Spotlight :: A Palm Springs Holidette

[trip style = sun + weekend getaway + active & adventure]

{Editor’s Note: This month we've featured two of Palm Springs' swanky resorts for Roam+Board, as well as explored the history and mystery of the Palm Springs Pull in our four-part Spotlight series. Today is the icing on the cake: our must-eat, -sleep and -do suggestions for the savvy traveler seeking trip style = sun + (extended) weekend getaway or holidette (aka three- to four-day getaway, usually occurring over a weekend).}

Both starlets and snowbirds have been drawn to the desert for the better part of 60 years. But after its heyday, just when it looked like Palm Springs was losing its pull, something happened: retro became rad, crooners became cool and mid-century design became divine. Hot hotels popped up in tired old motor lodges, stylish restaurants took over bygone corner bistros and entire city districts devoted themselves to design or artisan rebirth.

With this shift came a younger visitor enamoured with the iconic desert lifestyle. Tacking an extra couple days onto the weekend was justified by bike riding in the morning, eating a snow cone by the pool in the afternoon, browsing boutiques at dusk and dining out at stylish restaurants in the evening.

I think Audrey Hepburn would approve, though she may swap the spiked snow cone for wine. So let's get into it. A Palm Springs holidette:

Do

• Tour the city's mid-century modern masterpieces on your own {nab a $5 Map Of Modern Palm Springs at the Visitors Centre} or in style with Robert Imber for $75/person {e-mail psmoderntours@aol.com or call 1 (760) 318-6118 to book}.
• View Warhol, Wyeth and other celebrated artists at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
• Hike the Indian Canyons {$9 adults, $7 children & students] and ask if Raven is available to be your guide {$3 extra for tours at 10am & 1pm daily}.
• Bike towards the Palm Springs Visitors Center {built in an old gas station} and then up the long and winding road to the Palm Springs Tramway...and back.
• Browse the Uptown Design District on North Palm Canyon Drive for mid-century finds and cool boutiques.

Eat

• Breakfast: Norma's in the Parker. Brunch in a high-end diner on Bertoia-inspired chairs and Saarinen-esque tables under orange, white and yellow shades and pearly globes. With a strong French-pressed coffee, a shot glass of a heavenly smoothie and a breakfast quesadilla big enough for two, you'll be satisfied until five!
• Lunch: Jake's. The perfect petite lunch spot serving brightly coloured salads and inventive sandwiches in an open-air, Paris-meets-Palm Springs courtyard. For the record, if I was a snowbird, I'd be a regular.
• Dinner: Citron in the Viceroy. Refined without stuffiness; where food, beverages and design experts have worked in tandem to create a warm desert dining experience.

Sleep

• The Viceroy: A strikingly pulled-together retreat that's fancy without being frou frou and whimsical without being overdone.
• The Parker: A Hollywood hideaway where towering palm trees guide the way through curvy trails to pools and posh pads.

Getting There Getting there is a cinch. Here's a full list of direct flights to the Palm Springs Airport {PSP} from both Canadian and US destinations. From Vancouver, there's direct and daily WestJet service. Or fly from Bellingham with Allegiant or Seattle with Alaska.

Related Content Spotlight :: The Palm Springs Pull Winter Heat Palm Springs Cool Roam+Board :: The Viceroy Roam+Board :: The Parker

[photos by @tripstyler taken while exploring PS with its CVB]

Winter Heat Palm Springs Cool

[trip style = sun]

Earlier this week in the 'dead' of winter, Palm Springs temperatures reached 27 degrees Celsius {81 Fahrenheit} while the town's cool and feelgood vibe is as fresh today as it was when Audrey Hepburn enjoyed a nightly scotch on the rocks at the Raquet Club.

From the moment you set foot in the Palm Springs Airport {PSP}, your stress decompresses. After passing a few small stores and carts selling juice and pastel-colored hats with "Palm Springs" text written across the front, you end up in an open-air, landscaped courtyard with seating areas, grassy patches, flower beds and free wireless---what a way to begin and end your trip.

Stepping out of the airport, there's a skyline of snow-crusted peaks. Yes, the environment is inviting, as well as the bronzed locals whose eyes mirror the town's resorty vibe.

Everything is close. After a 10-minute drive, I check into the Ace, a hotel that's comes highly recommended by my pop culture-immersed and knower-of-anything-cool sister.  I'm there to enjoy the facilities to the full because I not only get to hang by the pool, but attend a wedding on-site. The hotel has me at hello.

It's modernism week, a long weekend and there's a wedding on-site, yet the Ace's staff maintains their cool---with a slight air of angst. Since it's only 11am, my room isn't ready, so I embark on a self-guided mod mission {modern map -$5 from the Visitor Centre} to dazzle my eyes with the area's mid-century modern masterpieces.

After ticking off about 20 of the 80 selections, I race back for the wedding. Reminiscent of a high-end campsite, the Ace is cool (aka air conditioned), canvas clad and minimalist. The wedding takes place at the quiet pool, which just so happens to have a adjacent, concrete-floored room with garage doors to host the reception.

The next morning, I need to de-caffinate {I like the taste of coffee but can only have decaf}, so I walk across the street to Koffi, a local coffee shop which must be good seeing as the line-up is 30 people long. Go here for the people watching alone. The coffee is good too.

Apres my cafe, it's time to soak in the rays. By 10am the sun seems to be at full strength, thank God my sunscreen is too. Now, I can fully relax...

In the wake of my taster vacay, I am already planning my next jaunt to: a) see the other 60 sights on my modern self-guided tour b) get some more vitamin D c) vacation with my dog @nachoking (who will probably fit in more at the Ace than I do) d) pick up one of those pastel hats at the airport.

[photo via @heatherlovesit]