This February, I took some time off work to spend 4 days in Palm Springs with my mom and grandma! Without traffic, Palm Springs is about a 2.5 hour drive from Los Angeles and a great spot for a long weekend getaway! Southern California was having its coldest and wettest winter in a while, so it was in the 50s and 60s temperature-wise and there was still snow at the top of the mountains!
I invited myself to my mom and grandma’s girls’ trip. They flew from Seattle to Palm Springs and I drove over the next day so they didn’t need a rental car. I had only ever been to Palm Springs once before, on the way back from a day trip to Salvation Mountain, so I was excited to explore the area.
Day 1 – Thursday, 2/23
I arrived at the WorldMark Palm Springs Hotel a little after 10am and dropped off my bags and picked up my mom and my grandma. The hotel was mostly full of other retired folks, but there are a lot of cute Airbnbs and nice hotels in Palm Springs, so do your research based on what you want the vibe of your trip to be!
We went to the Palm Springs Visitor Information Center, and it had a cute Palm Springs mural. We also picked up a map. Then, we stopped at the Walgreens nearby so my grandma could pick up a few things.
For lunch, we went to Sherman’s Deli. This is one of the most popular restaurants in Palm Springs, and you can’t make reservations, so we were expecting a wait. It took about 30 minutes before we were seated. And this is where I started to notice I was pretty much the youngest person there. My mom and I shared a pastrami sandwich and matzo ball soup. Sherman’s also has a huge assortment of cakes and Jewish baked goods, which are displayed in a glass counter by the front of the restaurant. We were full from lunch, so we ordered a slice (it was massive) of pistachio cake and some chocolate rugelach to-go.
On the way back to the hotel, we drove down the main road in downtown, Palm Canyon Road. There are a bunch of shops and restaurants and I can imagine it would get very busy in warmer weather. Next it was nap time (living my best retired life), so we went back to the hotel I read my book, Daisy Jones and The Six.
The Palm Spring Arts Museum is free after 5pm, so we went to line up and entered with a lot of other people who had the same idea. There was live music and some cool light installations, but the museum is pretty small, and it didn’t take long to go through.
A giant Marilyn Monroe statue is just down the street from the museum, and we walked by on the way to a street fair called Palm Springs VillageFest that happens every Thursday from 7-10pm, but there weren’t too many vendors because it was a little rainy. We looked at all the vendors that did brave the weather and each got a tamale from The Tamale Guy. Then, we went to Blaze Pizza for dinner and took home leftovers.
Day 2 – Friday, 2/24
For breakfast, my mom and I drove a few miles and grabbed bagels from Townie Bagel and brought them back to the hotel. My grandma wasn’t feeling the best, so she stayed in while my mom and I explored before lunch.
I had seen a photo of the Moorten Botanical Garden on Instagram back in 2017 and it had been on my Southern California to-do list ever since. The garden is only open Friday-Sunday and costs $5 per adult. There was free parking across the street. They offered guided tours, but we opted to just walk through ourselves. There were a lot of different cacti and a beautiful indoor greenhouse. The garden was pretty small and it only took about 20mins to walk through.
I love Grocery Outlet, but there are none very close to me in LA, so we had to stop when we saw one in Palm Springs. It had so many name-brand food and fun snacks, so I grabbed a few things for us to munch on.
Next, we went back to the Palm Springs Art Museum to explore their free Elrod Sculpture Garden which was peaceful, but like other things in Palm Springs, it was extremely small. From the museum, we walked back into downtown, past various sculptures and art. We peeked inside some of the gift shops, but didn’t ultimately buy anything.
At lunchtime, we picked up my grandma and decided to go to Elmer’s. This is a chain from Oregon and I’ve been to a few locations before, but didn’t remember it being anything special. This is the only location in California, and let me tell you, the Palm Springs Elmer’s is a 4.5 star Yelp restaurant and it is THE place to be! Again, like Sherman’s Deli, you can’t make reservations, but it was only a 15 minute wait. I got the strawberry waffle, and it was delicious!
To digest, we drove to the main road to do some shopping, then dropped my grandma off for nap time. We didn’t really have anything else to do that day, so we decided to go to Costco.
For dinner, we had our leftover pizza from the previous night. Then, we played dominos. The hotel had free dvd rentals, so my grandma and I went downstairs to pick out a movie. We ended up with The Spy Who Dumped Me and opened the giant bag of popcorn we bought at Costco #love.
Day 3 – Saturday, 2/25
Grandma wanted a blueberry bagel so my mom and I went on a hunt. We walked down the street to Ernest Coffee, but it only had pastries. Then, we drove to Aspen Mills Bakery, but it didn’t have any bagels either. They did have a bunch of bread and rolls, so I did get some cheese jalapeño rolls, which were yummy. We ended back up at Townie Bagel, but somehow they also didn’t have a blueberry bagel, so we just got her a plain bagel. They probably had blueberry bagels at Grocery Outlet, but I didn’t think of it then.
My mom and I walked down the street to a few shops. There are a lot of home decor stores and everything has a funky Palm Springs vibe, you’ll know it when you see it. It was rainy and cold, so we all went to the movie theater and saw 80 for Brady where I definitely was the youngest one in the theater.
After the movie, we went into town to walk a bit. We went to this super cute bookstore called The Best Bookstore but resisted buying anything. For an afternoon snack, we went to Great Shakes. I got a salted caramel little shake and all of them came with a little pastry. Then, we came back to the hotel.
At 6pm, we went to bingo in the lobby where we learned most of the other guests (all retired) were from Washington like us, unsuccessfully escaping the winter weather. Unfortunately, we didn’t win but it was fun and you could tell the hotel employees put a lot of effort into putting events on for the guests, so that was cute.
We had a 7pm dinner reservation at Trio, which I had heard about from a friend. Craving some greens, we all ordered salad and then shared sides of fries and mac & cheese. Because balance ya know?
We were too full for dessert, and we just played Scrabble back at the hotel and went to bed.
Day 4 – Sunday, 2/26
My phone had been charging all night but it wouldn’t turn on in the morning, so we drove to the Apple Store in Cathedral City since there wasn’t one in Palm Springs. Thankfully it was a quick fix and you just need to reset the phone by pressing the volume up button, then the volume down button, then press and hold the side lock button until the phone turns back on.
After we sorted that out, we went back to the hotel and picked up Grandma and went to the Cabazon Outlets to do some shopping. It’s about a 20-minute drive away and you’ll pass the Cabazon Dinosaurs, a quirky roadside attraction. It’s free to just see the giant dinosaur structures, but you can pay to go inside the dinosaurs. I ended up buying some stuff at the Adidas and Columbia stores. We grabbed lunch at Five Guys at the food court, then I read in the car while they finished shopping.
My mom and I went for a drive to see some of the houses in Palm Springs. The Saguaro Palm Springs is a hotel that is known for being bright and colorful, so I wanted to check it out. We went in and took photos by the pool, then continued on and followed part of this map of celebrity homes, like Marilyn Monroe. We tried to find the iconic house with the pink door, but the address I got wasn’t leading us to it. We also went to Robolights which is a house that had a bunch of interesting sculptures and for a lack of a better word, stuff, in the yard.
For dinner, we went to Rick’s Desert Grill (it was just alright), then we watched The 5-Year Engagement which was also just alright.
Day 5- Monday, 2/27
For my last meal in Palm Springs, we went back to the crowd favorite, Elmer’s. I got these loaded hashbrowns which were so good!
I found the correct address for the Pink Door (1100 East Sierra Way) and so we drove by for some quick photos. It’s now an Airbnb (link), so you can stay in it if you want! Check out this blog post from A Passion and a Passport with other cool doors in Palm Springs. After, I dropped them off and drove back to Los Angeles.
Overall, it was a nice, relaxing 4 days in Palm Springs and it was nice to spend time with my mom and grandma! I definitely want to go back when it’s warmer, try more restaurants, go up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, and see Desert X art installations, which are created every 2 years.
Google map of everywhere we went!
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4 Days in Palm Springs
