Weekend in Palm Springs

[trip style = sun + food + luxe + spa + active]

When I’m in need of a major dose of Vitamin D, I retreat into Palm Springs’ sunny embrace. Steeped in enough swagger and style to outlast the coolest cats in town—just about every big-name celeb has had a brush with Hollywood's first love, including the newest recruit, Leonardo Dicaprio—its effortless cool delivers from dawn till dusk. Here's where to lounge like an A-lister in the desert sun.

Trip Styler Tip: For full details, check out my styled suggestions in 48 hours in Palm Springs for the Expedia Viewfinder.

Day One

Breakfast

• Norma's for alfresco dining fuelled by complimentary smoothie shooters
• King's Highway order an iconic date shake with vanilla bean gelato in the former and upstyled Denny’s
• Cheeky's for the bacon flight alone {and the owner’s fave: crispy buttermilk waffles doused in salted butter and syrup}

Mid-morn
Stroll along North Palm Canyon Drive into the Uptown Design District to browse furniture stores akin to midcentury museums, and while you're in the place that popularized poolside cocktail parties, play the part in a scene-stealing dress or striped seersucker suit from desert-based designer Trina Turk---a shop so legit, you're offered a chilled mimosa upon entering.

Noon
Check into Korakia Pensione, and if your room isn't prepped—check-in is technically in the later afternoon—cool off under the shade of an umbrella beside one of two saltwater pools at the Mediterranean-inspired retreat.

Mid-aft 
Replenish your sun-scorched electrolytes at the Lemonade Stand deep in the citrus grove at The Parker Palm Springs. Sit and sip a muddled lemon bev of your choosing at the chic white marble bar, or under the shade of a tangerine and yellow umbrella. And since you’re on vacation, head a few steps leeward to PSYC {Palm Springs Yacht Club}, a nautical-themed spa offering a co-ed dipping pool and boozy pre-treatment shots.

Drinks
Since you’re already at The Parker, saddle up to the six-seat Mini Bar for a tipple.

Dinner
Satisfy your stomach at Birba, an alfresco pizza and pasta place warmed by the wood-burning pizza oven and a bevy of outdoor fireplaces. Birba is my first dinner stop every single time I lollygag in Palm Springs.

Day Two

Breakfast
Korakia Pensione includes breakfast in one of the most gorgeous settings in the Coachella Valley: a spot next to a fountain under the shade of orange trees. Bite into a rotating menu of dishes like rustic potatoes paired with eggs and multigrain toast.

Mid-morn
Since Palm Springs and modernism mingle in the same circles---it's home to the country's largest concentration of the throwback structures and style---check out some of the homes that have helped to make the city famous. Look up Robert Imber at Palm Springs Modern Tours or stop by the Palm Springs Visitors Center for a $5 map of Modern Palm Springs. Both the DIY and hosted tours are excellent; choose one based on how much time you want to spend drooling over design.

Early-aft
The San Jacinto Mountains, visible from nearly every sun-scorched vantage point, beg to be conquered. Rev your heartbeat and score a killer view of the Coachella Valley hiking one of the many trails that start along the edge of town. Talk to your hotel concierge for a list of nearby trailheads.

Mid-aft
You're in Palm Springs, so spending time by your hotel pool is not only encouraged, but expected.

Dinner
Toast your last night of desert decadence at one of Palm Springs’ most iconic addresses, the ever-hip Purple Palm Restaurant and Bar. Named in a nod to the hotel’s original owner—a mob boss and member of the Purple Gang—the elegant eatery is perched next to the Colony Palms Hotel pool.

[photos by @tripstyler, except mini bar via Parker Palm]

Enroute

[trip style = luxury]

A week ago today, I sipped a flute of brut at 2am (it’s 5 o’clock somewhere) as my Cathay Pacific flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong pulled away from the gate. My getaway, hovering sky-high in dream trip territory, saw me eating dim sum in China’s first three-star Michelin restaurant, followed by a deep dive into Thailand’s rice-terraced and elephant-rich North.

While I have so much to tell you about e-v-e-r-y detail of the trip style = luxe trip that took me to three Four Seasons properties, I’m currently somewhere over the Pacific enroute home. Circle back for a ton of coverage starting soon. In the meantime, I’ve chronicled my urban-meets-remote adventure on Instagram, so flip through my photos there.

Four Seasons Hong Kong

Four Seasons Chiang Mai

Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle

[photos by @tripstyler, taken as a guest of Cathay Pacific and Four Seasons]

Roam+Board :: Korakia Pensione

[trip style = luxe + sun]

What
Hitting the Palm Springs hotel scene in the late ‘80s, Korakia Pensione is the darling of design bloggers who can’t help but snap its eye-catching vignettes. Two restored villas—next door neighbors in the 1930s—dressed in a Morocco and Mediterranean cues host 29 guest rooms at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains.

Korakia is more haven than hotel. Moroccan daybeds and fuchsia bougainvillea accessorize property, palms pop up in clusters and narrow pathways beg you to explore every corner of the 1.5-acre grounds. Knowing the original hoteliers were a model-photog duo, I understand why every glance looks like a magazine spread.

Rooms vary in size from petite perch to patio suite, each dressed in timeless touches such as stone floors, white walls, rustic antiques and exposed wood-beam ceilings. True to its retreat physique, board games replace in-room TVs and fireside chats sit in for a thumping hotel bar.

At breakfast—Korakia is a bed and breakfast—I sit beside a three-tiered fountain at a wooden table decorated with rustic place settings and a bowl of oranges. Completely taken by the scene, including the palate-cleansing scent, I look up and realize I’m in a citrus grove.

As the day progresses, I roam the grounds eating oranges and photographing every desert detail. While the property is a few blocks from downtown Palm Springs, I can’t tear myself away from the living magazine pages, and hold out for the sunset when the sky turns 50 shades of pink, the lanterns are lit and vintage movies play under a starry sky. At Korakia, staying in is the new going out. Trip Styler approved.

Trip Styler Tip: Ready for more boutique hotel bliss in Palm Springs? Check out my top five picks in an article I penned for the Expedia Viewfinder. 

Where
Ten minutes from the Palm Springs Airport or two hours---three in traffic---from LAX.

When
Palm Springs receives 360 days of sun per year; there's no bad time to go. The winter months are a desert dichotomy of warm days and frosty nights, spring and fall are perfection and summer is desert-hot.

Who/Why
Palm Springs' health retreat beginnings bring out your inner vitamin D-loving bohemian {and desire to direct a DIY photoshoot}.

Cost
Winter rates start at $289/night and include breakfast, parking, nightly outdoor movie nights and WiFi. Summer rates hover around $180/night. 

Photos

Korakia Pensione from the outside

Mediterranean villa saltwater pool {all guests can use it}

Walking around at Korakia

Lounge

Roaming the grounds

Breakfast scene in the orange tree-covered courtyard

Orange juice in the orange grove

Breakfast views

Hearty breakfast

One of many outdoor courtyards

Suite patio

Room details

Al fresco corner

Poolside warmth

Outdoor screening room for vintage flicks a laCasablanca and Breakfast at Tiffany's

More Roam+Board
La Gazelle d'Or – Morocco
Mandarin Oriental – Las Vegas
Hotel Lone – Croatia
Templar Hotel – Toronto
Encuentro Guadalupe – Mexico
The Viceroy Palm Springs
Parker Palm Springs
Alcazar Palm Springs

[photos by @tripstyler taken as a guest of Korakia, a place I've been pining after for-evah]

Paris, Now and Then

[trip style = urban]

With Paris Fashion Week in full strut, I'm reminded of the European city que j'adore. {My instagram feed is overflowing with runway shows, including Chanel's latest, which took place on a faux supermarket runway.} While I don't give enough TS lip service to the French capital's baguettes, joie de vivre, sailor stripes and late-night cafés, I'd fly to Paris at the drop of a chapeau.

In a joint project between the Expedia Viewfinder Travel Blog and DreamWorks Animation for the launch of the smart and adorbs time travel flick, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, I was recently asked: "If you could travel to any time, any place in the world, where would you go?"

While it's highly conceivable you haven't thought about crossing the space-time continuum since the 1989 film Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, I think about it often. As a curious cat, it's impossible for me to visit a retro hotel or a historic city without wondering how people lived 30, 300 or 3,000 years ago.

Given my obsession with France and my tendency to dabble in historic daydreaming, my dash to another dimension would take me to Paris in the Roaring Twenties. Why? The bohème lifestyle was in full force, prosperity was widespread and it was the transcontinental stopover for creatives like Hemingway, Degas and the Fitzgeralds who chinwagged and pontificated into the wee hours at soirées and in cafés along the Seine.

In vintage Paris, I’d grab a café au lait and a croissant with Hemingway in Montmartre to co-critique our penmanship. In the afternoon, I’d meet Degas in the Jardin du Luxembourg to nosh on tomato- and cheese-stuffed baguettes while painting miniature boats bobbing in the palace pond. In the evening, I’d dress in flapper fashion---the style du moment---and hit the party circuit with the Fitzgeralds. At midnight I'd rendezvous with all my pals for a tipple at Dingo Bar, a popular hangout for artsy night owls.

And here's the best part about Paris the 1920s and aujourd'hui: It looks as stunning now as it did then. The Eiffel Tower still commands the skyline, the Ritz Paris {currently under reno, set to reopen early 2015} still sets the bar for hotels, and ready-to-wear still graces the en vogue crowd.

Scenes from the City of Light

Pont Alexandre III

Strolling in Paris

Louvre

Notre Dame

National Music Academy

Arc De Triomphe

Trip Styler Tip: Mr. Peabody and Sherman {trailer} opens in early March. Go see it---France even makes an appearance. In the meantime, check the Expedia Viewfinder for more time travel tales and sweepstakes.

[photos by @tripstyler, video by Mr. Peabody & Sherman, presented at my own choosing---like everything on TS---due to my ongoing work with Expedia]

Morocco :: Essaouira

[trip style = urban + luxury]

Editor's Note: As Morocco Month comes to a close, we leave you with our final North African destination: Essaouira, an ancient and fortified city by the sea. For a look back at the rest of our Morocco series, see Casablanca,Savoring the Sahara, La Gazelle d'Or and hotels in Taroudant and a beauty lesson inargan oil.

The final hurrah in my Morocco itinerary pulled me back to shore from Taroudant by way of a four-hour, backcountry drive over grass-covered hills, past grazing goats, wineries, argan oil collectives and gas station-restaurants---a thing in Morocco (would you like a crêpe with your gas?).

Essaouira is a magic, moody place at the intersection of ancient and modern. Changing hands over centuries due to its strategic position on the Atlantic coast, there's a near-visible mystique that fills the air. At the same time, there's a playful spirit, given it's a beach town and popular weekend destination for the well-heeled from Marrakech.

Within the French-designed fortifications life teems with the energy of thousands of conversations and transactions. Outside the walls, a major fishing port gives way to a far-reaching beach decorated in dunes, kite-boarders and camels.

Every night after dinner, I'd retreat into the warmth and time-tested luxury of L'Heure Bleue Palais hotel, built into Essaouira’s medina walls. Feeling like I needed to match the old-school Africa allure---think: dark wood, mosaics, deep-red carpets, candlelight turndown---at cocktail hour I donned a draping blue dress and strolled past the palm-coated courtyard to the drink den, one of the most epic places I've ever sipped a spirit.

Accompanied by a tumbler of Jack Daniel’s and knowledge that the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley tested a tipple in the riad’s wood-paneled, leather-bound room, I came to the conclusion that Morocco has been luring luminaries since the Berbers walked through the Western Sahara some 5000 years ago.

Trip Styler Tip: When you go to Morocco, you'll hear the terms riad and dar a lot. The most simple way to decipher between these housing/hotel options is: A riad typically has a four-season garden and a fountain, a dar does not.

Photos

Visiting a women's again oil collective and learning to crush the kernel---which produces a peanut butter-consistency paste---with a granite spool. Find Assouss Argan producing organic and handmade products from argan shampoo to skin cream about 20 minutes outside of Essaouira.

Heure Bleue Palais

Gorgeous tassel-clad room keys

My room's safari-styled sitting space

I love it when my soap is presented as gift, you?

The palm-dressed courtyard, where I spent a lot of time.

The drink den of ALL drink dens

Fishing {then tourism} is Essaouira's largest industry

Port of Essaouira

Inside Essaouira's medina 

Age-old walls 

Souk

Fish market essaouira

Attempting to buy a vintage Moroccan carpet. To show its made with real wool, the shop patron burned the edge with a lighter to reveal it was not synthetic material.

I started with 30 carpets. They were all placed on the floor by the carpet master. I whittled the lot down to eight winners. Then, I learned the cost was a few thousand for all of them. Buying a carpet in Morocco is like buying art. It takes a lot of time, consideration, cash and you must evaluate the apple of your eye in multiple exposures and perspectives before making a confident buying decision.

Ladies at sunset

Meet James Bond. My sweet sunset ride.

As you do in Morocco: Ride camels on the beach at sundown.

[photos by @tripstyler taken a guest of tourism morocco]