2021 Santa Fe Opera and Birding Festival |
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Tickets for the Santa Fe Opera go on sale on June 10th
The 2021 season is on! The Santa Fe Opera will be performing four operas: The Lord of Cries, The Marriage of Figaro, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Eugene Onegin. 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.
If you are a birder and an opera lover, you will not want to miss this event
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Dates: August 15 - 21, 2021
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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 = $4,250 (based on double occupancy) Single = $5,650
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Rates include: Lodging, breakfast, lunch, dinner, Santa Fe opera tickets for four nights, daily birding tours and airport transfer for Albuquerque Airport.
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Not included: Airfare to Albuquerque
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Adventure level: Easy, please check the "Welcome" page for definition
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: $3,150 per person (based on double occupancy)
Elevation: The elevation of the city of Santa Fe is 7,200 feet. Most of the daily birding tours will be at elevations from 6,300 - 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.
Reservations: To reserve a spot on the trip, it is a non-refundable 50% deposit
Opera and Birding Summary Schedule
2020 Itinerary
Day 1 Sunday August 15: Fly to Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Shuttle transfer from Albuquerque to Santa Fe
- Arrival day: No scheduled activities
- Dinner: TBD
Day 2 Monday August 16
- 6:00am – 8:00am: Randall Davey Audubon Center
- 8:00am – 9:00am: Breakfast
- 9:00am – 12:00pm: Randall Davey Audubon Center
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm: Picnic lunch
- 1:00pm – 3:00pm: Tour Historic Santa Fe Plaza
- 3:00pm – 6:00pm: Afternoon break
- 6:00pm: Dinner
Day 3 Tuesday August 17
- 6:00am – 8:00am: La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs
- 8:00am – 9:00am: Breakfast
- 9:00am – 12:00pm: White Rock and Valles Caldera National Preserve
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm: Picnic lunch
- 1:00pm – 3:00pm: Bandelier National Monument
- 3:00pm – 5:00pm: Afternoon break
- 5:00pm: Leave for opera
- 5:30pm: Pre-view dinner buffet and opera talk
- 8:00pm: The Lord of Cries (world premier) by John Corigliano and Mark Adamo (2020)
Day 4 Wednesday August 18
- 8:00am – 10:00am: Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve
- 10:00am – 12:00pm: Echo Amphitheater, Abiquiu
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm: Picnic lunch
- 1:00pm – 3:00pm: Ghost Ranch and Rio Chama Valley
- 3:00pm – 5:00pm: Afternoon break
- 5:00pm: Leave for opera
- 5:30pm: Pre-view dinner buffet and opera talk
- 8:00pm: The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1786)
Day 5 Thursday August 19
- 6:00am – 8:00am: Santa Fe Canyon Wetlands
- 8:00am – 9:00am: Breakfast
- 9:00am – 12:00pm: Galisteo Basin Preserve
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm: Picnic lunch
- 1:00pm – 3:00pm: Pecos National Historic Park
- 3:00pm – 5:00pm: Afternoon break
- 5:00pm: Leave for opera
- 5:30pm: Tailgate picnic dinner at the opera
- 7:00pm: Opera talk
- 8:00pm: A Midsummer Night's Dream by Benjamin Britten (1960)
Day 6 Friday August 20
- 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
- 3:00pm – 5:00pm: Afternoon break
- 5:00pm: Leave for opera
- 5:30pm: Pre-view dinner buffet and opera talk
- 8:00pm: Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1879)
Day 7 Saturday August 21
- 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.
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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 Mocking Bird, Sage Thrasher, Canyon Towhee, Vesper Sparrow, Northern Roughed-winged Swallows and Yellow-headed Blackbirds.
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We will be staying for seven nights at Pueblo Bonita B&B, located just a 10 minute walk for the historic downtown of Santa Fe. Each room is a small suite with a small sitting area, kitchenette and 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.
To view a photo album from a photographer who was on this tour, click here:
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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
- Panama
- 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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