Palm Springs/Desert Advice
 

Hi all,

Will be spending a few days in this area in March 2005.

Have a pretty good rate for Doral Desert Princess Resort in Cathedral City. Any comments?

Will golf and play tennis, hope to enjoy the Californian sunshine and outdoors. Want to be close to restaurants, shops, attractions, but don't need to be right in the center of it all.

Palm Desert is certainly more pricey for hotels than Palm Springs - is it worth it?

Thanks for any and all advice.

These towns are all adjacent to each other. When we were in PS we drove down Palm Ave (111) all the way to Indian Welles. It's kind of hard to tell when you've left one town and entered another. If you have a car you'll be close to shopping and restaurants.

Doral=wind, and depending on the time of year, lots of it. In spring I would stay someplace else.

Cathedral City is also not known as a "destination." I would recommend staying at a property in Palm Springs that is out of the wind and where you could be within walking distance of a lot of dining and shopping.

Best of luck!
PSL

I agree that Cath City isn't much of a destination. I would recommend the following:

Le Parker Meridian(Givenchy) -VERY nice smaller hotel on Hwy 111

Horizon - also on Hwy 111, they are redoing the whole hotel only 22 cottage style rooms,also my first choice

Viceroy - right in the center of PS Blvd, great place for walking into town & very nice, upscale.

There are some other hotels around the PSCanyon area but not very nice. These would be my recommendations.

Good luck!

It is my experience and understanding that Palm Springs is on the lower level of the valley communities. Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage are on a higher plane and I think Indian Wells also. This generally applies to living there but I believe that translates.

"Palm Springs is a lower level than other areas"??? That sounds elitist doesn't it? Palm Springs is the most interesting area and the only one where you can walk to restaurants, shops and galleries. The other areas are for cars and shopping (strip malls) for overpriced junk. What are your interests and values?

I moved 'down valley' from PS a couple years ago but lived there for many years. I would also disagree with this characterization. The median income and property values in PS would not put it at a lower level at all. When we sold our home there, appreciation was outpacing the rest of the valley by 15-20%. There are other more working class communities that would probably be below it in terms of income and property values.

As the previous poster mentioned, it also has one of the few pedestrian friendly, truly historic downtown areas that feels 'villagey'.