2022 Santa Fe Opera and Birding Festival |
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Tickets for the Santa Fe Opera are Available Now!
The 2022 season is on! The Santa Fe Opera will be performing five operas: Carmen, Falstaff, The Barber of Seville, Tristan and Isolde, and M. Butterfly. On this tour, there will be morning and afternoon bird walks, trips to culturally significant sites, and free time for you to visit the great city of Santa Fe. The birding locations are all located within a one-hour drive of Santa Fe.
To view a photo album from a photographer who was on this tour, click here:
If you are a birder and an opera lover, you will not want to miss this event
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Dates: August 7 - 13, 2022
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Trip Length: 7 days
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Group Size: 5 travelers plus guides
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Rates per person = $4,650 (based on double occupancy) Single = $5,850
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Rates include: Lodging, breakfast, lunch, dinner, Santa Fe opera tickets for five nights, daily birding tours and airport transfer for Albuquerque Airport.
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Not included: Airfare to Albuquerque, national parks pass
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Adventure level: Easy, please check the "Welcome" page for definition
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Reservations: To reserve a spot on the trip, a non-refundable 50% deposit is required
Special note: If you are a birder and not an opera fan, it is possible to join the tour at a reduced price that does not include opera concerts or dinner: $3,450 per person (based on double occupancy), or you can choose to see as many operas as you like. You should at least see one!
Elevation: The elevation of the city of Santa Fe is 7,200 feet. Most of the daily birding tours will be at elevations from 5,300 - 7,800 feet. There will be one day of birding tour that reaches 10,300 feet. If you might be sensitive high elevation, we recommend arriving in Albuquerque (5,312 feet) or Santa Fe a day or two early to help you better acclimate and you can always skip the birding days that are at high elevation. Please contact us for more info about elevation.
Santa Fe: People have been living and traveling through the Santa Fe area since about the year 900. The city of Santa Fe was founded in 1610 and was under Spanish control from 1610 - 1821. From 1821–1846, the area was governed by Mexico. The Mexican - American war lasted from 1846 - 1848, after which the United States gained control of California, Nevada, Colorado, and most of what is now Arizona and New Mexico. In 1853, the United States acquired the remaining southern lands of what would become Arizona and New Mexico. In 1912, New Mexico become the 47th state admitted into the union.
Santa Fe Opera Pavilion: In 1956 the New Mexico Opera Association was founded and purchased a guest ranch with a total of 199 acres of land located 7-miles north of Santa Fe. Currently the Santa Fe Opera owns 150 acres of the original land purchase. There have been three different opera theatres since the original 480 seat theater was built. The current theater seats 2,128 and is an outdoor covered pavilion. It is truly a beautiful experience to see a performance at the Santa Fe Opera. The specially designed building, the atmosphere, and the surrounding landscape is all part of the experience.
Pictured above: The Santa Fe Opera theater and a Sage Thrasher.
Opera and Birding Summary Schedule
2020 Itinerary
Day 1 Sunday August 7: Fly to Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Shuttle transfer from Albuquerque to Santa Fe
- Arrival day: Activities depend on arrival time.
- Dinner: TBD
Day 2 Monday August 8: Santa Fe area
- 6:00am – 8:00am: Randall Davey Audubon Center
- 8:00am – 9:00am: Breakfast
- 9:00am – 12:00pm: La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs and local wetlands
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm: Picnic lunch
- 1:00pm – 3:00pm: Tour Historic Santa Fe Plaza
- 3:00pm – 6:00pm: Afternoon break
- 5:00pm: Leave for opera
- 5:30pm: Pre-view dinner buffet and opera talk
- 8:00pm: Carmen (1875) Georges Bizet
Day 3 Tuesday August 9
- Visiting locations north of Santa Fe: Echo Amphitheater, Abiquiu, Georgia O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch, White Rock, Tsankawi Prehistoric Sites, Valles Caldera National Preserve, Bandelier National Monument, and the Los Alamos area. There are numerous museums and cultural sites in Los Alamos to visit including the Los Alamos Nature Center, Manhattan Project National Historical Park, and the Bradbury Science Museum
- 5:00pm: Leave for opera
- 5:30pm: Pre-view dinner buffet and opera talk
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8:00pm: Falstaff (1893) Giuseppe Verdi
Day 4 Wednesday August 10: Santa Fe area
- 6:00am – 8:00am: Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve
- 8:00am – 9:00am: Breakfast
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9:00am – 12:00pm: Santa Fe Botanical Garden, La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm: Picnic lunch
- 1:00pm - 3:00pm: Hyde Park, Randall Davey Audubon Center
- 3:00pm – 5:00pm: Afternoon break
- 5:00pm: Leave for opera
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5:30pm: Tailgate picnic dinner at the opera
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8:00pm: The Barber of Seville (1816) Gioachino Rossini
Day 5 Thursday August 11
- Visiting Albuquerque and significant sites south of Santa Fe such as Petroglyph National Monument, Galisteo Basin Preserve, Pecos National Historic Park, Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, Cochiti Lake, La Bajada Hill, El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail, and Albuquerque International Balloon Museum. On this day it is possible to take a balloon ride.
- 5:00pm: Leave for opera
- 5:30pm: Tailgate picnic dinner at the opera
- 7:00pm: Opera talk
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8:00pm: Tristan and Isolde (1865) Richard Wagner
Day 6 Friday August 12: Santa Fe area
- 6:00am – 8:00am: Randall Davey Audubon Center
- 8:00am – 9:00am: Breakfast
- 9:00am – 12:00pm: Hyde Park, Aspen Vista and Black Canyon
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm: Picnic lunch
- 1:00pm – 3:00pm: Santa Fe Botanical Garden, Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve
- 3:00pm – 5:00pm: Afternoon break
- 5:00pm: Leave for opera
- 5:30pm: Pre-view dinner buffet and opera talk
- 8:00pm: M. Butterfly (2021) David Henry Hwang
Day 7 Saturday August 13
- Departure day: You will be transferred from Santa Fe to the Albuquerque airport
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Daily Birding & Nature Tours
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New Mexico has a lot of great birding locations and birds to see and our bird list is up to 138 different species. Click here to see the Bird List
Everyday there will be a morning and afternoon bird walk and trip to a culturally significant site. There will be free time for you to visit the great city of Santa Fe.
Pictured is a Greater Roadrunner, Geococcyx californianus, which is the state bird of New Mexico.
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Beautiful Walks
There will be visits to the La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs, the Rio Charma Valley, Santa Fe National Forest, Valles Caldera National Preserve, Bandelier National Monument, Hyde Memorial State Park, Randall Davey Audubon Center, Georgia O'Keeffe’ s Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, Pecos National Historic Site and the Santa Fe Botanical Garden.
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Audubon Center
At the edge of Santa Fe is the Randall Davey Audubon Center & Sanctuary. Birds to see: Steller's Jay, Spotted Towhee, Northern Mockingbird, Sage Thrasher, Canyon Towhee, Vesper Sparrow, Northern Roughed-winged Swallows and Yellow-headed Blackbirds.
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We will be staying for 6-nights at Hotel Las Palomas, located just a 10 minute walk for the historic plaza of Santa Fe. Each room is decorated with beautiful southwest design in an historic adobe building. |
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Santa Fe Mountains
About 30 minutes outside of Santa Fe are the arid Ponderosa Pine mountains of the Southwest. This is the southern most area of the Southern Rockies. Home to many unique birds that love the arid west:
Juniper Titmouse, Pinyon Jay, Cordilleran Flycatcher, Clark' Nutcracker, Mountain Chickadee, Cassin's Finch, Western Tanager and Townsend's Solitaire.
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Georgia O'Keeffe
The Ghost Ranch, just outside Santa Fe was the home, studio and inspiration for many of Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings. The 21,000 acres ranch is and museum is open to the public. We will spend several hours here birding, walking and being inspired by this wonderful landscape. Favorite birds here: Woodhouse's Scrub Jay and the Broad-tailed Hummingbird
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Preview Dinners
The Santa Fe Opera has wonderful pre-opera talks and dinners. For two nights, dinner will be at the opera restaurant and every night we will attend the opera pre-talk discussion.
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Picnic Dinners
The Santa Fe Opera is famous for its "Tailgating" parties before the opera. There will be two nights that we will have a picnic dinner at the opera.
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One unique and fun aspect of the Santa Fe opera is people show up early and "tailgate" for dinner. The opera house opens the parking lot 3-hours early to accommodate tailgaters. The opera house is located about 15 minutes north of Santa Fe surrounded by a beautiful arid southwest landscape of mesas, pinyon pines, chamisa and sagebrush. The weather in August is perfect; warm and dry during the day and cool, with occasional showers in the evening. |
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Call us at 970-556-6103
email: KaiyoteTours@gmail.com
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We are expanding our tours within the United States
- Olympic National Park: Birding, Hiking, Backpacking
- Rocky Mountain National Park: Birding, Hiking, Backpacking, Snowshoeing and Skiing
- Colorado: Multi-day Birding and Nature Tours
- Montana: Multi-day Birding and Nature Tours
- New Mexico: Multi-day Birding and Nature Tours
- Washington State: Multi-day Birding and Nature Tours
- Texas Big Bend and the Rio Grand Valley
International Travel for 2022 and 2023
- Panama
- Colombia
- Iceland
- Stockholm
- Estonia
- Taiwan
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Your Dedicated Guides
Kaiyote & Ed
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Photo: Here we are atop the Empire State Building in New York City.
We look forward to showing you all the great birds and wildlife and adventures that can be found around the world, the United States and in Washington state.
Call us anytime! See you soon!
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