What is your favorite Southwestern city to visit?

No DL love for Arizona ...

Albuquerque - New Mexican food is delicious, I have exceptional luck getting cock there, and it's easy to drive to more picturesque locales.

Apparently now that Facebook is opening an office in Albuquerque, cheap rents and Airbnb rates will be a thing of the past.

R3 - well, fuck. Tech bros ruined SF. Can these fuckers just not?

Depressing r3

Santa Fe, but magical Taos is a close second. There used to be a gay bar in Santa Fe called the Drama Club (25 years ago) and there was a gigantic red high heel shoe in front of the bar. I still have a picture posing with that giant shoe. I love the smell of piñon wood burnt in the air and the clean, fresh unspoiled environment.

Who in the hell voted for Yuma?

r6 I used to live in New Mexico and, to me, there are few smells sweeter than rain in the high desert surrounding Santa Fe/Albuquerque.

Grew up in arizona, still have family there, a best friend lives in Santa Fe, they are all nice to visit when you live on the wet East Coast like I do now

R7 - Yuma is a wonderful retirement city for a poor person to take a small trailer and live out their golden years in the blazing heat. Affordable cost of living.

After years of financial insecurity my disabled sister was able to buy a small trailer in a senior park and is living happily in Yuma. She is able to afford the place on her 900 dollar a month social security check. It is great having places like this for poorer Americans to go. I visited her and can say Yuma has zero appeal to me except for being cheap. With that being cheap my sister finds it a huge cut above living in a shelter in Los Angeles.

AlbaQuerky has better climate than Santa Fe.

Houston

No one likes Tucson but me?

I voted for Albuquerque. But I would have chosen Tucson if the OP had included it.

Since when is Houston Southwest? El Paso, yes, not not Houston.

Las Cruces is nice. If you need a big city fix, El Paso is close by. So is Beto.

Mesilla is like five minutes away from Las Cruces too, r17. Kind of like a micro Taos

r13 = flunked geography

I lived in Prescott for 4 years (work). Beautiful and boring...lots of pretty "straight" Mormon boys, incestuous gay community. Santa Fe and Taos for sure.

R20 - Every gay community ive ever lived in is incestuous. We all fuck each other when we run out of options.

Timothy McVeigh hatched his plot to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Kingman. Two of his accomplices were from the Arizona town... stay away!

I've only been once, but Phoenix (to me) feels like an uninspired, generic wasteland.

Spanish culture is much more prevalent in New Mexico, especially in the northern portion of the state. The culture in southern New Mexico is more influenced by Mexico.

There are so many sights in Arizona...

Flagstaff is nice.

I love the terrain outside of Santa Fe

Why the hell Kingman? That place is redneck city. Yuma is not lovely when it's 120F outside in June. There's no culture or art in those towns.

[quote] AlbaQuerky has better climate than Santa Fe.

What's the difference, R12?

I love both Santa Fe and Sedona (to visit). I have a feeling that Flagstaff would be the best place to actually live in, though.

Tucson would be my pick. Phoenix is a helhole (I live there.) Sedona and Flagstaff are beautiful, but Tucson has a ton of interesting things to do and see.

Vancouver.

As a native living in the area, I'd advise you avoid Yavapai County AZ, including Prescott and West Sedona. We have one of the highest new Covid case rates in the world. Mask use is thing dreaded liberals do.

The County and most municipalities are controlled by GOP crazies, and the Sheriff has an ongoing citizen patrol relationship with the Oath Keepers. The local hate talk station organizes scary rallies against progressive grandmas and college students who stand in silence on the town square.

I voted for Santa Fe.

R32, since you live in AZ, can you say why you like Santa Fe, NM? I heard that NM is a poor state (poor tax base?). What do you think it would be like to live in Santa Fe?

How about Flagstaff?

I would love to live in Santa Fe or Taos. Is Taos a safe place? Looks like the crime rate is quite high

Hi, I spent a few days at the old Hotel St. Francis in downtown Santa Fe while looking at real estate a few years ago, and loved it. I don't think there are any gay bars as such but the town is tolerant and progressive. It's the state capital, and has a diverse arts and restaurant scene. Local media mogul Scott Hutton runs a very successful progressive talk station (KTRC), one of only a handful currently operating in the US, adding to the lefty ambience. Too bad I'm pretty much priced out of the real estate market.

I lived in Flagstaff, ran a business there for about a decade, and generally liked it. In season the ski area is fine and the mountain bike opportunities are excellent. Flag gets quite a bit of snow most winters, so be ready for alpine conditions. Summers are sweet.

Some of NM has a higher property crime rate than you'd expect, perhaps due to poverty and drug problems. Um, Breaking Bad.

Apropos of nothing ... a view from Big Hatchet Peak in the bootheel of New Mexico

I went to UNM in Albuquerque. I loved the school but I was often lonely. I worked a 30 hour job also during the time I was in college. People were nice but standoffish and cliquey. This was back in the early 90's. I hope things have changed since then. Loved hanging out downtown. There was a club near Central and 3rd or 4th??? Lead was behind it. I want to say it was called The Zone but I know it's wrong. It had a front room where bands play on this upper stage balcony thing? I saw the Spin Doctors there before they had their hits. Then in the back there was the dance floor with metal cages. I wish I could remember what the club was called? The Golden West Bar was great too.

Santa Fe is small and boring - like most of these other towns. I don’t understand why it is so hyped. After The only attraction to any of them is the surrounding nature - which is why I chose Flagstaff which has the best access to abundant nature.

Phoenix? Blech. Tucson and Flagstaff are nicer.

I've not been to all on the list, but Phoenix is a horrible, sprawling monster of a city filled with strip malls and car dealerships. It's LA East. Kingman is horribly trashy. Truck stop, trailer park central. I hear Tuscon is the same.

Albuquerque is Phoenix east. Same concept.

Las Cruces is horribly depressing but White Sands nearby is pretty.

Sedona and Prescott are beautiful. Flagstaff is beautiful.

Houston is HELL.

Why do people keep bringing up Houston?

Instead of Phoenix, I would have said Scottsdale, which is quite lovely. I did a library sponsored desert walk, and one of the things I learned is to go up to a mesquite bush, cup your hands on it, blow your hot breath and it releases an amazing fragrance that has that desert after the rain smell.

I really loved Flagstaff in the few times I visited, it has a funky, college town vibe, great cheap food of lots of variety, great museums of Native American arts and culture and wonderful outdoors to explore. It was also very reason priced.

Tucson, I may retire there.

Now that's partly because I'm a serious birder and the place is one of the great birding areas of the US and is birder central, but also because I just like the city, and housing is affordable there. It's a nice city, I like the fact that they've been smart about water and most of the city has desert landscaping, unlike Phoenix it's the rare desert city that isn't obviously fighting nature. I'd been trying to go next weekend, but that's fallen through, and I'm crushed. I'm so looking forward to seeing the place again!

Omg, r43. I don't know how in the world I left Tucson off the poll!!!!

Mea culpa.

I did a search before posting myself, and I was happy to see that several other people voted for Tucson. Yay, Tucson! Wish I was there now!

It's lovely, I had a mother who lived there once.

What city came up with the taco salad? Because that's the one I'd like to visit.