Palm Springs: First Timers
 

Hello,
Please suggest 4 star hotels (out of 5) in a convenient Palm Springs location for first visit.
Also, please suggest some must see or do sights/activities for 3 1/2 days in late April.
We are 55 yr old married couple, like art/music/shopping/food/sight seeing/non strenuous physical activity. We will have a car.
Thank you!
MJ

4-star (to 5ish) to stay:
Viceroy
Riviera
Colony Palms (smaller, more boutique)
Rendezvous B&B (the "un B&B" I like to call it - rooms are retro fitted (you can stay in the room where Marilyn M stayed, for example), fantastic breakfast and mgmt)).

Do:
- Palm Springs Modern Tours by Robert Imber - absolutely, 100% recommend. 4-5 hr car tour, but you will learn more about PS than any guide book ever. He is just a genious, is fantastic, and it's a fabulous way to start off your trip.

- Richard Neutra's Kauffman House, Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway, Frank Sinatra's twin palms - great places to drive buy if you opt out of Robert Imber's Tour

- Hike the Canyons on South Palm Canyon Drive - not strenous at all, and very fun!

- PS Aerial Tram, if you can handle going up 2,000 ft in matter of minutes - very cool!

- Village Fest, if you're there on a Thursday evening - lots of vendors/artists on Palm Canyon Dr (the main drag), which is closed to cars at that time

- Checking out Northern Palm Canyon Drive (Tamarisk cross road and up) at all the fantastic midcentury modern antique stores!

Eat:
Jake's Ready to Eat (lunch)
Koffi (coffee/breakfast)
Norma's at the Parker (breakfast)
Melvyn's (fantastic retro feel - Frank S. had his rehearsal din here)
Tyler's Burgers (SO GOOD - in old greyhound station; cash only)
Spencer's at the Mountain (date night)


I know this is a lot - let me know if you have any more questions!

Wow, that is fabulous info! Thanks very much for taking the time to list it all.
What do you think of the Andreas Hotel & Spa....
looks like a great location, and very reasonable/$.
Can't wait!
-MJ

The Andreas is a good choice - some people go and feel isn't not as high end as the website makes it out to be (the "spa", for example, is more of a one woman show), and I have heard some reports that downtown noise from such a central location can be a problem. However, those are two minor things - from what you're looking for, it should work!

Check out this website: http://visitpalmsprings.com/stay

It's the Bureau of Tourism's website and they list all of the hotels in town - you can sort by mid-size, boutique, etc. A good way to see them all!

Let me know if you have any more questions.

We stayed at the Rendezvous several years ago and loved it! In fact, we stayed in the Marilyn Monroe room. I don't think she ever stayed there, but the room was themed with her in mind. The inn is a restored mid- century motel, retro. I am not sure I would rate it 4star as it is not luxurious, but it is very nice and fun. If we went back, we would stay closer to the downtown so we could walk to restaurants and bars.

We are not big hikers, so did an easy palm canyon hike, I think it was Andreas Canyon. Not difficult and very cool. We also went out east of the area and visited on of the date farms.

Completely agree with Michelle Y - the Rendezvous is fun! I stayed in the "route 66" room. Jake, the owner/manager is great and makes a mean breakfast.

Here is a link to The Willows. We had a tour of this historic inn and I was beautiful and $$$$.

http://www.thewillowspalmsprings.com/

We just stayed at the Andreas Hotel for a week. The location was great but it is very important that you ask for a quiet room and not one of the rooms above the bar on Palm Canyon. Our room was very quiet but our friends had a room over the bar and found it very hard to sleep. Also, we were in room 216 which was lovely but it didn't have a single drawer to put clothes in. We ended up laying some of our clothes out on the couch. But the location was great, the service very good and the room rate included parking, wifi and breakfast. And there was a very nice large outdoor area outside our room where we could sit.

My husband loved the Palm Springs Air Museum which focuses on WWII. We enjoyed going up the Aerial Tramway and doing the Desert View and Discovery Trails at the top. They are both easy. Indian Canyons is a great place to hike and Andreas Canyon is the easiest of the three and very lovely. We also did the Palm Canyon hike which wasn't very difficult and well worth it. Before we left we got tickets to tour Sunnylands, the Annenberg estate and, although you can go to the center an the gardens, you need a ticket to tour the home. That was wonderful. We also enjoyed the Living Desert Zoo and spent about 3 hours there and left only because they were closing. We did a day trip to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and did the Borrego Palm Canyon hike which was great. You could also go to Joshua Tree National Park as a day trip and that is a beautiful area with many short easy hikes.

Theatrelover - you should post this under a trip report. Lists of good info!

I will be doing a trip report. I find trip reports so helpful when I plan a trip that I always try to write one. I will do it in the next week or two.

More good info! Thank you.
Theatrelover, did you go to the Palm Springs Follies?
I see this show is almost 3 hours long...is it worth it?

-MJ

We did go to the Follies. Although the website says it is 3 hours it was really closer to 1 3/4 hours with intermission. Lou Christie was the guest star. Truthfully, we thought it was way overpriced for what we got. It was pleasant and we enjoyed hearing the songs we grew up with (the four of us are all about 60) but the price of the tickets plus the service charges they added made it an expensive evening. We went on Saturday 3/9 and there were plenty of empty seats so we didn't need to order the tickets before we left and thus could have avoided all the service charges. I also think less expensive seats (we were in the middle of the theater and the center section) would have been just as fine. We all thought that the host/comedian's shtick with an audience member went on way too long. I will say that the costumes are beautiful.

Instead of a "hotel" are you open to smaller inns & B&Bs? They have a shared promotional website. In addition to the ones already mentioned, I like Desert Hills, Casa Cody, and Calla Lily. The Del Marcos/Orbit In are well done for mid-century modern.

http://www.smallhotelsofpalmsprings.com/

The historical inns offer a really great, more authentic historical experience and are well-located relative to downtown walking distance.

Depending on budget, Desert Willow would definitely be in the 4/5 star range.

Sorry, I meant "The Willows"

I have been to PS several times and agree with the suggestions here-- the aerial tram, Village Fest, hikes, Joshua Tree, so many fun things to do. The Follies is definitely overpriced, but something I'm glad I experienced.

For shopping, there's El Paseo, the Rodeo Drive of Palm Desert. Palm Springs also has a lot of thrift shops where you can find some cool things.

One little museum that I just fell in love with was Cabot's Pueblo Museum in Desert Hot Springs. Just kind of funky and fun and an interesting history.
http://www.cabotsmuseum.org/

There are also some great walking tours offered by the PS Historical Society, I believe.

I don't see travel dates here, so you may have already taken this trip! If so, I hope you had a great time.