Palm Springs & Palm Dessert Trip

California | January 19 - 26, 2023

Escaping the cold winter weather in Toronto mid-January was fantastic. Even better was that we were off to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of our closest friends. To start the trip off a group of 18 friends descended on Palm Springs for 4 days.

While you can easily fly into Palm Springs, we opted to fly into L.A. and rent a large SUV with another couple and drive the 2.5 hours to Palm Springs. The 4 of us all had our golf clubs to lug around for the week, and as there are no direct flights to Palm Springs from Toronto, it took about the same amount of time to drive from L.A. as it would have to take 2 flights plus layover time. The drive from L.A. to Palm Springs was smooth and it was great to see some of the countryside once we got out of the city. (Note: if you are planning on doing this drive closer to rush hour, the drive is upwards of 4 hours as experienced by some of our other friends).

While in Palm Springs, the event organizer (the lovely wife of the birthday boy) found a cute little boutique hotel that only had 10 rooms and our group had them all. The rooms were situated around a great pool and we felt like we were in the TV show “Melrose Place”. Each morning you could look out the window of your room and see who was up, having coffee and a light breakfast while sitting poolside.

The birthday celebrations took place Thursday to Sunday. We had an itinerary that was filled with fun lunches, golf, hikes, tram rides up the mountain, dinners and drinks. As it was my first time in Palm Springs I also made sure to take the time to walk around the main streets and explore.

Friday a group of us (me and the boys) golfed at Escena Golf Club and had a lot of fun with various team competitions, etc. We really enjoyed the course and would definitely play there again. We teed off at 7:15 am and let me tell you, it was cold! The overnight temperatures while we were there hovered around 5-6 degrees celsius (a little colder than expected!)

Another day we took the Palm Springs Aerial tram up the mountain which was fun, provided great views and some snow - to make us feel right at home. We ate lunch at the restaurant at the top of the mountain and had many laughs. (Stats on the mountain, height etc).

While we were in Palm Springs, these are the restaurants and bars we visited:

Palm Springs Restaurants + Bars

+ Boozehounds

+ Azucar

+ Tailor Shop

+ Tropicale

+ Del Ray Villa Royale

+ Eight4Nine Lounge

+ Workshop Kitchen & Bar

+ Truss & Twine

+ Chi Chi Restaurant

+ Norma's at The Parker Hotel

Palm Desert + Santa Monica

The majority of the crew departed Monday morning to head home, and that’s when the 4 of us piled back into our SUV and headed to Joshua Tree. I had a vague idea of what I thought I might see while in the park, but honestly I hadn’t done any research or looked at any photos. I was blown away. A drive through is all you need, and it can be done in a couple of hours. There are several 'hit list' spots that you can navigate to by using the old-school paper map provided at the entrance (cell service is very limited). The rock formations were stunning. I was not prepared for how fascinating they are. And of course, we also saw hundreds of Joshua Trees. If you have the time, I would say head over to the park and cross it off your bucket list, it's worth it.

Our next stop was a quick lunch at a saloon in Pioneer Town called The Red Dog Saloon. It was a fun spot to pull up to, and surprisingly served delicious Tex-Mex! We sat at the bar and had a couple of tacos and some chips and salsa to fuel up and then we were on the road again.

Next stop, Palm Desert. It was great to finally get my bearings around the difference between Palm Springs and Palm Desert, as I referred to them interchangeably in the past and now I know that they are definitely very different places. We stayed at the JW Marriott while there, which was nice, though a busy conference hotel.

Palm Desert Restaurants + Bars

+ Mitch's

+ Mamma Gina's

+ La Fe Wine Bar

We played two rounds of golf at PGA West Pete Dye Mountain Course and Desert Springs Golf Palm Course. Both were beautiful and I fell in love with the mountains surrounding the courses and providing the incredible vistas. If I had to play one of them again I would pick the JW Marriott Desert Springs course again.

The afternoon before we flew home we decided to head towards L.A. so that we were closer to LAX for our flight home. We ended up staying in Santa Monica where we enjoyed a sunset stroll along the beach before heading out to dinner. We had a fantastic dinner at Elephante where the atmosphere, service and food were top notch. I would definitely go back for another meal there when I'm back in the area.

While we only had one evening to have dinner in the area, we did receive many suggestions of places to try which I'm listing here to keep as a log:

+ Gjelina

+ Butcher's Daughter

+ Casa del Mar

+ Craig's

+ Crossroads

+ Felix

+Joan's on 3rd

+ Great White

I’ve always loved California and it was wonderful to see some new parts of the state that I had not yet been to. I’d love to go back and spend a part of a winter down there one year! For now we’re back home in the dead of winter and so grateful that we had this time away.

What are your favourite spots to eat, go for a drink or hit up when you are in this part of the world?