Taos's Tempting Romantic Inns

Photos and article by Eleanor S. Morris

Taos, New Mexico - In Taos, everyone seems to be an artist-- from beautiful handmade pottery, glittering silver jewelry, artistic hand weavings--to innkeepers, who offer a choice of elegance or coziness while surrounding you with luxury, comfort, creative food, pampered care.

All throughout the year Taos hums with an calendar of happenings, film and music festivals, art galleries and shows, museums, ski and bike races, whitewater rafting, hiking, mountain biking...with the highest mountains in the state and a wild and scenic river nearby, Taos epitomizes the outdoor life.

After such excitement, what more tempting than to return to the elegance and comfort of a special bed and breakfast inn? The sky is so clear in New Mexico that you can gaze at a star-studded sky from your inn's hot tub, relax in your secluded room glorying in the leaping flames from your kiva fireplace or in your Jacuzzi for two, perhaps indulge in a sauna or a massage.

In Hacienda del Sol, Los Amantes, The Lovers, is a two-room suite with its very own Jacuzzi in the center of the second room. The bedroom's cozy quilted bed is flanked by a white-tiled fireplace; a wooden rocking chair waits nearby. Hosts Dennis and Elton have homemade cookies ready on a tray, and breakfast will be a gourmet treat as well. Chef Elton might prepare his banana pancakes with hot maple syrup that "he does special things with," says innkeeper Dennis. Or maybe stuffed french toast with cream cheese and nuts and again, that special hot maple syrup.

From the outdoor hot tub there's a view of Taos Mountain, sacred to the Taos Indians, on the horizon. "The mountain is in our backyard," says Dennis. The inn is situated on 1.2 acres of land adjoining several thousand of Taos Pueblo Indian land, and with the beautiful New Mexico weather, Hacienda del Sol, House of the Sun, lives up to its promise.

Little Tree Bed & Breakfast out on Hondo Seco Road is in one of the most authentic adobe buildings in Taos. Art in the newly refurbished Juniper Room is by Santa Fe artist Diana Bryer, and the flames from the deep blue kiva pick up the bright pink, blue and yellow colors of the bedspread. The Jacuzzi here is for two. All four guest rooms are around a courtyard centered with, of course, a little tree.

The bedlinens here are the silkiest, the towels the softest and fluffiest--we are talking pampered, right? And innkeepers Maggie and Gordon Johnston will pamper you with homemade cookies, and chocolates, in your room, as well as breakfasts that are a feast for the eye as well as for the taste buds. Both are wonderful company, too, with Gordon an expert historian on New Mexico and the Southwest. There are books on New Mexico history all over, from the library to the living room coffee table.

"We're quiet, quiet, quiet," says Gordon, "We're just ten miles from the bustle of Taos Plaza." Little Tree is near the ski slopes of Taos Ski Valley if that's your choice of excitement.

Another treat is Susan Vernon's Casa de las Chimineas, House of the Chimneys, where the morning fruit drink, Fruit Frappe Casa de las Chimineas, is so tasty that guests beg for the recipe. The Library Suite has a two-person jetted tub and a spa shower with a waterfall, and all the guest rooms in this inn, converted from a luxurious private home in 1988, are wonderful examples of New Mexico style at its best.

The inn is only two and a half blocks from historic Taos Plaza and all its art galleries, and after seeing and shopping, you can indulge in a massage and sauna, loll in the outdoor hot tub, or stroll through three separate gardens.

Taos claims to be "the B&B Capital of the Southwest," and with these three inns and at least a dozen others, it's a claim hard to dispute.