Disney Hotel Santa Fe

Hotel Santa Fe is a cheaper Disney Hotel, but also the simplest. In the past, the Santa Fe had to endure a lot of criticism, especially because of its design, which for many fans and visitors was nowhere near to the level of the other Disney Hotels. This fact is certainly not to be dismissed as it lacks the attention to detail that can be found in the other hotels - at least at first glance. However, this is not due to a lack of will, but also the concept of the hotel. The design of the entire hotel complex was less obvious and the concept behind it had to be “worked out” by the visitor more than at the other hotels. It was therefore worth taking a little time during your visit and taking a closer look at the hotel and coming across numerous details. There were numerous details between the buildings, such as a crashed UFO, the cars stuck in the sand and a huge cactus - all symbols for the southwestern United States that many hotel visitors did not notice. If you look at the hotel grounds with a little attention, you will quickly notice that there are five trails that divide the grounds and simplify orientation for hotel guests. Nowadays they are named after characters fromm Pixar's Cars but in the past they were way more symbolic.

Trail of Infinite Space
This trail is meant to represent the vastness of the west. The Trail of Infinite Space is characterized by a yellow line that began in the parking lot in front of the hotel and ran straight from there across the entire area, like the yellow center line on an American highway. This trail also ran right under the giant scren that Clint Eastwood has graced for many years, today you can see a motif from the film Cars. The architect Antoine Predock originally wanted to install a blank canvas to which guests could project their own fantasies, but Disney did not like this concept and so they agreed on Clint Eastwood. The Trail of Infinite Space ended in front of a crashed UFO, some of which is stuck in the ground. The buildings to the left and right of the path are reminiscent of the functional buildings that stretch along the highways in the desert or Route 66.

Trail of water
The Trail of Water was identified by a fish. It should remind you of the importance of this element in the desert. The highlight of this trail certainly was house 33, the tallest building in the hotel complex. From its roof, the water plunged down a channel where it flew into two sewer systems. One channel was arranged symmetrically and leads to a small basin with a fountain, the other channel is more natural.

Trail of artifacts
This trail covered things left behind in the desert. This means not only ruins or historical evidence of ancient cultures, but also more modern things, such as the half-rusted cars that are half sunk in the sand. Incidentally, these are a 1934 Ford Phantom, a 1946 Chevy pick-up and a 1957 Ford Fairlane that Antoine Predock discovered at a scrap yard in Albuquerque.
There was also a huge artificial cactus in a glass pavilion.
By the way, this trail was marked by a snake.

Trail of Monuments
The trail of monuments was marked by a bird, a so-called racing cuckoo. This trail was designed to commemorate the impressive rock formations in the Southwest of the United States. When designing this hotel area, Antoine Predock was also inspired by cartoons such as "Road Runner" and "Krazy Kat". For example, he picked up on the concept of impossible rock formations that came from the cartoons.

Trail of Legends
The Trail of Legends was marked by a buffalo and leads deep into the wild west. There was a volcano and four typical western buildings on this trail, which are different in color from the rest of the hotel. The gold-colored building was supposed to symbolize the gold rush, the silver building stood for coins or the bank, the simple concrete building was supposed to represent a prison and the red building represented a brothel. There were also a black and a white building on the Trail of Legends, which stood stand for the good and the bad or their clichés in the Wild West.

If you walked around the hotel grounds with your eyes open, you could notice even more details that Antoine Predock had incorporated to illustrate the southwest of the USA and all its fascinating details.