Hyatt Tamaya Resort - Santa Ana Pueblo, NM

After a long drive - straight through Amarillo, only stopping for gas - we arrived Monday afternoon to the Hyatt Tamaya Resort just north of Albuquerque, NM. We've been wanting to come back here ever since we first swung through here almost 5 years ago. At that time, we were driving from LA to Dallas, and arrived here at this resort (which I pricelined for a GREAT DEAL) late at night when it was pitch black. The next day, we awoke and saw just how beautiful this place was. But... we had to keep moving east, and hardly had any time to enjoy the place.

So, we decided we would try to priceline and get back to this place on our westward trip. And it worked out!

FUNNY STORY: On the morning that I pricelined and got this hotel a few weeks ago, I was sitting at a SBUX. About an hour later, a lady came up to me and asked me if I could help her setup a wifi account. While I was helping her, she mentioned to me that she and her 2 colleagues worked for HYATT and were just in town in Dallas visiting with clients. "What a coincidence," I said, "I just booked a reservation at the Hyatt Tamaya in NM." As it turned out, that was exactly the Hyatt location where one of this lady's colleagues worked! She came over, and we chatted about the hotel for a few minutes. Then she gave me a wonderful gift bag with spa lotions and soaps from the resort. And she told me to swing by and say hi when we arrived at the hotel.

When we arrived on Monday afternoon, Bethany was THRILLED when, a few minutes after we settled into our room, she was greeted by room service with a little amenity gift and a "Welcome back to the Hyatt Tamaya!" card and note from this nice lady that I had met a few weeks ago. Here is what she had sent to our room:



Along with the water, apples, dried apricots, and walnuts... notice the CHEESE. This made Bethany's day. Needless to say, we love this hotel. And, having gone through Priceline, it was a great deal. (I splurge a little bit when it comes to hotels. But hey... what I save on stylish wardrobe, I can spend on a nicer hotel stay).

The resort has a large campus with golf course, stables, tennis courts, lots of walking/biking trails, 3 swimming pools, a nice southwestern feel to its decor, and probably the NICEST HOTEL STAFF that we've ever found. Ok, maybe it's because it's a slow time of the year and there aren't too many guests staying here now, but every time we pass by the front desk, we're greeted with, "Mr. Lee, how has your day been going so far?" and "Mr. and Mrs. Lee, how did you enjoy the tennis game this afternoon?" It's like everybody who works here knows who we are, and they're so nice to us.

Today was a packed day. We didn't leave the hotel grounds at all, but we got to spend pretty much the whole day together. I'll let Bethany post about all the fun (and free) things that we did today. But in the meantime, here are some pictures from our stay so far...