A popular television show on AMC, “Breaking Bad” starring Bryan Cranston was filmed in various places around Albuquerque. If you’re a fan of the show, it’s easy to find filming locations online for a self-guided tour or you can take advantage of the many guided tours that will give you tons of awesome information as you pass the most famous spots this show was set.
Easily recognizable for its symmetrical design, often seen colored red on a field of yellow, the “Zia” is meant to look like a sun with rays pointing in four different directions, with the four rays holding various symbolic meanings, including the four seasons of a year, the four seasons of life, and the four sacred obligations held dear to the Zia’s beliefs.
Thanks to New Mexico’s close proximity with America’s neighbors to the south, there’s tons of awesome Mexican cuisine available in Albuquerque. A few favorites include the Last Call, Taqueria Mexico, and El Paisa, but it’s easy to find good food on any street in town.
Made from a special type of pepper found in New Mexico, green chili is a saucy mix of ingredients, sometimes including a protein like pork, and it’s commonly used as a condiment around the Albuquerque area. Every variety you taste will be a little different, but they’ll all be equally delicious. Be warned though, this regional dish can pack quite a bit of heat.
When the name of your city as long and hard to spell as Albuquerque, you’ve got to come up with an easier and quicker way to reference it. The locals here use the acronym ABQ. You’ll also hear Albuquerque referred to as the Duke City or Burque. The nicknames are interchangeable and all reference the same awesome New Mexico city, just with fewer potential spelling errors.
When most Americans think of Albuquerque, they think of a flat desert wasteland. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Nestled in the shadows of the 10,678 foot tall Sandia Mountains to the east, there’s tons of awesome stuff to do outside and several nearby natural attractions that should be on everyone’s bucket list.
Home to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, locals around ABQ go crazy for these giant colorful airships. The event last for nine days and over 500 balloons participating every year, some of which look like giant animals or airplanes.
Playing their football games at Albuquerque’s Branch Field, this city goes crazy for the New Mexico Lobos. If you’re new to the area, you’ll need to get some fan gear ASAP so that you fit in by the time the big games roll around.
Despite being in a desert, the elevation of Albuquerque is 5,312 feet, a few feet higher than Denver, Colorado. That means that if you’re moving to the area from a lower city, you’ll need to give your body some time to adjust to the lack of oxygen before you go out for a strenuous hike or a bar crawl, as exercise and alcohol are two things that often cause the most noticeable side effects. A couple weeks should do the trick. If you insist on doing something crazy without letting your body adjust, consider bringing a portable oxygen tank along for the ride or recover at a local oxygen bar.
Founded in 2003, the local minor league team in ABQ is the Albuquerque Isotopes. The name might sound strange, but it actually has a pretty neat origin. It references a team featured in an episode of “The Simpsons” called the Springfield Isotopes. The general plot of the episode is that Homer Simpson is trying to thwart his hometown team’s plans to move to Albuquerque. The people of Albuquerque decided to use this as their inspiration and the name “Albuquerque Isotopes” was chosen by popular decision. Conveniently, this name works especially well for ABQ thanks to the many scientific and military facilities throughout history that have called this townhome.
You can search condos for sale, open houses for this weekend, new listings and price reduced homes in Albuquerque and beyond.
Boasting over 300 days of sunshine every year, Albuquerque is one of the sunniest places in America. The summer average temperatures tend to hang around a perfect 75 degree, while winter temps dip to a manageable 41. With so much sun and hardly any rain, it’s hard to complain about the weather in the Burque.
A deep fried pastry topped with honey, sugar, and sometimes even chocolate, this Mexican dessert dish might sound simple, but it’s downright amazing. It’s hard to find most places around America, but Albuquerque is one place where you can get it in its best form.
Unemployment levels in Albuquerque are extremely low, hovering around 5.3 percent of the population. The national average is around 6 percent, but most big cities have much higher rates of unemployment. With major local industries including technology companies, energy companies, and manufacturing, it’s no surprise that Forbes has ranked ABQ as one of the best places for business, careers, and jobs throughout the past decade.
Just because it’s constantly sunny and hot in Albuquerque doesn’t mean there’s not a little bit of snow for you to enjoy, too. Lying on the opposite side of the Sandia Mountains compared to the city, the Sandia Peak Ski Area is open in the winter, offering a great place to shred some pow.
Albuquerque has a rich history when it comes to nuclear technology thanks to its close proximity to the White Sands Proving Ground (now called White Sands Missile Range). Not only is this the largest military installation in the United States, it’s also where the first atomic bomb was tested. You can’t visit the site as it’s still controlled by the military, but you can check out the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History to get your nuclear fix.
Thanks to lower traffic levels and great road design, the commute time in Albuquerque is much shorter than many cities of a comparable size, averaging only 21 minutes per trip. Albuquerque was also ranked by Times Magazine as the 7th best city in the country out of 100 metropolitan areas for public transportation, with nearly 75 percent of the local working population near a transit stop. Just hope it doesn’t start raining. It’s a rare occurrence but it magically causes everyone on the roads to lose all driving abilities.
A quick walk around town makes it easy to see how the influence of the local Native Americans is still very prominent in Albuquerque today, from building designs to the clothing and jewelry commonly spotted around town. With nearly a 5 percent Native America population making up the local community, this demographic is much more present here than in other cities of ABQ’s size. If you want to get a firsthand look at the special heritage that helped build Albuquerque into the unique destination that it is today, check out the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, dedicated to preserving Pueblo Indian history and art.
For a big city, Albuquerque is relatively inexpensive, with a cost of living score of 96 on a scale that places average America at 100. This means that your dollar will go quite a bit further here, with the local median home value at $190,000.
Aside from being swelteringly hot at times, there are tons of living things in Albuquerque and the surrounding area that you’ll need to watch out for. Thanks to its desert climate, things like scorpions, tarantulas, and snakes, along with a variety of prickly plants love it here. You should be fine as long as you shake out your shoes before jamming your feet in.
You’ll notice this quickly after moving into town, but Albuquerque gets crushed by the wind during certain times of the year. That coupled with being in the desert means lots of sand and dust storms flying through the air periodically. Just make sure your windows are shut and you’ll survive.
Albuquerque is home to a very unique regional dialect. It’s not completely English, it’s not really Spanish, and it can hardly even be called Spanglish. There are tons of unique words, phrases, and sounds used regularly here that you won’t hear many other places in America, including the Albuquerque “Eeeee!” It’s said exactly how it looks and gets used a lot in place of exclamations like “wow!” and adverbs like “very.” It won’t take too long for you to catch on. Like This Post? You’ll Definitely Love These:
