Palm Springs

Ace Hotel

Ace Hotel Pool

Architecture Tour

Ace Hotel

1/8

Itinerary

Arrival Night

Land at Palm Springs Airport, and rent a car because you'll need it for your hike tomorrow. Be sure to pick lots of water (we brought a camel-back, and several large water bottles), snacks, and have you offline map (see above) loaded up to find the sites.

Day

1

Joshua Tree & Pool Time

5:30 am: Depart your hotel for Joshua Tree National Park. Try to get there around sunrise or not long after, especially if it's in the summer, so you're hiking in cooler weather.

7 am: Arrive Joshua Tree via the West Entrance off Highway 62.

Park is open 24 hours/day.
Entry fee is $20/car. You only have to pay if the booth is staffed. If it's empty when you arrive, they will ask to see your receipt when you leave. If you don't have one, they'll ask you to pay then as you exit.
Here are the top sites to check out (check out this blog):
- Hidden Valley Nature Trail - a 1 mile loop, it has beautiful scenery
- Keys View - a great overlook over the valley
- Skull Rock - a rock formation that, as the name suggests, looks like a skull
- Arch Rock - great bouldering

12 pm: Lunch at Crossroads Cafe & Tavern

2 pm: Relax at the hotel pool

7:30 pm: Dinner at Spencer's.

Use Lyft ($8 from the airport in Lyft vs $27 in Uber). Lyft can't pick up at the airport, so you have to walk across the street (~3 minutes). But it'll save you several dollars.
1. If you're new to Lyft, this referral code will score you up to $50 in free ride credit.
Pick a hotel with a fun pool scene. We stayed at the Ace Hotel. Le Parker is also nice.
Go in the off-season (April-September). The weather is hot but not unbearable, and you can get better rates on hotels.
The temperature fluctuates...a lot. It is a desert after all. The coolest time is around 5 am, and the warmest time is 5 pm, because the mountains are letting off all of the heat they've soaked up all day.

4 Tips

The Map

Click on the Map above to see a full-size version with the legend.

Colors: each day is in different color
Knife/Fork: places to eat
Stars: main attractions

We'd recommend downloading the app Map.Me and starring the recommended restaurants and sites. You can also download the map to your phone using Google Maps so you may use it offline.