Palm Springs is an absolute pleasure to visit in the wintertime. You are virtually guaranteed 75-degree weather every day with perfectly sunny, clear, and dry conditions. Palm Springs is also a resort area that is significantly less expensive than most vacation destinations in the winter.
Located just two hours from Los Angeles, Palm Springs is easily reached by car from LAX, but most airlines fly directly into Palm Springs via their hubs – making your arrival into this city so much easier than into Los Angeles.
The Palm Springs area has many major resorts, excellent restaurants, and great shopping. When walking down this city’s main street, Palm Canyon Drive, you will encounter so many outstanding and interesting places to enter and explore. One place that is very interesting, unique, and well done is the Lighthouse Marijuana Dispensary and Lounge.
Since originating from New York, we were lucky enough to opt for a non-stop flight on JetBlue from JFK to PSP/Palm Springs each night of the week. We stayed at the Palm Springs Renaissance Hotel which was just blocks from the downtown and only two miles from the airport. There are also Hilton and Hyatt Hotels right in the downtown area.
One of the best tourist attractions offered in Palm Springs is the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. This is a super large cable car that takes you a direct 2.5 miles up the mountains to an elevation of 8,516 feet in about 11 minutes. The views are spectacular, and each cable car has a rotating floor so that everyone in the tram (maximum capacity of eighty people, though restricted during Covid to 50 people) has a 360-degree view. There are many hiking trails on top of the mountains and lots of snow to play in.
Another tourist activity that begins on Palm Canyon Drive, and spreads over several streets, is the Palm Springs ‘Walk of Stars’, which celebrates the many famous personalities and celebrities who lived in Palm Springs. Similar to Hollywood, you can walk around and enjoy memorials embedded into the downtown sidewalks of the many Hollywood stars and others who you know well.
Palm Springs is only one of several very interesting and beautiful desert cities. Palm Desert, located just 30 minutes away via route 111 (Palm Canyon Drive), was more upscale and elegant with high-end stores, world-class hotels, and restaurants.
Known for being the Rodeo Drive of the desert, El Paseo Shopping District really must be walked.
The Coachella Music Festival is also located very close to Palm Desert, in Indio. The schedule for this year’s concerts is April 15th and April 22nd.
