Intro, Location & Transportation

Palm Springs, in the Sonoran Desert, is 141 miles northeast of San Diego and 108 miles East of Los Angeles. It’s known for its mid-century modern architecture and sunny, spunky vibe. Celebrities have flocked to Palm Springs since the 1930s, and there’s no question why. It has fantastic hiking, world-class hotels, great restaurants and shopping, and beautiful winter weather. So, we traded the Seattle winter gloom for Palm Spring’s sunshine and packed a full itinerary into 3-days. We checked into our hotel on Sunday afternoon and checked out on Wednesday morning.

Seattle International airport flies directly into Palm Springs International airport. The Palm Springs airport is small, but many west coast or mountain region airports offer direct flights in at reasonable prices. The airport is ~10 minutes from downtown.

We picked up a rental car from the airport on Sunday for our drive to Joshua Tree early Monday am. We dropped the rental car off after we got done at Joshua Tree on Monday pm. Otherwise, we walked or biked everywhere (most of the hotels have bikes for guests to use). Ubers were more difficult to get than in a large city.

Lodging

Palm Springs has an abundance of fun, luxury hotels. Airbnb options are still fantastic in this area, but for this trip, since it was just the two of us, we felt that the hotel perks made the space to cost payoff worth it (**note, my theory is that the cost:space ratio of a hotel will always be greater than an airbnb, so staying at a hotel has to provide some other value-add to justify this).

Ingleside Inn

We selected Ingleside Inn, a boutique, 4-star hotel located in the up-scale Historic Tennis Club neighborhood. The hotel is adults only, though pets are welcome (Leia sadly couldn’t join us on this trip, as we flew). The Spanish architecture, past famous visitors, including Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra, and iconic Palm Springs styled pool make this a terrific, classic option. Melvyn’s, the hotel’s restaurant, is fairly well-known.

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The hotel does not have a spa or gym onsite, but its sister property, The Avalon, which is a 2-minute walk away, does. Ingleside guests can use these amenities for free. Room styles and sizes vary, so prices range from ~$400-$1500 per night depending on selection and season.

The resort passes my would I stay here again test. Though the rooms, or at least the “less expensive rooms,” are on the smaller side, the location, pool and atmosphere make this a definite potential repeat spot. However, there are many other interesting hotels in the area and I will dive into additional options below.

Additional Hotels

There are plenty more worthy hotels than what this list calls out. The listed prices range depending on hotel room layout (most of the hotels have different layouts), season, and weekday versus weekend. All of the hotels have prime, and walkable, locations. As always, for larger groups, Airbnb offers some incredible options.

DAY 1:

Below is the itinerary that we followed. Obviously, you can change this as needed.

11:00AM: Visited Sunnylands Center & Gardens, the historic grounds that host global leaders, including most past presidents. We walked the beautiful gardens (free). If you plan in advance, like months in advance, you can get tickets for the Historic Estate.

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1:30pm: Grabbed a late lunch at Gabino’s Creperie . The featured Diners, Drive-ins and Dives spot lives up to the hype. We tried the Chicken Pesto and the BBQ Chicken, both are phenomenal. The seating is outdoor only in a cute little pink alley-way. AD’s Review: 4.9.

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2:00pm: Walked next-door for ice cream at Kreem, which serves up artisanal, hand-crafted, unique scoops. AD’s Review: 4.8. Then, stopped by the California famous Big Bud Press Desert Shop, also next-door, to check out some groovy clothing items.

Kreem

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2:30pm: Walked to Moorten Botanical Garden and appreciated the cute gardens and cacti (takes ~30 minutes). Then drove 7-minutes to The Palm Springs Art Museum, where we wondered around and enjoyed visiting exhibits from Gabriela Ruiz and Petra Cortright. Both were cool af, but I loved Gabriela Ruiz’s freaky, out of body work. After, we took some pictures of the Marilyn Monroe statue and crawling baby art exhibit.

5:00pm: We had a wonderful home-cooked dinner with Nick’s grandma and her college best friend, who rent a house in Palm Springs every January. We also enjoyed a game of cribbage. For those of you who don’t have grandmas in the area, I would swap in happy hour drinks at Las Palmas Brewing, followed by a stroll through downtown and dinner at French Miso Cafe.

9:00pm: Went to bed early to get adequate sleep for our early morning wakeup call and I promise that it was worth it.

DAY 2

We embarked upon an ambitious journey to Joshua Tree National Park. The park was empty while we were there, which was on Monday from 6:30am to ~11:30am. The area was under a severe wind warning, though enduring the harsh winds and cold temperatures were well worthwhile (it’s rarity to enjoy an empty National Park, which have become more like crowded tourist attractions than avenues to disconnect and appreciate nature). I did not dress accordingly, and recommend bringing a hat, gloves, something to cover part of your face with (I got wind burn), and many layers. As always, weekdays are always better than weekends for avoiding people.

Joshua Tree is, in my opinion, not the spot to set out to rack up hiking mileage and elevation gains. The park has an incredible variety in landscape, as it has two distinct deserts that run through it, The Mojave and Colorado Deserts. The elevation and precipitation patterns between deserts varies, and thus we opted to tackle more of the park’s famous sites to “see more”… especially since we did not have to worry about crowds.

Here is the map which outlines the path that we took and our stops along the way. Keep in mind that cell service is extremely limited at the park, so download your directions in advance. We took the longer way, by ~20 minutes, back to Palm Springs to stop at TKB Bakery & Deli, America’s #1 rated yelp restaurant in 2018 (more on this below).

5:00am: Left Ingleside Inn for Cholla Cactus Garden. The drive is ~1 hour and 30 minutes, so we got there around 6:30am, with time to spare before the 6:47am Sunrise. I am not a “wake up early for the sake of waking up early person,” BUT I 100% recommend waking early for this. It is well worth it.While the hike is short, we ventured around for a while, which was a theme during our Joshua Tree adventures.

10:00am: Drove ~10 minutes to Arch Rock Nature Trail, which was the “busiest” trail, though considering that we did not see anyone else on the other trails, this doesn’t mean much. The wind picked up during this trek, but it remained incredibly worthwhile.

11:30am: Drove to Indio, ~1 hour and 10 mins away from Arch Rock, to eat at TKB Bakery & Deli . As noted above, we took the longer route back to Palm Springs, by ~20 minutes, to stop at TKB, which is short for “The Kid’s Business.” TKB is a true family deli that started in 1991 and rose to well-deserved stardom (I’m sure Coachella traffic helped with this). We ordered the Mexican Marilyn Monroe and Sexy Italian and peanut butter cheesecake bar from the bakery side, which was 10/10. While I can see why the Sexy Italian is popular, it’s safe and neutral, it is not amongst the best Italian sandwiches that I’ve ever had (sorry – no canned black olives for me). BUT, the Mexican Marilyn Monroe was fantastic and unlike any chicken salad sandwich that I’ve had before… honestly it seems offensive to call it a chicken salad sandwich. Get it with the jalapeño cheddar focaccia, which is more of a cheddar bagel texture, but delicious nevertheless. AD’s Review: 4.8. I recommend driving the long way back for this stop.

2:00pm: Dropped our car rental off and had R&R and spa time at the hotel. I enjoyed using The Avalon‘s gym and had a fantastic massage there, especially compared to other one-time “hotel spa” massages that I’ve had in the past. It was conveniently located next to Ingleside.

4:30pm: Walked to The Front Porch , where we sat at the bar for Happy Hour drinks. The cocktails are fantastic. Nick had the Pistachio Old Fashioned, an absolute can’t miss. I had the La Passion Pour la Vie, which was winner of the 2020 Palm Springs craft cocktail competition. The spot also has nice farm-to-table food. AD’s Review: 4.75.

6:15pm: Walked to dinner at Tac/Quila, which is owned by the husband and wife duo that own The Front Porch. I highly recommend having a reservation here, but we got lucky and were seated in ~20 minutes. I had the Refrescado margarita, spicy (Nick opted for a beer) and if salty, spicy margs are your thing (like they are mine), then this might be the best you’ll ever had. We were pleasantly surprised by how great the Jicama and papaya salad was. The braised short rib, lobster, and al pastor tacos were all excellent and this was Nick’s favorite meal of the trip. AD’s Review: 4.8.

8:30pm: Got gelato at Gelato Granucci, which was yet another top spot and walked home to end the night.

DAY 3:

8:30: Ventured to the famous Sherman’s Deli , an NYC-style deli that serves kosher fare all-day, for a traditional breakfast. While we opted to split a simple scramble, portions are large, you SHOULD get the corned beef hash. Solid, classic spot. AD’s Review: 4.45.

9:30am: Walked to our hike, Palm Springs Museum and North Lykken Trail, which we started behind The Art Museum. While this is an out-and-back trail, the turnaround point is right behind The Historic Tennis Club neighborhood, where Ingleside is located. So, when we got to our turnaround point, we walked back to the Inn. The elevation gain is nice, but the rocky terrain and scrambling makes it not ideal for an older crowd.

11:30am: Enjoyed R&R and pool time at the hotel with a kale juice in hand.

1:00pm: Walked to lunch, which was supposed to be at The Farm, also owned by The Front Porch and TAC folks, though because we did not have a reservation, we found the wait time to be too long. We instead went back to The Front Porch, and had a lovely lunch. Try to get into The Farm, it’s a Palm Springs institution.

2:30pm: Enjoyed browsing the funky shops, art galleries and books stores of downtown Palm Springs.

5:00pm: Had more pool time (hey, us Seattle folks have to soak up the sunshine when we can).

6:00pm: Walked to Bar Cecil, Palm Spring’s hottest restaurant. It is difficult to get a reservation here and I set multiple alarms 1-month in advance (that’s when reservations open) to ensure that we’d get in. The restaurant’s buzz is well deserved. The ambiance is lovely. We ate on their patio, which is dog friendly, and it ranks in my top favorite 3 restaurant patios of all time. The inside was equally as lovely. The restaurant was buzzing, yet the service was great. Count on this being a “European style meal,” my favorite way to dine, in that dinner will be ~2 hours and coursed out.