Palm Springs
(note: this is a work in progress)
In October of 2020, my wife approached me and said “we should spend the month in Palm Springs” and I said “ewwwww do I look rich or retired” and she said “you’re an idiot we’re going”. This is how most things go down in our house and, as always, she was right. Palm Springs ruled pretty hard. In fact, it ruled so hard that we went not once but twice (November ‘20 and March / April ‘21). Palm Springs is also where I crystallized my theory that little kids will find enjoyment in just about anything you take them to. I mean, for the most part.
I had it in my mind that Palm Springs is where I’ll go to die one day. The Florida of the west coast, it is full of retirees and people looking to buy Tommy Bahama shirts at full price. While part of this is true, Palm Springs is also a haven for artists, weirdos, musicians, and everything in between. It’s hot as hell most of the year but if you go in October - November or March - April, it is actually a righteous place. You can hide from the heat in one of the 1 billion pools in the Coachella Valley, enjoy a cocktail downtown in one of the many bars and restaurants, or take advantage of the flat, bike friendly roads that are easy to navigate. If you’re into shopping (lame) Palm Dessert down the road has all them fancy shops you people like to go to. I went down there to the Apple store once to replace a broken computer and I immediately broke out into hives looking at all the “boutiques” that “sell” “things I would never want anywhere near my house”. Anyways, it’s there if you want it!
Joshua Tree
I love Joshua Tree (the town and the park) so much I dedicated an entire page to it. View it here. But if you’re going to Palm Springs for more than 3 or 4 days, plan to dedicate at least 1 day to visiting. It’s about a 45 minute drive from PS through a windmill farm, up a mountain, and through some deserted towns. If you’re going in the spring or fall, bring a sweater because it can be as much as a 20 degree temp swing.
Read more about Joshua Tree here.
Where to stay
In our two month long stays in PS, we stayed north of downtown in Desert Park Estates (about 1 mile north of HWY 111). It’s a sleepy collection of neighborhoods far enough away from downtown that you’re not bombarded with bachelor parties, keg stands, and jaerger bombs (sadly). But it is close enough that you can bike into downtown in about 10 or 15 minutes.
In a previous stay, my wife hunkered down at the Ace Hotel. A converted drive in motel, the new Ace has exactly what you might expect of their hipster brand of hotels: expensive drinks, a pretty good poolside restaurant, and a photo booth for that awkward post boozy brunch photo shoot.
What to do in Palm Springs
This section is gonna feel like a million miles long b/c we did so much shit while we were there. We took our kids to each of these things with varying levels of “we liked this” to “what the hell did you bring me to dad”
Cabazon Dinosaurs — Featured in the film Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, the Cabazon Dinosaurs are a classic roadside attraction located about 15 minutes outside of Palm Springs. A park / roadside oddity, the Cabazon Dinosaurs has about 15-20 dinosaurs, attractions, and even a Velociraptor themed Santa setup at Christmas. When our family was there at Thanksgiving a few years ago, we decided to do our visit to “Santa” at the park. We ended up getting our picture with a Santa who was no more than 25 years old, incredibly skinny, and somewhat out of it. But the picture was classic. If you want to visit the Cabazon dinosaurs but don’t want to pay the admission price, there are two dinosaurs in the parking lot that make for a great photo op. Pull over, get your pic, and when you’re done, enter the belly of the Brontosaurus to find the gift shop (but for real, that’s where the gift shop is)
Moorten Botanical Garden and Cactarium — Do you know what a “Cactarium” is? Neither did I until I went to the Moorten Botanical gardens on the south edge of downtown. Apparently, a cactarium is a botanical collection consisting entirely of cacti. That is correct, Moorten’s created their own word (it’s not in the dictionary) to describe their apparently unique collection of cactus variants. This was, admittedly, an extremely risky place to take young children as they love to touch every goddamn thing around them. So there was some serious bribery going on here (“Lil, Nora, I will give you each a full ass snickers bar if you don’t touch anything. I have no idea if these stingers are gonna hurt, kill, mame, or shock you”. They listened). Moorten’s as a whole was a neat place to take kids as it has a tortoises, birds, and other random wild life roaming the grounds. And for #plantdads like me, the collection of house plants was swoon worthy (yes, I just typed that).
The Babies — Our kids thoroughly enjoyed staring at The Babies crawling around the descended parking lot just near the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Sunnylands — Despite having gone twice, Sunnylands is a place I wish I had spent more time in. Called “The Camp David of the West”, Sunnylands is a mid century gem located in Palm Desert. When you arrive, you see this massive home that’s been converted into a
Shields Date Garden
Desert X: it’s not entirely clear to me how often they do Desert X but it’s a collection of public artworks spread throughout the Coachella Valley. It only runs in the spring every other year but if you’re going to Palm Springs, I highly recommend looking it up. The installations in 2021 when we went included large yellow cubes in a park, massive interlocking frames designed to resemble clouds atop a big, windy ass hill, and a collection of billboards that represent the plight of indigenous peoples from the area. This is just a small sampling of the collection that we saw. Totally cool. And totally worth hauling my kids all over Coachella Valley to see it.
Salvation Mountain
Slab City
Something we never did that I wish we had was the Aerial Tramway. Taking you to an elevation of 8,000 feet on Mt. San Jacinto, the tramway rotates as you climb 2 1/2 miles. You have to reserve your spot and bookings go fast.
Robolights
Robolights needed it’s own section because it firmly sits at the top of my list that I casually call “real weird places I would go to again and again”. Situated right in the middle of Palm Springs, less than a mile from the main downstrip sits Robolights, a multi acre art installation, light parade, and Christmas bonanza. The artist, Kenny Irwin, greets you at the beginning and comes across slightly manic as he describes the things you can touch, can’t touch, do, can’t do, etc in his little theme park. Before we arrived, he advised that we HAD to wear gloves while we were on property. Naturally we forgot and scrambled to the nearest CVS which only had rubber dish gloves. A better attire fit for Robolights could not have been found.
The estate is collection of random pieces of electronics, microwave ovens, phone booths, computer monitors, and everything in between collected and festooned with about a million Christmas light bulbs. Kenny is pretty insistent that you take your time and slow your roll as you walk through the place. The girls had other thoughts once we’d been there for about 45 minutes (how many different Santa Sleighs can you see after all). At the end, Kenny emerges shirtless and gives a bit of background on how Robolights came about and then graciously implores you to buy some of his swag. We spent $250 because where else am I gonna find a skull full of pearls and the best coffee table book I’ve ever owned? If you’re planning to visit, you have to track down Kenny’s phone number and text him. I am not kidding.
This is Kenny. Besides being a sex icon, he is the artist / owner of Robolights
Salton Sea and Bombay Beach
More to come in this section but for now just now that you should go to Salton Sea. It’s about 45 minutes from Palm Springs and it is a weird oasis in the desert (if by “oasis” you mean “wasteland but cooler”, then yes)
Where to Eat
We are not the fanciest eaters so you’ll notice that my recommendations for places to go is extensive while my recommendations for places to eat is…not. But hey, here are a few places we did manage to visit! If there’s an asterisk (*) next to the place, it means we took kids there without being shamed for taking kids there.
Biscuit and counter at the Tiki hotel (*): I’m a southerner which means I know biscuits. And the biscuits here were freakin legit
Cheeky’s (breakfast) (*): buttermilk and fresh corn pancakes? YES PLEASE
Birbas (*): If you need fancy pizza, this is the place to go.
Tac/Quila (*): A Mexican restaurant on the main drag in Palm Springs. This is the place that my wife described me as “The Santa Claus of Nachos” to our children and honestly that’s the best bio I’ve ever gotten (but for real, order the nachos. they’re damn good)
King’s Highway at the Ace Hotel: You’re sitting by a pool in Palm Springs. What’s not to like? The menu changes pretty frequently so I can’t remember what I’d suggest. But the cocktails were on point, I do know that. (I did see a bunch of kids there early in the evening so you probably could take kids here without feeling weird?)
Azucar at La Serena Villas: Another one where you’re sitting by the pool. The margaritas were excellent.
Roly China Fusion (*): I had very low expectations of this place. I’m always sorta leery of “fusion” restaurants. But this one surprised me so much that we went back a few times. Try to sit on the roof if you can. It’s a nice view of San Jacinto Mountain
Where to Drink Coffee
A theme you’ll find throughout The Trip is how much we enjoy taking the kids to locally owned coffee shops. This is true where we live outside Seattle too. Coffee shops frequently have one of two things that kids love: stupid games to play OR a good outside area to roam around. That is unless you’re Starbucks. You typically have neither of these.
Anyways, we like coffee shops. Here’s a list, in order of how much we loved them from best to worst
Cartel Coffee Lab. Don’t ask me why this was the last coffee shop we tried in our almost 8 weeks spent in Palm Springs, but it ended up being the best. The staff was great, the coffee amazing, and the kids loved the pastries. Located inside the Arrive hotel (a boutique spot on the north end of Palm Canyon drive), the vibe is pretty rad.
Koffi Central (on North Palm Canyon)
Koffi South (on South Palm Canyon)
Ernest Coffee
Starbucks Reserve: Ok so the Starbucks Reserve does have some cool coffee offerings. Since I’m a lame old man who just likes a half-caf with a little bit of cream, all them fancy drinks are kinda lost on me. But, the advantage of this shop is its location. Right in the middle of Palm Canyon drive just as the restaurants and bars and shops begin, it has a large outdoor courtyard with a killer view of San Jacinto mountain.
Visit Idyllwild
Hikes near Palm Springs that aren’t in Joshua Tree
Painted Canyon
Tahquitz Canyon