There are a million reasons you might find yourself in Palm Springs, Calif. — film, fine arts and music festivals, conventions, golf tournaments. An easy drive from Los Angeles or San Diego, the city and its Coachella Valley compatriots provide access to a seemingly endless number of outdoor and cultural experiences. Since the 1940s, this sizzling desert outpost has been a hot vacation destination. Here are 10 things to really love about it:
1. It’s modern and not afraid to say so.
In a period when preservationists across the U.S. are having a tough time making the case for saving midcentury modern homes and commercial buildings, Palm Springs has embraced and fallen in love with its identity as a modernist mecca. Buildings born in an era during which the edge of style was sharp have been preserved or retooled for contemporary use.
Start your exploration at the Palm Springs Visitors Center, at the north edge of town. This circa-1965 building began life as the Tramway Gas Station, was rescued from the wrecking ball in 1998 and now beckons travelers with its incredible hyperbolic paraboloid roofline. This is where you can pick up a Modern Palm Springs map ($5), a guide to about 75 of the gems that pushed the city on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of distinctive destinations for architectural tourism.
If you would like a quick, but thorough, education in the sleek style that defines life in Palm Springs, plan a trip to include at least part of Modernism Week (), which includes lectures, tours, films and fantastic parties in incredible locations (Frank Sinatra’s house!).
If you can’t wait until next year, catch a primer on one of the city’s most important architects, Donald Wexler — he designed Dinah Shore’s home and the Palm Springs International Airport, among other buildings — at the Palm Springs Art Museum through May 29. Photos, architectural drawings and models, and film commissioned by the museum help explain the architectural style that blurs the line between indoors and out. Prepare yourself with a visit to the Palm Springs Modernism Committee’s website at .
2. Gay. Straight. Pirate. No one cares.
Depending on which voter registration or community advocacy group you hear from, GLBT folks make up 35 to 40 percent of Palm Springs’ population. The city swings fully to the gals for Dinah Shore Weekend, when the LPGA Kraft Nabisco Championship is in town (it ends today; ) and to the guys during Jeffrey Sanker’s legendary Palm Springs White Party, April 8-11 this year (). The rest of the year, there’s something for everyone. You’ll get a sense of how diverse the city really is if you’re in town on any Thursday night, when Palm Canyon Drive is closed to traffic and reopened as a many blocks long street fair featuring food, music, arts and community groups (6-10 p.m. October- May; 7-10 p.m. June- November).
3. It’s a lizard town
Yeah, you can spend time trying out any of the 100 or so golf courses in the Coachella Valley, or exploring the canyons on foot or bike, but the sizzling temps (average highs in the 70s and 80s November through April, and to the top of the thermometer the rest of the year) are a call to lounge. Heed it. First at your hotel pool. Then, if you must, at a bar or restaurant, many of which tend to be at least partially al fresco, shaded by flowing canvas or deep awnings.
4. Everything’s got provenance
Elvis honeymooned here. Sinatra drank here. Barbra Streisand and James Brolin live up there. And you can get a piece of it all — or at least a rough approximation. Palm Springs has some fine shopping, much focused on outfitting modern and contemporary dwellings and people with a similar outlook. For authentic midcentury furniture pieces — and the prices to prove it — visit Ventura at 463 N. Palm Canyon Drive () to ooh and ahh over the sleek reception desk from architect Albert Frey’s office. Up the street, at Distinctive Home at 301 N. Palm Canyon Drive () you’ll find contemporary furnishings with modern style. Explore the Galleria at 457 N. Palm Canyon Drive, a collection of tiny shops devoted to midcentury decorative arts, some so fine you will want to pry open your wallet even if you live in a Victorian. Route 66 West, 465 N. Palm Canyon Drive, is a literal jewel box, specializing in Bakelite and vintage designer costume jewelry.
5. Every hotel that’s old is new again.
The ’60s hot spot Riviera underwent a $75 million facelift to reclaim its Hollywood swank style (). A Howard Johnson on the south side of town has been restyled as an ultra-hip Ace Hotel and Swim Club ( palmsprings). For authentic midcentury chic, check out The Hideaway and The Orbit In on West Arenas Road (). Want to go oldest of the old school? Check out Korakia Pensione (), a rehabbed Moroccan villa nestled against the foothills. (No phone! No TV!)
6. It loves its stainless.
Once a year, Palm Springs gives itself over to all things modern and in roll the Airstream-era travel trailers, setting up a big “campground” on the lawn of the Riviera. This year, 18 were open to tour during the Vintage Trailer Show ranging from the tiny circa 1934 Bowlus (rare!) to the lounge-y 1960s Holiday House (and where did she get all that vintage sleaze-themed pulp fiction?). The rest of the year, you’ll have to make do with the B-17 Flying Fortress that hangars at the Palm Springs Air Museum. Caveat: Most of the collection at the museum is flyable, so the plane you’re dying to see might be away.
7. Day trip, dude!
Once you’ve baked and/or chilled for a couple of days, you can think about taking day trips into the deeper desert.
To the south, you can explore the date gardens, one more kitschy than the next and guaranteed to serve up a super-sweet date shake. The circa 1924 Shield’s Date Garden in Indio () still runs a film- strip style movie explaining the sex life of dates! Racy!
Farther south is the Salton Sea, the bizarre inland sea that is 227 feet below sea level. The 35-mile long lake, now more saline than the Great Salt Lake, was once a major tourist and recreation destination, but now it’s more about viewing and preserving wildlife. Make sure you follow California 111 to the northeastern shores or to the southernmost tip to enter the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge. Try the towns on the west shore instead and you may find yourself feeling like you’re wandering around in the creepy Val Kilmer film of the same name. saltonsea/
To the northeast is Joshua Tree National Park, a desert explorer’s paradise that appeals equally to sightseers, hardcore hikers, climbers, birders and wildflower fans, people who appreciate the dark night sky or who are just curious about what, exactly, a Joshua tree is (a Dr. Seuss- style giant agave plant). The park, about 800,000 acres of wilderness at the confluence of the Mojave and Colorado deserts, celebrates its 75th anniversary as part of the National Park Service this year.
8. There’s art in small bits
The Palm Springs Art Museum, 101 Museum Drive, is a manageably sized place to browse a collection with a big punch — a dab of contemporary here, a bit of Western and American Indian work there. Go upstairs to the Steve Chase wing, where contemporary works from the museum’s permanent collection reside. (We couldn’t take our eyes off the video installation “The Kitchen V, Carrying the Milk,” by Marina Abramovic, or the man shaped from steel blocks, “Apart IX,” by Antony Gormley.) The museum also has an extensive collection of contemporary glass on the main floor that changes frequently, and you won’t want to miss the serene below- grade sculpture gardens, where a half-dozen Dale Chihuly pieces have been planted amid other more unusual and more interactive works. Go on the second Saturday of the month or from 4-8 p.m. on Thursdays and the admission charge is waived.
Wander around town, and you’ll see plenty of public art installations (and plenty of tourists posing with the kinda cheesy bronze of former Palm Springs Mayor Sonny Bono.) Check out the kinetic “Rainmaker,” by David Morris, at 555 N. Palm Canyon Drive, and the intriguing pair of bronze palm stumps, “Together Again,” by Marlene Louchheim, at the corner of Palm Canyon and Tahquitz Canyon Way, and be thankful for the city’s development- fee funded program that paid for them and dozens of other installations.
9. It’s a testament to the impossible.
Engineer Francis Crocker started dreaming of a way to escape the desert heat back in 1935. But it wasn’t until 1963 that his privately funded vision of a 2 1/2-mile tram ride through the breathtakingly craggy Chino Canyon became reality. Improvements to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway () have cut the uphill ride to 10 minutes (in a rotating car that gives you 360-views of the journey). At the Mountain Station (elevation 8,516 feet) you’ll have access to dining and bars, and to about 54 miles of hiking trails (snowshoeing or Nordic skiing in winter) in Mount San Jacinto State Park. Bring a picnic.
10. It’s not so much a food town.
Best to focus your attention elsewhere, like friends or cocktails, or at least manage expectations. Here are a few good bets:
Coffee: Koffi, two locations (the original at 515 N. Palm Canyon Drive and a new spot at 1700 S. Camino Real) where the coffee’s hot and the air conditioning is turned up high. Start with the original, located in a sweet little shopping strip, and take your drink into the courtyard out back to gaze at the foothills — Barbra might be looking down at you from her midcentury spread.
Closer to the center of the action, try Espresso Cielo at 245 S. Palm Canyon Drive, a cool and chic place to end an early-morning foothills walk with an espresso and a newspaper.
Breakfast and lunch: Cheeky’s, 622 N. Palm Canyon Drive. It’s, well, a little cheeky. Tiny tables groaning with market-fresh foods. The menu changes weekly, but breakfast always includes custard cheesy scrambled eggs and the option of a flight of five slices of artisan bacon for $4.
Lunch: Tyler’s Burgers, 149 S. Indian Canyon Road. Cash- only burger joint in a reclaim- ed circa 1936 Greyhound bus station. Stick to the basics — a burger and a beer — and you’ll spend the rest of the day happy.
Dinner: There are a couple of good local chains competing for your wide-open wallet, LG’s Prime Steakhouse and Prime Chop House. We had a great meal at Prime Chop House, 262 S. Palm Canyon Drive, where we shared big steaks and sides. For two, try the bone-in rib-eye with sides of asparagus and mushroom ragout.
Something sweet: Cactusberry, 116 La Plaza. Think Pinkberry, but in the desert. Sweet, tart natural frozen yogurt you can take plain so you can squeeze into your Speedo, or load up with Trix because, what the hell, you’re on vacation.
