non-refundable.
Introduction
The biennial walking convention of the AVA – America’s Walking Club is held a remarkable corner of the American Southwest – the culturally, scenically, and historically diverse state of New Mexico. The 20th anniversary celebration of WAI has held in New Mexico back in 2009, the year we first became aware of its well-earned nickname – “Land of Enchantment”.
The itinerary is built around the convention in Las Cruses, with five days of walking and activities from April 28 to May 2. Around this walking festival, WAI will share treasures discovered in our 2009 Reunion research. These include:
- Jemez Mountain Trail, a scenic drive that takes in surprising geological formations, ancient Indian ruins, an Indian pueblo, and remainders of the area’s logging, mining, and ranching heritage;
- Acoma Sky City Pueblo, a native community perched high atop a mesa in an area of dramatic high-desert landscapes with a story dating back to AD 1150, making it the oldest continuously inhabited community in North America;
- the capital city of Santa Fe where the Spanish Heritage Walk abounds with echoes of this 395-year-old city’s Spanish past, blended with the ambiance of a world-renowned art community; and
- Bandelier National Monument, one of the best places to see cliffside dwellings of the ancestral Pueblo people.
Overview / Trip Details
Adventure Pace
Tour Pace: 1 2 3 4 5
Walk Challenge: 1 2 3 4 5
Adventure Pace
How much Adventure do you want? Here are a few features to help gauge the following factors on each tour.
Tour Pace: On a scale of 1 (slowest pace) to 5 (fastest pace), we’ve rated the following factors: number of 1-night hotels; driving miles per day; fullness of schedule; mid-tour airline flights; high elevation setting; and average amount of walking per day.
Walk Challenge: This number represents an average walk difficulty rating for the tour using a scale of 1 (easiest) to 5 (hardest).
