Following this because I'll be there in October as well. Hope people will chime in with things to do as well.

My sister lives in Santa Fe and has become accustomed to bringing a jacket with her everywhere she goes. Dress is casual. It's an active community, and we ended up in restaurants after a day of hiking, biking, etc., and never felt out of place based on how we were dressed (sporty, I guess, is the term). Layers... being able to adjust to temperature swings from warm, sunny during the day, to cooler at night.

I recognize the names of the restaurants in your list but my sister usually guides us around and I just tag along. I can say I've never had a bad meal in SF. I'll leave the recommendations there to others.

The last time I was in Santa Fe, I wore my hiking "apparel" everywhere. One day we even came off the trail, dusty and sunburned and looking like we'd just endured a death march, but we were hungry so we stopped in at Gabriel's for a late lunch. I thought for sure we would be at least looked at askance, but nobody batted an eye. For a relatively cosmopolitan city, SF retains its bohemian, "you do you" laid-back vibe, and that's one of the things I love most about it.

On the couple of occasions when I "dressed up", I wore skinny jeans, my peace sign tee, and Corral cowboy boots. I slung a fleece jacket over my shoulders, donned my Navajo turquoise, and I was right at home.

Santa Fe in October is an absolute delight. Enjoy!

October weather can be incredibly finicky in the area. There could be a quick snow storm or it could be just right. The nights are generally cooler so you will most likely need a fall weight jacket and as noted above, layers will help immensely. New Mexico as a whole is pretty casual and Santa Fe is no exception. Enjoy your trip!

Great! I like casual!

Thank you!

We were there a few months ago. walking through this sculpture garden was my favorite part of our time there.

Nedra Matteuci Sculpture Garden

That sculpture garden looks great! Adding to my list...

funky, that’s awesome! It’s been on my bucket list forever!

We love good food and over the past 36 years here, we've eaten at a number of the restaurants you've mentioned.

For breakfast, my fav is Cafe Pasqual's which is right off the Plaza. It has a great real Santa Fe ambiance.

For lunch, I have many favorites: Harry's Roadhouse out on Old Las Vegas Highway has great food, and a very nice interior and patio, that's kind of upscale Santa Fe funky. I love it!

La Plazuela in the beautiful, historic La Fonda Hotel on the Plaza is another favorite. Very good food and flat-out wonderful Santa Fe ambiance.

Jambo is a little gem hiding away in a strip mall. Jambo serves fantastic Caribbean and African-influenced food. Delicious!

The Shed is a Santa Fe icon. Right off the Plaza on East Palace Avenue, it is a must for anyone wanting to soak up this town's ambiance. It's always busy, and is now open for dinner as well. Just ask about the heat of any chile on your food. Actually, ask that anywhere you eat in New Mexico, except McDonalds (LOL)! Oh, and "Chile" is a sauce made with red or green chiles. It comes hot or mild, but many times our mild is your hot, so if in doubt, order it on the side.

For dinner Geronimo's is, hands down, our favorite place to dine. On beautiful Canyon Road, it is historic, gorgeous, has fabulous food, albeit expensive. If you go, ask for a table in the back room, NOT the front room. The back room has wonderful ambiance. The front room is pretty but has very little ambiance for the price you'll be paying for a meal, IMO.

Tomasita's is our favorite for New Mexican food. Large restaurant, but very nice ambiance and great "real" New Mexican food.

Luminaria's at the Inn of Loretto : We haven't eaten there yet, but our next dinner out will be there. It looks beautiful and very romantic. Oh, and while you're in Santa Fe, be sure to see the Miraculous Staircarse, which is in the Loretto Chapel. I just took a friend visiting us from Michigan there last month and, like all of our out-of-state visitors, she loved it.

We also like El Farol and La Casa Sena.

As far as what to wear, we lean towards casual here, as mentioned above, but for dinners at places such as Geronimo, dressy casual will get you a much better table. There, I wear a very nice pant outfit or skirt and my good jewelry.

As for weather, we average a drop of 20-30 degrees from our high daytime temps to our evening temps. Santa Fe's elevation is 7,199'.

Geronimo is wonderful. My favorite dinner in Santa Fe by far.

Cowgirl is a great place to have a drink on the patio, but not the best place to eat. It's not bad, it's just not that good.

Other than that, listen to Lynn. :)

La Plazuela at the Fonda was so nice...enjoyed the food, the artwork and watching the fellow making tableside guacamole...

Everywhere we ate, the food was good....though I did have to lay off the chili sauce after awhile to settle my digestive tract!

The only other restaurant that was really stand out for me was El Pinto in ABQ. The food was good and the setting was so lovely under the cottonwood trees.

A little aside... this remains one of my favorite interior images of all time of La Fonda. Just dreamy!

That is such a beautiful setting! It must have been taken quite a while ago, as it looks nothing like that now. Hmmm, if I was to guess, I’d say that this was in what is now the wide hallway to the right of the now current large restaurant.

I wish I knew when that photo was taken. I've had it saved as a favorite for a long time now, and still pull it up on occasion just to admire it. :-)

This is La Plazuela these days:

In actuality, they've removed a number of tables to shoot this next pic . . . but it's still very beautiful.