Old Mesilla is a Spanish colonial plaza town a few kilometres south of downtown Las Cruces, and it is the finest thing in the area. The central square — the Plaza de Mesilla — is surrounded by low adobe buildings housing galleries, restaurants, craft shops, and a basilica. It looks like Mexico, which is partly historical fact: before the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, this was part of Mexico, and the town voted against annexation to the United States.
The atmosphere on the plaza is unhurried in a way that most Southwest tourist destinations are not. The shops sell genuine folk art and locally made goods alongside the usual souvenirs, and several of the restaurants and bars have been here long enough to have real character. The Basilica of San Albino, facing the square, dates from 1906 and is built on the site of an earlier mission. Walk a few blocks off the main plaza and you find quiet residential streets of adobe houses that have barely changed in a century.
Mesilla is also a good base for exploring the surrounding Mesilla Valley. The pecan orchards that carpet the valley floor are beautiful in autumn — golden and fragrant from the annual harvest.