#Retrospect palm springs plus
#Retrospect palm springs free

#Retrospect palm springs free

Many of the stores along the drive keep their doors open late that night and the Palm Springs Art Museum offers free admission. The borders of the street festival are Indian Canyon Drive to the east and Belardo Road to the west. This event is dubbed VillageFest and starts around 6 or 7 pm, depending on the season, and runs until 10 pm.

On Thursday evenings, Palm Canyon Drive is closed to traffic and downtown becomes a pedestrian street fair with arts, crafts, food and entertainment. So even when it’s hot, you can chill in Palm Springs. Our son, who was using this trip as a working vacation, wound up choosing Starbucks Reserve as his outdoor office over the smaller cafes, attracted by the fine spray misters that kept the area comfortably cool. There is apparently quite a coffee shop culture in Palm Springs. We took advantage of the outdoor dining that’s abundantly available so we could drink in the scenery. We were there in March and it was quite warm - a local shop owner told us it was 20 degrees hotter than usual for the time of year - but still very pleasant.

#Retrospect palm springs plus

There are plenty of top-notch restaurants to please the fussiest foodies, plus eclectic, high-end shopping. It is easily walkable and we didn’t have trouble finding parking either on the street or in large lots just off Palm Canyon Drive. It’s colorful and spread out with palm tree-lined meridians and ringed in by the soft-hued canyon hills, topped by brilliant blue sky. The main strip in downtown is centered around Palm Canyon Drive and the surrounding streets. Set in the Sonoran Desert and surrounded by four different mountain ranges, it’s not only extremely picturesque but protected from the sun in summer and the wind in winter. It’s only about a 2 hour drive from central Los Angeles and you really can’t beat it for scenery and weather. It’s no wonder this area became a popular resort. Palm Springs is very much alive a very vibrant, beautiful town, as boujie as you please and worth a few days’ stay when you are traveling through southern California. So while I was expecting a sort of dusty old curiosity of a place in the middle of the desert that was still charming but kind of done, I was pleasantly surprised to be all wrong. Beyoncé, Jay Z and the Kardashians frequent the area. What I didn’t realize is that Palm Springs is still popular with celebrities. But in my mind, the emphasis was very much on the word “yesterday”, compounded by the image of gray-haired snowbirds fluttering in during winter months. Legend has it that Irving Berlin may actually have written the holiday classic “White Christmas” while by the pool at La Quinta.

The quintessential combinations of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin & Sammy Davis Jr. Heroes of Hollywood’s heyday like Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant, Kirk Douglas. When I hear the name Palm Springs, I immediately think of the glamorous stars of yesterday, relaxing poolside and playing tennis.