City: Santa Fe, NM

Category: Retirement

Telephone: (800) 454-5768

Description: Elderhostel, a Boston-based international travel and education program for people older than age 55, offers short-term education and adventure. It has programs in all 50 states, Canada, and 80 other countries around the world. Northern New Mexico Elderhostel features camping, hiking, climbing, or skiing programs; service programs in which volunteers restore trails in the national forest or adobe structures; theme weeks focusing on the state museums, for example, or perhaps the Santa Fe Opera or the Santa Fe Trail; classes on American Indian or Hispanic culture or any number of other offerings. Recent courses have included such topics as “Spanish Colonial Traditions and Customs,” “Cultural Encounters: Examining History through Native Eyes,” “African Americans in the Southwest,” “Legendary Women of the Southwest,” “Artistic Traditions in Northern New Mexico: From the Stone Age to the Present,” and “The River of Lost Souls: Aztec, New Mexico, and the San Juan River.” Elderhostel courses run in the neighborhood of $155 a night, including housing, meals, and all field-trip and course fees. Housing ranges from dormitories to hotels. Elderhostel participants may take a companion or spouse of any age older than 21. In 2009, Elderhostel programs are being offered through the national organization and in cooperation with Ghost Ranch at Santa Fe, (505) 982-8539, and Ghost Ranch Abiquiú Conference Center, (505) 685-4333, located near Abiquiú in the heart of Georgia O’Keeffe country. Call for details.