With its cool retro vibe and vibrant colors, Palm Springs is one of those places that I’ve wanted to visit and photograph for a while! Thankfully we were able to make that dream come true when we visiting this spring with our friends, Faro and Jakob! They had been overseas for much of the pandemic and were finally heading back to the States, so we wanted to plan a little getaway to catch up and relax. I’ll be honest, it was a bit of a working vacation (especially for our husbands), but with the ability to take an afternoon break and hang out by the pool or go out to dinner in the evening, it still felt like a vacation!
Choosing the perfect place to stay was key, since we knew that a lot of time would be spent in and around the house. Fortunately we found this amazing house on Airbnb called The Hill House (they also have their own Instagram). The highlight is a beautifully artistic pool (art by Alex Proba) and hot tub in the backyard with views of the mountains! (Photos below of the front and back yard as well as some interior photos with fun retro designs and popping colors.) Plus they’re super dog friendly (yup, Spruce came with us!) and the house is on a dead end so it was nice and quiet, which was perfect! It also comes with beach cruisers (pictured below) if you want to wander around town, pool floats, and croquet/other games. Definitely a fun place to stay!
While we spent a lot of time around the house, we also explored a bit, so I wanted to share some other places and things that I think are worth seeing and doing around the area! Scroll through the photos to see my recommendations!
Go on an Architecture + Color Tour
The first thing that I tried to look up was all the different colorful doors and architecture that I’ve seen online. (You know, #thatpinkdoor.) And what I found is that while the addresses and other information can be found online, those houses have been flooded with people taking photos in front of their property and a lot of them actually have signs that say “No photos.” The Parker Palm Springs also has a really fun orange front door, but you can’t even get to it unless you’re a guest (there’s a security gate out front and tall hedges). So we ended up doing a quick driving tour and didn’t take any photos, because you know, we were trying to be decent humans and let people have their privacy. It was still fun to just drive around the neighborhoods and look at all the homes from the street!
Visit The Saguaro Hotel
One place that I definitely wanted to visit was The Saguaro Hotel. Faro and I decided to have a girls day and actually went ahead and booked a night at the hotel so we could enjoy the pool and the full colorful Saguaro experience, and it was totally worth it! We dressed up and took a handful of fun and colorful photos (see them below), and you can actually purchase some photos from the trip in my Whimsical Photo Art Summer Series gallery!
Eat at Farm (the restaurant)
Another place worth visiting is the restaurant Farm. It’s a french style restaurant with multiple courses and plenty of attention to detail. Make a dinner reservation for outside/patio and you’ll be thoroughly impressed! The outdoor area of the restaurant actually makes you feel like you’re transported to the french countryside (I can only assume since I haven’t actually been there), and it’s overflowing with flowers and ambiance! Quite a wonderful experience! They’re also dog friendly, so again, Spruce was happy to join us 🙂 Brunch and lunch might be equally lovely, but I did appreciate the beautiful lighting that came with dinner after dark.
Explore the Cactus Mart
The Cactus Mart is the ultimate succulent and cactus lover’s dream! This shop is fun to wander through and has rows upon rows of all kinds of cacti! It’s only about 20 minutes from Palm Springs and we originally stumbled across this gem when we visited Joshua Tree a few years ago. Brandon and I each grabbed one and drove them back to our home in Oakland. It was kind of funny how our individual cacti represented ourselves, and they’re still growing years later out on our deck!
Go for a hike
Make sure to get outdoors and explore the beautiful mountains nearby! Whether that’s by staying a night or two in Idyllwild (we stayed at this cozy cabin), taking the Palm Springs Aerial Tram up and heading out on a hike (or grabbing dinner), or venturing out to Joshua Tree National Park, it’s definitely worth the trip!
I hope this helps you plan your own colorful trip to Palm Springs! If you love these photos, check out my Whimsical Photo Art collection where you can purchase your own wall art and add some color and joy to your home! If you want to see some other adventures, take a peek at this trip to see the California fall colors or this road trip we took through Utah, Wyoming, and Montana!
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