Which direction are you coming from? New Mexico is a rather large state. Albuquerque is 3 hours north of Las Cruces, Santa Fe 4 hours north. Other southern attractions closer to Las Cruces would be White Sands, The VLA, Roswell, Alamogordo. Haven’t been to those in years myself though.

EDIT: Der! I see now that you will probably be coming from Virginia. In which case you will fly into Albuquerque, or possibly drive in from Texas on I-40. Santa Fe isn’t too far out of your way. Maybe even a nice drive down through Ruidoso…

I would recommend White Sands, the cliff dwellings in Gila National Park, and Ruidoso. And if you are gonna be in the Albuquerque area before the 15th of October you might wanna check out the Balloon Fiesta. Elephant Butte lake is also a nice place to chill near Las Cruces. Hope you enjoy your visit to NM!

Hmm being a Native New Mexican, it depends where you want to go and what you like to do? I myself enjoy White Sands in that area. My favorite area is Northern New Mexico. Santa Fe and Above, Taos, Chimayo, up near Colorado, to me that area is beautiful!! well maybe because I enjoy mountains! However…Down South there are cool things to do outdoors, hiking and such. Ruidoso is a pretty cool place as well, it’s in the mountains. Those are my suggestions but New Mexico is huge and there is alot to see but we have beautiful sunsets:) awww I miss those..cheers!!

This is near Las Cruces. http://www.ruidoso.net/
Have fun!

Great Index of the whole state!
http://www.newmexico.org/index2.php
Santa Fe
http://home.nc.rr.com/kerrs/image120.html
Ft. Sumner
http://www.ftsumnerchamber.com/
Roswell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident
Lincoln
http://www.newmexico.org/place/loc/cities/page/DB-place/place/1521.html
Ruidoso (Horse racing & Casino & MORE)
http://www.ruidoso.net/
Alamogordo (White Sands, NASA)
http://www.alamogordo.com/tourism/attractions.html
White Sands
http://www.nps.gov/whsa
Carlsbad Caverns
http://www.nps.gov/cave/naturescience/index.htm

A hair-raisingly unusual place, that will give you THE CHILLS & A TERRIFIC story to tell others when you return from New Mexico, is the MIRACULOUS STAIRCASE at the LORETTO CHAPEL.

More Info: http://www.lorettochapel.com/stair.html

Have a GREAT TIME IN NEW MEXICO!

Another native New Mexican and all of the above are great places. It does depend on what you want to do and when you visit. Check out the National Parks and the State Parks. If you are into ancient history make it up North to Chaco Canyon and the ruins of the Anasazis. If you like fishing north to the San Juan for fly fishing for trout, or south to Elephant Butte for bass. Water Skiining at Elephant Butte or Snow Skiing in Taos, Ski Apache, Sandias, or Santa Fe. Stars gazing any where in the state except the cities. Music concerts in the cities. Casinos all over the State. Hiking, biking all over the State. Hot springs in Faywood Springs, T or C, or Jemez. Sports – Minor league Hockey, AAA Baseball, and NBA development league. Hot air balloooning. Pretty much anything you do will include lots of driving.

Since you will be in Las Cruces I would recommend White Sands and Old Mesilla (old mesilla is a part of Las Cruces, but the old sections of it and has some interesting architectural features and some nice tourist shops).

Also, I would normally NEVER recommend people to visit Truth or Consequences (an hour North of Las Cruces) because I lived there for 4 years and just don’t care for the town…but there is a nice museum, Geronimo Springs Musuem. My dad built many of the display cases and area-rooms in the musuem.