p2katz

I'm going to Palm Springs in March -- any suggestions on hotels to stay at/avoid?

sf7307

There are so many choices - 60s-type motels, modern motels, hotels, resorts, condo communities -- what kind of experience are you interested in?

Have you picked the town you want to stay in? "Palm Springs" is often used generically to refer to the whole area, but there's Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Indian Wells, and others.

Suzie

Wow Impossible to answer with knowing what amenities you want and what budget you had in mind. What are you trying to avoid? Clothing optional? Single gender preference? Palm Springs has everything….

RBCal

If you want to walk to restaurants and nightlife you want to be close to Palm Canyon in Palm Springs or El Paseo in Palm Desert. I personally find El Paseo in Palm Desert too high end and stuffy and prefer the tacky low-browness of Palm Canyon in Palm Springs. This is because when I'm on vacation I like to relax and have fun without worrying about being more dressy than a t-shirt and shorts. El Paseo and Palm Canyon are about 10 miles apart and you have to rent a car to see anything in the CA desert.

p2katz

Wow -- hadn't thought this all through. We'll probably stay at the hotel a bit, but also want to go walking in Joshua Tree, go to the art museum and botanical gardens, and most likely to the tram ride. But we'd like a nice hotel that will be pleasant to stay at when we aren't out and about. (As opposed to some cities, where one is only in the room to drop at the end of the day) If we stay in one of the outlying areas, are some better than others? Will we be sorry to be away from "downtown" and will it be difficult to park when we do go downtown? We thought of staying at the Viceroy, which appears to be a good location, but we found some pretty negative reviews on TripAdvisor, so are still looking...

p2katz

PS -- probably not too interested in night life -- just nice restaurants for dinner. We want to avoid anyplace dirty, that has bugs, or that is noisy.

ksucat

We really like La Quinta resort and Rancho las Palmas..they are 4* and lovely..during the day, we like to play golf, tennis, swim, lunch on the patio, more swimming..dinner we love to dine out.
Just depends on what you like and your budget since it will be high season.
Did you try expedia.com for any kind of deals?
We always have a car and go between the towns for dinner.
Some classic great mid-century modern motels in PS.

MichelleY

Here is what I posted on another thread a while back:

MichelleY on Jan 9, 10 at 5:12pm
We were in PS in November and had a great time. We did the aerial tram up Mt. Jacinto. Hiking is available.

We also had an historic inn guide from the visitor's bureau and did our own little tour of some of the vintage motels. Their website was helpful with links to all sorts of tours.

www.visitpalmsprings.com

I was interested in the architecture and found a tour of the historic O'Donnell House. It was by appointment only, $40, but I really enjoyed it. www.thewillowspalmsprings.com

We also did a hike at Andreas Canyon. Very easy. They also offer ranger hikes at certain times. There are also stables and jeep tours.
Indian Canyons, Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians (760)323-6018 for info. I couldn't find a website name.

We stayed in one of the "historic" motels called the Rendezvous. It was a very cool place. We had the all pink Marilyn Monroe room. Every evening was a happy hour and a great breakfast was served each morning. The only thing we did not like was the traffic noise from the street. The street seemed very busy at all hours. We live very far out in the country, so any traffic noise is too much for us.

On our self guided motel tour, my DH and I agreed that the "historic" motels, closer to the main downtown were more convenient for walking to restaurants on Palm Canyon, the main drag. This area also seemed much quieter as far as road noise. A few places that looked nice were: Casa Cody, The Coyote Inn, Old Ranch Inn, and the Willows. I we go to PS again, we would probably stay in this area of town.

MY

p2katz

Thanks so much for your replies. Very helpful

MomDDTravel

We always stay in Palm Desert - at the Palm Desert Marriott - usually the villas - we own a timeshare there and generally have a lot of Marriott points so it just makes sense for us. But I agree with the above posters that there are so many different types of places to stay.

I like the spa at the Marriott if you do go - they recently re-did it and it is very nice and the big cushy chairs and lack of children at the spa pool make it very nice (no I do not hate children, just have enough of my own - usually when I am on vacation I do not want to listen to them ;-).

We like Las Casuelas Nuevas for Mexican Food.

http://www.lascasuelasnuevas.com/