In
In
the 1950s and 1960s, the desert enclave of Greater Palm
Springs was the weekend escape of choice for Frank Sinatra, Elvis
Presley, Sammy Davis Jr, Lucille Ball, Liberace and other Hollywood
stars. Hot-ticket architects like William F Cody, Howard Lapham,
Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison competed to construct ever more
extravagant modernist homes. Fancy restaurants, tennis clubs,
theatres, spa hotels, golf courses and fashion boutiques sprang up,
catering for this decadent desert set.
Today, Greater Palm Springs is a welcoming and pleasingly
progressive Californian region, where well-to-do retirees
mingle easily with the burgeoning LGBTQ+ community, sports
obsessives and design and architecture afficionados. And, for
visitors, the destination still evokes a sense of escape,
adventure, inspiration, pleasure and relaxation.
Palm Springs is the principal city of the Coachella Valley, a
cluster of nine desert towns including upscale Palm Desert,
spa-studded Desert Hot Springs and Indio and Coachella, home to the
legendary music festival and plenty of family-owned date farms.
Travellers are first drawn to Greater Palm Springs by the city’s
sunny retro vibe and ravishing mid-century modern architecture,
plus the seductive vision of lazing poolside or in a natural hot
mineral spring pool at a
super-stylish boutique hotel.
Return visitors inevitably stay longer, treating Greater Palm
Springs as a base for an astounding array of experiences. There’s
the mountain resort town of Big Bear, organic vineyards in
Temecula, the otherworldly landscape of Joshua Tree National Park
and the achingly cool bohemian boutiques, eateries and music venues
that border it, as well as gloriously quirky and unique artist
colonies at Salvation Mountain and the Salton Sea. Greater Palm Springs is dream-getaway material
for imaginative, intrepid travellers who crave some dedicated time
on a sun lounger, but also want to be awestruck by art and
architecture, delighted by design and vintage finds, enlivened by
the destination’s acclaimed restaurants and speakeasies and
uplifted by a uniquely varied natural landscape.
Keen to explore the creative Californian enclave? Start planning your trip now.
