Start from 16 curated places around Alamogordo, NM, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
CJ's Si Señor Restaurant
A longtime family Mexican restaurant and Alamogordo institution, doing red and green chile, enchiladas, and sopaipillas in a comfortable sit-down room. The town's reliable New Mexican dinner.
Hi-D-Ho Drive In
A classic mid-century drive-in slinging green-chile cheeseburgers, the 'Tiger' double, and shakes, a nostalgic Alamogordo fixture. Pure old-school roadside Americana with a New Mexico chile twist.
Trails & outdoors
Alkali Flat Trail, White Sands National Park
A roughly 5-mile loop marked only by posts across the heart of the dunefield to the edge of an ancient dry lakebed, a genuine trek through a surreal sea of white with no shade and no landmarks but the dunes themselves. The signature White Sands hike.
Dune Life Nature Trail, White Sands National Park
An easy one-mile loop near the park entrance with interpretive signs about the surprising plants and animals that survive in the gypsum, climbing a few dunes for views. The family-friendly White Sands walk that doesn't require a trek.
Things to do
New Mexico Museum of Space History
A gold-cube museum on the hillside above town tracing the history of rocketry and spaceflight (much of it tested in this basin), with a planetarium, an outdoor rocket park, and the grave of Ham, the first chimp in space. Genuinely engaging and the area's best indoor attraction.
Alameda Park Zoo
One of the oldest zoos in the Southwest, a small, shady, walkable park-zoo in the heart of town with a mix of native and exotic animals. An easy, inexpensive family stop under the big cottonwoods.
Landmarks & sights
White Sands National Park
The world's largest gypsum dunefield, 275 square miles of blinding-white, sugar-fine sand that ripples to the horizon against the Sacramento Mountains. Sledding down the dunes on a waxed saucer and watching the sunset turn the sand pink are the area's defining experiences.
Tularosa
A small historic village just north of Alamogordo, founded in 1862, with a 49-block original townsite of adobe homes, old cottonwoods, and a historic church, plus the area's pistachio and wine country at its edges. A quiet, atmospheric counterpoint to modern Alamogordo.