Santa Fe is one of the top art markets in the United States. In addition to its store of exquisite Native American art, it boasts contemporary artists and sculptors from many traditions and disciplines. Although it is impossible to visit every gallery, even in three very intensive days, Santa Fe is structured as a walking town seemingly planned around its art galleries, art fairs, and sculpture parks.

We chose to stay at La Posada, a Rock Resort. The hotel is in the center of town from which it is an easy walk to Canyon Road, the miracle art mile of Santa Fe. La Posada is, itself, an art gallery as well as a hotel. The walls of this Victorian mansion are adorned with works by Santa Fe artists, with descriptions and prices on everything you see. Even your breakfast begins with an art tour.

The grounds surrounding La Posada are arranged in formal gardens, with music pavilions and well-placed sculptures. Your room is likely to remind you of a Mexican casita, but very upscale and very well appointed, with its own art offerings.

From La Posada you might want to arrange a trip to Canyon Road through Art Tours of Santa Fe. The tour guide leads you by car, but you hop on and off for two hours to see the galleries that they have selected travelers over 65 receive a senior discount.

You certainly can walk Canyon Road and visit each gallery on your own. There is an overwhelming array. At La Posada, and many other hotels and venues, you will find a free booklet entitled “The Collectors Guide to Canyon Road." It provides a walking tour of at least 50 galleries, bookstores, antique shops ranging from high art, to craft, to museums like the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art.

If you start at the Randall Davie Audubon Center you can also visit Christo Rey Church. Traversing the virtually straight path down Canyon Road for several miles to Paseo De Peralta, you are then only a half mile from East Palace Ave and the Plaza.

The Plaza is the site of a marvelous cathedral and of art and craft fairs. This is the place to find Native American jewelry and other crafts, certified as genuinely handcrafted and sold directly to you by the craftsman or members of his Or her family. These crafts are sold all day, every day. And, on Saturdays until 2 PM at Paseo De Perlata at Guadalupe you will find the fine arts and crafts artist market. (March through December beginning at 8 AM at the rail yard park.) There are special events at Cathedral Park Saturdays and Sundays from 10 AM to 5 PM, specifically on May 21 22nd, August 13 of 14 October 1 and October 2.

Santa Fe is a Mecca for artists for a variety of reasons; perhaps made most famous by Georgia O’Keefe. If you ask the artists themselves, they will tell you that it has something to do with the light. Indeed, having traveled with photographers I can attest to their excitement from dawn to dusk, as they played with the pinks, greens and blues of the sky.

There is more to it than that. It is the undeniable spirituality that many find both soothing and shocking as they walk through the streets of Santa Fe, or drive through the countryside. I have known Ageless traveler's attesting to having seen guide animals, or an eagle made of clouds. Imagine how artists, well attuned to nature and spirit, are inspired by Santa Fe and its natural environment. Even on a three-day tour you do not have to be left out of this experience. You can design a hike with Hike New Mexico or take the Mystical Beauty Photography tour, a one-day tour of hidden places of mystery, including Chama River, the White city, Georgia O'Keeffe country, Ghost Ranch and more.

Part and parcel of the spiritual content that fills the context of what is modern-day Santa Fe, are every variety of spa, massage, and body treatment that your heart and dry skin could desire. Once again, most of these treatments are a fusion with the spirit of Santa Fe, and might include chocolate or coffee wraps, wild berry facials, healing stone body treatments, and energy work from Reiki to cranial sacral massage.

You need to venture no further than the La Posada hotel which has an excellent spa and gym. La Posada offers interesting classes and an ample menu of massages and body treatments. Because the spa is also patronized by the residents of Santa Fe, it feels more intimate than a hotel spa. The staff makes a true effort to analyze your needs and treat you as if you plan to come back over and over again.

For those who enjoy a day spa, one of the most unusual in Santa Fe is Body Spa. This is a holistic spa, using organic products and boasting a series of Pilates and yoga classes enjoyed by day trippers and the community alike. Body, although situated in the center of the strip mall, gives you a true feeling of peace and tranquility with its organic fabric clothing shop and an excellent vegan restaurant. It is not difficult to take a full or half day to luxuriate in the unique treatments.

About 9 miles out of Santa Fe is the resort hotel Encantado, built around a luxury spa. Aside from uniquely private treatment rooms with their own outdoor showers and bathtubs, spa goers enjoy a private court with hot tub and cold plunge where they can read, sit, or sip cold drinks. By contrast, there is an indoor warm room for relaxation where one can luxuriate in front of fire place with books and magazines on cushy lounges. Encantado provides a free of charge car and driver from Santa Fe to the hotel and back, that leaves upon request and at specific intervals.

My driver was himself an artist whose work was recently accepted for the gallery the La Posada Rock Resort. And so my weekend went full circle, from hotel, to art, to spa, back to art and hotel. For the Ageless traveler, Santa Fe is a place you will want to take your friends, enjoy special occasions, and to which you will introduce older grandchildren. This is an easy and rewarding trip for which you need very little preparation except the opening of the spirit.