City: Albuquerque, NM

Category: Accommodations

Telephone: (505) 898-1800, (877) 298-1800

Address: 1098 West Meadowlark Lane

Description: The four rooms at this charming rural retreat are named Road Runner, Quail, and Bunny, for the wildlife you’re likely to see in the gardens, and Sandia for the mountain views. The adobe-style home has a comfortable great room with a TV and a fireplace in the winter. The spacious patio with portale overlooks the lovely gardens to the mountains and is candlelit in the evening. There are always fresh flowers and chocolate turtles in the bedrooms, which are colorfully decorated with such details as cowboy hats and quilts hanging on the walls. All rooms have private bathrooms with Cedar Mountain products; if you want a tub rather than a shower, ask for the queen-bed Quail Room. The Sandia king-bed room has a private walled patio and also an antique Taos-style bed, which serves as a sofa or could sleep a child. There’s also a twin-bed room and another queen. Rooms don’t have Internet access, but you can use the computer in the great room. Breakfast always includes fresh fruit such as melon and pineapple, and hot entrées might be French toast with sausage and sauteed apple, frittata, New Mexican casserole, eggs con queso, and blintzes, plus scones and specialty breads. Innkeepers Dallas and Nancy Renner accommodate special diets with notice. Eat breakfast on the patio or in the dining room, where local arts and crafts are for sale. Coffee, tea, and sodas are on hand all day, plus chips, cookies, energy bars, and popcorn. The peaceful one-and-a-half-acre grounds are beautifully cultivated, with benches amongst mimosa trees, lavender, salvia, and penstemon. Rooms here are not wheelchair accessible. Children 6 and over are welcome. In the village of Corrales, Chocolate Turtle is 1.5 miles from Rio Rancho, with its many restaurants and shops, and is an easy drive of about 25 minutes to downtown Albuquerque. North Valley attractions and restaurants are a little closer.