JSG has been to Palm Springs a surprising amount for an east coast girl--around four or five times. But still, we were pretty shocked to see the desert city landed the cover of February's Condé Nast Traveller. See, most of our trips were actually work related--we don't think we would head to this sleepy town by choice.
As author Adam Platt (also the food critic for NYMag) states in the story, "Sunny Daze":
Palm Springs is a refuge, a place for ultra-public personalities to disappear for days, weeks, or even years at a time, to realign their senses and get their heads screwed on straight.
Maybe that's our problem--we're not screwed up enough to appreciate the town as a refuge. Even though Palm Springs has breathtaking scenery (one of our trips was for a photo shoot), a gorgeous Viceroy Hotel (above), sister property to the Santa Monica branch, and the visually intriguing Parker Hotel (below), built on a former Merv Griffin estate, it's just too slow for our tastes. There's not much in the way of nightlife, shopping (unless you drive to the Desert Hills Premium Outlets) or even cuisine (a point Mr. Platt glazes over in his piece. Curious omission for a full time restaurant critic. Let's blame it on his editor.)
Is it just us, or are we missing something?
6 comments:
Palm Springs is highly overrated as a vacay spot, we agree but, if you live in L.A. (we do) it's a great weekend choice if you just want to hang by the pool and enjoy the spas!! The nightlife, well.......sucks but, our favorite Mexican joint, Las Casuelas Terraza has the best Margs in the desert. Most nights you can find live music in their festive outdoor bar.
If you really want an excuse to travel west check out the Coachella Music Festival in nearby Coachella. It happens in the spring and draws the chicest of the indy set!
It does makes a lot more sense as a weekend getaway than a full on vacation.
Thanks for the restaurant reco! We enjoy a good margarita no matter where we are in the world.
As for Coachella--we're still kicking ourselves for missing Prince's performance last year. There's always this April! Are you going?
What you forget is Palm Springs is the sunniest city in the US. Compare Palm Springs to Tampa for instance where the Super Bowl is being held this weekend. Using weather.com for data, in January Palm Springs had 9 days over 80F, Tampa 1. Palm Springs had 16 days over 75F, Tampa 9. Palm Springs had only 2 cloudy days and NO RAIN! Tampa 8 days of cloudy rain.
Palm Springs has the best weather in teh US year round!
People from LA never appreciate that the best vacation spot in the US is only 100 miles away in Palm Springs.
Palm Springs is a couples oriented or male oriented town (either gay guys or straight guys playing golf). It is a fantastic place to come for a 1 or 2 week long vacation or the season. It is not oriented to the singles weekend scene where you party to you get sick crowds. It is oriented to the out of state out of country vacationer who is into being pampered and relaxing.
That is why my resort, The Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort in Palm Springs has about 85% of our guests coming from out of state or out of country.
Year round maybe 7% of our guests come from Southern California because they only want weekends. Whereas, guests from London, Vancouver, Toronto, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Sydney, etc want 1-2 week long vacations.
Conde Nast Traveler knows what they are talking about featuring Palm Springs on their front cover. If you want a relaxing, fun vacation come to Palm Springs. If you want to party hearty until you get sick, go to Vegas.
Yes! Plush Junkie will be at The Coachella Music Festival, April 17, 18&19,
Where else can you find Hipsters, Rockers, and Hippies turning up the 100 degree desert heat in stay-cool styles? It's our wardrobe inspiration for summer.
Be sure that we will not be bunking up at Tom Mulhall's "Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort" (above). We choose fashion NOT flashin!
Typical east coast attitude - if you want to stay up late and party and not enjoy breath taking scenery, being active, spas, and some good margaritas; defintely don't come on over. The west coast is way more casual and not appreciative of that attitude - we don't want it over here. By all means - if you don't enjoy lovely moonlit nights with best friends lounging in cabanas around the pool with fresh air and plumerias to smell, RUN, don't walk to Vegas.
You are missing out if the out scene is your life. As you age, you will understand that people and experiences are most important and create endless memories. Not necessarily "that sleepy town with no clubs." PLEASE stay on the east coast.
Anon-
If you read the post and the comments--some from West Coasters--you would realize we do give props to Palm Springs for breathtaking scenery and that it's not just East Coasters who say PS is overrated.
We know and love a lot of west coasters and assume our readers (many of whom are west coasters themselves) already know Anon's unwelcoming attitude is not typical.
This post was written in '09. We would actually like to get back out to Palm Springs to check out the recently opened Ace Hotel. Anyone been?
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