Our 10 Favorite Things To Do in Palm Springs

Our 10 Favorite Things To Do in Palm Springs

First off, when we talk about “Palm Springs” we are actually talking about the Palm Springs area, including the Coachella Valley communities of Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs, Coachella, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta and Indio. Like us, many people say they are vacationing in Palm Springs, when in fact they are visiting one or more of the listed cities.

We’ve been visiting the Palm Springs area for over 20 years. In fact, we love the area so much that we have three time shares there. Over the years we’ve dined in many many restaurants ranging from fine dining to local sandwich shops. We’ve also enjoyed virtually every tourist tour and attraction in the area ranging from balloon rides to desert hikes. I can’t truly say we’ve seen it all, but we’ve certainly seen a lot!

Many of our friends consider us to be Palm Springs experts so we get lots of requests for “what to do in Palm Springs”. All of those requests should have triggered the thought of a blog post long ago. Regardless of the timeliness, here is our first list (in no particular order) of favorite things to do in Palm Springs.

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

Located just 20 minutes east of downtown Palm Springs is the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Here you board the world’s largest rotating tram car and travel over two and a half miles up while the cable car rotates giving you breathtaking views of Chino Canyon. Once up top you get incredible views of the Coachella Valley. There are two restaurants up there and opportunities to hike, cross-country ski and snowshoe.

We took our first ride up the tramway in 1998 in the old cars. Since then, they have been replaced with the rotating cars that carry up to 80 passengers at a time. We typically revisit each time we introduce new comers to the Valley. It’s amazing to go from the desert floor in the Sonoran Desert to 8500 feet to an alpine forest in less than 15 minutes. Be prepared though, sometimes the temperature can go down by as much as 40 degrees in those 15 minutes!

Polo in Indio

We make a point of visiting the Valley from January through March because that’s Polo Season. Games are played on Friday evenings and Sundays. Our normal Sunday in the valley starts with breakfast at the Eldorado Polo Club in Indio. There at the Cantina we have breakfast while seated level with the  polo field and only twenty feet from the boards. It’s an incredible experience to see/hear the horses thundering downfield, sometimes even on our side of the boards! On a side note, breakfast here is excellent and you have incredible views of the Santa Rosa Mountains as a backdrop for the polo fields.

After the games are over at Eldorado we drive the short distance to Empire Polo Club. Months before our visit we reserve seats in the VIP section. The $30 per person cost includes parking, complimentary champagne divot stomp and best of all, shaded seating. The seats are about 6 feet above the field giving a totally different perspective of the games.

Regardless of which field you visit (or both) you’re sure to see magnificent scenery and beautiful horses thundering up and down the fields. What a great way to spend a Sunday!

The Desert

The cities of Coachella Valley are often lushly green with lots of water features, palm trees and gorgeous golf courses. In fact, there is so much green beauty that it can be easy to forget that you are in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. Sometimes, you’ll get a brief reminder as you drive by one of the checkerboard miles that are Indian-owned and which remain in their natural state. But the fact remains, Coachella Valley is a desert surrounded by mountains: the Santa Rosa Mountains to the southwest, the San Jacinto Mountains to the west, the Little San Bernardino Mountains to the east and the San Gorgonio Mountain to the north. With just a short drive you can easily be in remote desert or high up a mountain.

As for us, we love to hike in the desert. Sometimes, we will hike one of the many marked trails in the area, but most times we’ll visit one of our two favorite areas; Indian Canyons and/or Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve.

Indian Canyons

Indian Canyons is on land owned by Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and is located immediately south of Palm Springs. There is a daily entry fee, currently $7 for seniors, and you pay at a toll booth as you enter. Our first priority when visiting is to drive up to the Trading Post located at the south end of the reservation and overlooking the valley below. We always drive the speed limit or slower so we can spot desert animals such as roadrunners, jackrabbits and snakes. You never know what you’ll see!

Once at the Trading Post we buy cool drinks, shop a bit, and talk to the Ranger about current trail conditions. We also love to watch all the hummingbirds who visit the watering stations outside. After a time at the Trading Post it’s time to hit the trails. Indian Canyons offers over 60 miles of trails, but our favorites are Murray Canyon and Andreas Canyon.

Andreas Canyon is always a must-do. This relatively easy trail follows Andreas Creek as it follows the San Andreas fault for about a half mile. The fault and the creek have created a beautiful oasis here filled with sycamores, cottonwoods, willows, and beautiful California Fan Palms. We always spot lizards and tiny frogs and all kinds of birds flit from tree to tree.  Our favorite spot along the train is a huge boulder that sits in the creek. We climb up the boulder and enjoy the sunlight, the rushing water and the peace of this beautiful place.

Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve

This preserve is about a 30 minute drive north and east of Palm Desert and there is no cost for entry. Once there you go to the Palm House visitor’s center. Here you will learn the history of the oasis and you’ll get a chance to talk to the Preserve Host to see what wildlife has been spotted in the past few days. Then you’ll choose which trail you want to hike. There are over 15 miles of trails here, but we usually take the McCallum Trail. Here we have seen lots of lizards, several species of birds and once we saw a painted rattlesnake.

Speaking of snakes: yes, the desert has snakes and on the most frequented trails you will see signs warning of rattlesnakes in the area. That said, in our 20 plus years of visiting here we have seen only two snakes. One was along the road near the Trading Post in Indian Canyons. The other was the beautiful painted rattlesnake mentioned above. Neither bothered us nor did either display any aggression towards us. (Well, not until I poked the painted rattle snake with a stick. I swear I thought it was a frisbee in the middle of the desert!) Regardless, we don’t let fear of snakes, or any other wildlife, keep us from enjoying the beauty of the desert and I hope you won’t either!

Other places we have enjoyed hiking include Tahquitz Canyon near Palm Springs and the trails near the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center on Route 74 just south of Palm Desert.  We also love geocaching and we have geocached throughout the valley.  Twice while geocaching we have seen jack rabbits which we love!

Dining

There are hundreds, if not thousands of dining choice in the Coachella Valley with plenty of choices of fine dining as well as budget eateries, and everything in-between. During our first ten to fifteen years of visits we made a point to eat in a fine dining venue at least four times a week. We even made a contest of who chose the best restaurant of the week.

Of course, even during those years we always made a point of eating at each of the “holy trinity” of fast foods: Dell Taco, El Pollo Loco and In-N-Out Burgers. We still visit the holy trinity each time we visit.

These days we grill out for most of our dinners. Even so, we still have a few places that we make sure to visit. For instance, Blue Coyote in Palm Springs is always the first restaurant we visit when we get to the Valley. They have the world’s best margaritas and the outside dining along Palm Canyon Drive is perfect. Another must-do for us is JC’s Patio Cafe in Palm Desert.  This little cafe is tucked in a quiet corner along El Paseo and we love breakfasts there! If we have a special occasion warranting dinner out then we typically choose between Shame on the Moon in Rancho Mirage or the Cork Tree in Palm Desert. Both are guaranteed winners!

Shopping

A visit to Palm Springs always means shopping and the valley does not disappoint. For us, there are three favorite shopping locations: El Paseo, Palm Canyon Drive, and the outlet malls in Cabazon.

El Paseo is a two-mile street specifically designed to be a shopping and dining mecca. Like Rodeo drive in Los Angeles it tends to attract high-end shops like Ralph Lauren, Gucci and Escada. However, it also has enough mid-range shopping, art galleries and restaurants to attract us. El Paseo is also a good place for car watching where you can spot Rolls Royce, Ferraris, and lots of Corvettes.

We also love to shop on Palm Canyon drive in Palm Springs. This is more of mid-range shopping and it’s lot of fun to stroll Palm Canyon to people watch. And if you get hungry or a bit parched there are lots of great choices in restaurants.

If you’re hoping for a bargain then head to Cabazon, about 30 minutes east of Palm Springs on I-10. Here you will find two outlet malls (Desert Hills Premium Outlets and Cabazon Outlets) back to back. Desert Hills has 180 designer stores including Alexander McQueen, Burberry, Coach, Michael Kors, and Prada. The Cabazon Outlet mall is much smaller with about 20 shops including Tommy Bahama, Jockey and Guess. Between the two malls you can literally shop till you drop!

Tours

Like most tourist destinations, Palm Springs has many hosted tours to help you get better acquainted with the area. Some of our favorites are:

Palm Springs Celebrity Tour – taking you to where stars such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and Marilyn Monroe lived.

Palm Springs Windmill Tour – get up close to some of the iconic windmills that cover the San Gorgonio Pass. 

San Andreas Fault Hummer Tour – learn about the San Andreas fault which traverses Coachella Valley.

These are just a handful of tours you can take in the Valley. There are also hot air balloon tours, wine country tours and many more. Most hotels can help you with booking.

Casinos

There are eight casinos in the Coachella Valley, virtually all Indian owned.  Not only do the casinos offer gambling, but they also bring in lots of big-name acts, mostly during the winter season. We aren’t big gamblers but we like to play the slots for a few hours each visit to the Valley. Our favorites are Aqua Caliente and Fantasy Springs, both because they have fun penny slots.

Shields Date Garden

When we first started visiting the Valley you had to drive through the desert to get to The Shields Date Garden. These days Shields is surrounded by shopping malls and restaurants. No matter, Shields is fun from a different era. It’s like one of the tourist attractions on old Route 66 where you can get a cool drink, see something a little kitschy and have fun shopping for unique gifts. Here, the cool drink speciality is a date shake…so yum! The kitsch is provided by a movie, “The Sex Lives of Dates”. And the fun shopping is all based upon dates, virtually every kind of date that you can think of.

We don’t stop here every time we are in the Valley but we always bring new visitors here.  

Palm Springs VillageFest

Every Thursday night in Palm Springs they close off a section of Palm Canyon Drive so it can be filled with artists, entertainers, food, flowers and fun. The fest goes from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM and always draws a nice crowd.  This is a great place to enjoy food, browse the arts and watch people from all over the world.

The Mountains

As I said above, the Coachella Valley is surrounded by mountains: the Santa Rosa Mountains to the southwest, the San Jacinto Mountains to the west, the Little San Bernardino Mountains to the east and the San Gorgonio Mountain to the north. Regardless of where you are it’s always just a short drive to get into the mountains.

One of our favorite activities is to rent a convertible and drive into the mountains. We, my wife in particular, loves to drive the curves, switchbacks and hairpin turns of the mountain roads. From the Valley we have driven over the mountains to San Diego, Temecula and Idyllwild; all within easy driving distance. While she’s driving I’m always on the lookout for bighorn sheep. Haven’t seen one yet, but I’m not done looking!

Our favorite mountain road is Route 74 from Palm Springs to the top of the Santa Rosa Mountains. We like to do this early evening so that our return ride is in the dark; giving us views of the glowing cities below us. Halfway down the mountain we stop at a large pull off with incredible and romantic views of the valley below.

That’s Ten!

Two weeks ago, my wife and I worked together to come up with this list of ten favorites. Now that I’m writing the post we both keep coming up with more favorites. That’s because there is so much to do and see in this incredible piece of the world! Perhaps, we will have to write another post to cover 10 more. But for now, that’s 10! We both recommend that you visit Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley and come up with your own list!

References

UPDATE!  We wrote another post detailing 10 more fun things to do in Palm Springs.  Check it out here: More Fun!

None of the businesses discussed above are our sponsors. The same goes for all the cities and tourist agencies in the valley. We just love Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley!

Here’s a link for all things Palm Springs: Greater Palm Springs

More information on Indian Canyons.

Here’s where you will find more information on Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve.

Here’s more information on hiking in the valley: The Desert Sun

Here’s a final P.S. about hiking in the area: