Palm Springs Travel Guide

Palm Springs is an oasis in the desert and a top holiday destination in southern California. It's best known for its natural hot springs, surrounding desert, poolside hotels and proximity to the epic annual Coachella music festival.

Things to Do in Palm Springs

Fun things to do in Palm Springs include going on a scenic aerial cable car ride through the surrounding canyon at the Palm Springs Aerial Driveway, visiting the Living Desert Zoo and strolling around the Palm Springs Art Museum. If you like outdoor adventures, Palm Springs is surrounded by the stunning Coachella Valley, where you can go horseback riding or trekking at Tahquitz Canyon, which has a stunning waterfall.

Best Places to Stay in Palm Springs

The best place to stay is in Palm Canyon Drive, which is near the best shops, boutiques, restaurants, and bars. Monkey Hotel is also known as a top spot for the rich and famous, so if you want to do Palm Springs in style, consider staying there. The city is known for its high-end hotels and luxurious resorts, which have been frequented by celebrities for decades.

Best Time to Visit Palm Springs

Palm Springs is known to have over 350 days of sunshine a year, meaning any time is a good time to visit and lounge by the pool.

A Local's Guide to Palm Springs

The desert resort home of Coachella Festival, Palm Springs, CA, is one of the most beautiful places to stay in California. It’s best known for hot springs, famous golf courses, popular restaurants, and world-famous Coachella music festival, which draws in some of the world’s top artists each year. Sitting within Coachella Valley, Palm Springs is north of San Diego and has about 1.6 million visitors every year.

The resort swells during the festival period in March and April, and then it’s relatively quiet for the rest of the year. The lifestyle, atmosphere, and sun-soaked national parks make it a great place to visit with family and friends to explore the unique culture and soak up the atmosphere. With almost year-round sunshine, it’s a great place to go for a sun-soaked mini break. The heat is oppressive during the summer months of July and August, however, so if you’re traveling in the summertime, be sure to stay in a hotel with a pool!

When choosing a vacation home in Palm Springs there are plenty of extras to consider. Many of the modern homes include private pools or hot tubs, game rooms and state of the art kitchens. Vacation rental homes in greater Palm Springs are available for two to ten guests and can be on short or long-term leases. With 350 sunshine days every year, sunshine-lovers will find this hard to beat.

With a central location near some of America’s best-known destinations, Palm Springs is a great base to set out and explore California. Head out west to visit Los Angeles, the City of Angels, only 100 miles away, or the San Jacinto mountains which are even closer and offer nature-lovers a chance to soak in the stunning vista.

For more outdoors experiences, head to the stunning Tahquitz Canyon, where you can see flowing water in the middle of the desert, which is a very unusual sight. At the canyon, you can go on a two-mile hike that will take you to a 50-foot waterfall. The falls lie within the Cahuilla Indian reservation and it’s an incredibly relaxing spot.

If you don’t mind venturing a bit further out of town, Palm Springs is just an hour from the Joshua Tree National Park. It’s one of the most stunning national parks in the United States, and it’s a region where you can see the merging of the Mojave and Colorado desert, both of which have distinct ecosystems. The result of the merge is a stunning landscape filled with unusual flora, fauna, and wildlife such as Californian mountain lions and coyotes.

Another easy trip from Palm Springs is the San Gorgonio Wind Farm Park, which lies in Coachella Valley. It’s one of the nation’s deepest mountain passes, which is also home to one of the country’s largest wind farms. There are over 4,000 windmills spread across the area and they produce almost enough energy to power all of Palm Springs. It’s a sight that definitely has the wow-factor. You can tour the wind farm park and find out more onsite about the renewable energy industry.

There are also many national parks in Palm Springs including Francis Stevens Park, Baristo Park, Sunrise Park and Victoria Park.

Meanwhile, for art aficionados, The Palm Springs art museum is the largest cultural institution in the Coachella Valley. It’s made up of three buildings and the main building is home to stunning art exhibitions, a vast permanent collection, and a theatre. Its other buildings are surrounded by a well-manicured sculpture garden.

If history is your thing, head to the Palm Springs Air Museum, which is a great way to spend an afternoon. The museum has a display of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam-era aircraft, with around 40 planes on display including the likes of a B-17 flying fortress and an F-4 fighter jet.

For a further history fix, you can step back in time at Ruddy’s General Store Museum. General stores are the beating heart of many communities, and in a desert region such as Palm Springs, they are essential. The Ruddy’s General Store Museum showcases a traditional 1930s general store, offering a slice of nostalgia to its visitors. It’s been perfectly recreated, with authentic signage and furnishings, and there are around 6,000 items to be found on display including tobacco, clothing, biscuits, beauty products, and soaps.

For golfers, Palm Springs is perfect. The area is home to La Quinta – the leading golf destination in the US. The resort is in Coachella Valley and has award-winning golf courses. The Quarry in La Quinta is designed by Tom Fazio and was named among the top 100 courses in America. The Arnold Palmer course in SilverRock has also hosted the Bob Hope PGA west tournament.

Just 14 miles outside Palm Springs is the city of Palm Desert which has a variety of stores, parks and a theater. The affluent city of Rancho Mirage is also worth visiting with exclusive gated communities, luxury lifestyle, and designers stores.

Public transport is generally good in Palm Springs and the usual taxis, buses, and trains are available for tourists. For more adventurous travelers, there is also the Palm Springs aerial tramway. This is the world’s largest rotating tram car and takes a breathtaking route two and a half miles along the cliffs of Chino Canyon and into the San Jacinto mountains.Those brave enough to make the journey can take in the panoramic views over dinner at the Peaks Restaurant.

For vacationers who want to keep their feet firmly on the ground, Downtown Palm Springs is also easy to get to and offers entertainment, restaurants, and bars.

The Palm Springs area is well known for the mid-century modern architecture as well as a thriving arts and cultural scene. Biking, hiking, swimming, tennis and other outdoor activities are very popular with tourists and residents.

For film fanatics, a trip to the movie colony is a chance to see the homes of celebrities who have lived in Palm Springs. Carey Grant, Harry Cohn, and David O. Selznick all lived in the neighborhood. If you’re really keen on being star-struck, you can even pay to take a tour of celebrity neighborhoods, and maybe catch a glimpse of one of Hollywood’s finest actors or one of the country’s hottest singers. Palm Springs is also home to film festivals.

While it might sound like a bit of a gloomy activity, if you’re really into celebrity culture you can pay your respect to some of the deceased at Desert Memorial Park, where several celebrities have been laid to rest, including the likes of Frank Sinatra. The memorial park draws a crowd of tourists, and there is a nice, life-celebratory atmosphere at the park.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for something fun to do with the kids on your Palm Springs vacation, visit Cabazon Dinosaurs. The dinosaur park is home to enormous Tyrannosaurus Rex and Brontosaurus sculptures, alongside a dinosaur-themed museum.

Another great activity for kids is the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, which is located just a few miles outside of Palm Springs. It’s an outdoor garden and zoo that is split into two sections; a North American section and an African section. You can see animals such as giraffes, a variety of wildcats, and camels.

Another nice, family-friendly activity is a trip to Moorten Botanical Gardens. While it’s a small garden, at just an acre in size, it’s filled with a stunning variety of plants and a wonderful display of cacti.