They say that astronauts undergo a cognitive shift when first perceiving our planet from a spacecraft: an overwhelming awe and renewed perspective on the “oneness” of the world.
For those among us for whom becoming an astronaut looks unlikely, the closest we’ll get to this feeling is not gazing through a plane window, soundtracked by the roar of jet engines, but rising thousands of feet into the sky in a hot air balloon, with Earth laid out, unobstructed, in all directions and in serene, surreal silence.
I discovered this last October at the annual week-long Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in New Mexico: the largest balloon festival in the world, and the largest annual international event of any kind in America. I was in one of hundreds of balloons taking off simultaneously after the sun had risen on the festival’s opening Sunday, in what’s known as the “Mass Ascension”.
I can only imagine what it must look like from the ground, where thousands of spectators wave you off from the 365-acre launch field then watch you join the mass of enormous, multicoloured polkadots filling the early morning sky. But from within the little wicker basket itself, it really is an extended “cognitive shift” moment that you only snap out of after hitting the ground again with a thud, bracing yourself for impact as the land rushes back towards you. For days, if not weeks, afterwards, your head remains in the clouds.
The festival has been going on here for decades (it started with a mere 13 balloons in 1972), and now draws almost one million people annually to New Mexico’s biggest city – its only major metropolis. Flanked on one side by the rugged Sandia Mountains and the cottonwood-forested banks of the Rio Grande on the other, and all encircled by the arid Chihuahuan Desert as it segues into the Colorado Plateau, it’s a spectacular geographical setting to soar over. But the balloon festival, in all its strange, slightly otherworldly glory, is also beautifully emblematic of all that makes the historic, eccentric city of Albuquerque so special.
For a start, it’s home to the longest urban stretch of Route 66, which celebrates its centenary in 2026. Known here as Central Avenue, it still houses one of the nation’s best-preserved collections of nocturnally glowing roadside neon signs and mid-century motels, some of which have been sensitively dragged into the 21st century via extensive renovation.
If you’d like to journey back a couple more centuries into Albuquerque’s early-1700s beginnings as a Spanish colony, its first neighbourhood – the still-thriving Old Town – remains full of original adobe buildings and later Victorian houses, which began sprouting after the railroad’s arrival brought new residents and architectural styles. Built in 1793, the San Felipe de Neri Church on the central plaza is one of the city’s oldest surviving buildings.
There are artisan stores here too, selling Native and Spanish-influenced art and handicrafts, and striking turquoise jewellery – the blue mineral sacred to south-west Native Americans, who regard it as a talisman for health and happiness. The nearby Indian Pueblo Cultural Center further spotlights the region’s tribal roots with permanent and rotating exhibits, and a perennial weekly programme of Indigenous dancing – the only place in the US to do so.
How wholesome and sensible, you may be thinking: so far, so un-eccentric. But it’s there that the city’s run-of-the-mill tourism draws come to an abrupt end. Next, we’ve the likes of the American International Rattlesnake Museum, home to the world’s largest collection of live rattlesnakes; the Tinkertown Museum, a collection of folk art built from 50,000 glass bottles; the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History; and the Sandia Peak Tramway – America’s longest aerial tram, which climbs 2.7 miles from the desert floor north-east of the city to Sandia Crest’s 10,378ft summit.
There’s even a prevailing pop-culture trope which nods at Albuquerque’s reputation for not quite making sense. It dates back almost a century, to when Bugs Bunny famously first uttered “I knew I should’ve taken that left turn at Albuquerque!” – which stems from the fact that Route 66 intersects itself in the city’s downtown, the only place on its entire route that it does so, resulting in decades of motoring confusion.
Even the food here marches to the beat of its own drum. The dominant cuisine is not quite the “Tex-Mex” blend most tourists associate with the south-western states, but rather a fusion of Native American and Spanish dishes with Mexican, predicated on native ingredients like beans, squash, corn and the ubiquitous chilli pepper (“Red or green?” is a customary question from waiters; “Christmas” means both).
And then, of course, there’s a whole host of other quirky food options: father-and-son-run neighbourhood bakery and pizzeria, Golden Crown Panaderia, for example, has become regionally famous for its impressive “bread sculptures” (including one shaped like a turkey, made for vegans wanting to retain a sense of tradition with their Thanksgiving dinner).
The flourishing craft beer scene here also throws curveballs, from Painted Lady – which occupies a 19th-century former brothel and offers a “bed and brew” option (beer, rather than breakfast, with your lodgings) – to Bow & Arrow, the country’s first Native woman-owned brewery, crafting beers with indigenous ingredients like Navajo tea leaves and Neomexicanus hops.
Considering all the weirdness and wonder it has to offer, it’s a shame that Albuquerque seldom appears on the itineraries of visitors to the US. New Mexico may still be overshadowed by neighbours Texas and Arizona, but its biggest city remains an epitome of the hybrid Americana at the heart of the south-western states.
It’s a winning blend of grit and beauty, the urban and the wild, history and modernity, in the middle of the desert.
Whether you’re zooming along Route 66 or soaring overhead in a balloon, Albuquerque is well deserving of a much closer look than many would ever be willing to give it.
Essentials
Kris Griffiths was a guest of Old Town’s Bottger Mansion (rooms from £149) and The Imperial (rooms from £94) on Route 66. United Airlines flies from London to Albuquerque (via Denver) from £769 return. This year’s Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta takes place between Oct 3-11, but if you can’t wait, year-round flights are offered by Rainbow Ryders and Four Corners.