I ended up going back to the desert a couple of weeks after my Palm Springs trip, but this time, I went to Indian Wells and Pioneertown.
This girls’ trip was with my friend Anica, and her other two friends Sabrina and Tatiana. None of us were really huge tennis fans, but we thought it could be fun to go to the Indian Wells tennis tournament. My roommate, Jordan, was already there for the week for work.
DAY 1 – FRIDAY, MARCH 10
I got up early and drove down to Huntington Beach to work from Anica’s house in the morning. I logged off around 2pm and Sabrina and Tatiana came over. We left from Orange County an hour later. It was 3pm on a rainy Friday so traffic was horrific and it took five hours to get there instead of two. We made a pit stop at Starbucks, then grabbed dinner ingredients at the grocery store once we got closer to our Airbnb in Joshua Tree (just the general area, not the National Park).
This Airbnb was probably the cutest one I had ever stayed at! There were three bedrooms and two bathrooms and a beautiful living area. The next morning we saw that there was a small pool outside.
For dinner, we made salad and pasta and had fruits and veggies #health. Then, we watched Burlesque and went to bed
DAY 2 – SATURDAY, MARCH 11
The next day, we got up and made breakfast in the kitchen before driving down to the tennis tournament. It was an hour away and we got there around 11am. Traffic was getting super backed up to go into the main entrance, but there was a big free lot by Southwest Church, and we were easily able to park there and walk through a side entrance. We had each purchased a one-day “Ground Pass” tickets in advance, which were $60 to get access to all courts except court 1, where all the biggest matches were played.
There were a lot of matches going on, and all the bleachers were pretty crowded. We opted to just find lunch first at the different food vendors and Jordan briefly stopped by to say hi. One thing to note is that cell phone service is really bad since there are so many people. I wasn’t getting texts until hours later and honestly don’t think I would be able to get back to my friends if we ever split up.
After lunch, we were determined to see a match and we were able to get into the end of a match on court 2, which was one of the bigger stadiums with a lot of seating, vs. courts with just bleacher seating. There was extremely little shade, so I’d recommend bringing a baseball cap or hat, but thankfully it was a long winter this year and it was in the low 70s and pretty breezy. There was no reserved seating unless you pay to be a VIP, so you just have to find empty seats, but you can’t walk in or out while the players are actively playing. Ushers at the aisles will hold people back until there’s a pause in the game. We watched Felix Auger Aliassime beat Pedro Martinez, which was cool because Felix was one of the players that was featured in the Netflix docu-series, Break Point, so I actually knew who he was.
After, it was snack time and we got boba and ice cream. Then, we caught part of a match with our new favorite player, Jack Sock, mostly because we loved when the announcer said “point, Sock” (really mature, I know).
We left about halfway through since we had a 5:15pm dinner reservation at The Pink Cabana, which is a restaurant and bar in the Sands Hotel and Spa in Indian Wells. I had seen this restaurant on Instagram for years, and it was cuter in person! The pink and green decor was so cool! I’m glad we got there early so we could get some pics without too many people in them. The restaurant apparently didn’t technically open until 5:30-5:45pm, so we sat at the bar and got drinks first. I don’t normally drink but all their drinks were pink and looked cute, and I wasn’t driving, so I did. The food was all good, just a little expensive, but you’re definitely paying for the ambiance.
After dinner, we drove back to the Airbnb and showered. We watched Easy A and did karaoke on YouTube then got halfway through Notting Hill before going to bed.
DAY 3 – SUNDAY, MARCH 12
Our Airbnb was so aesthetic, so of course I made everyone get photo-ready and took photos around the property on the last day of our trip.
On our way back to Orange County, we stopped to take photos at Pioneertown. It was a very small town tucked away in the hills of the desert, I honestly don’t know how people would find it without a map. Apparently, some Hollywood people built it in the 1940s. Pappy and Harriet’s is a popular barbecue restaurant that has live music, but the wait can be long. We were there early on a Sunday morning so it wasn’t open. There were a few shops that are currently functioning like a pottery store, a clothing store, and a wellness shop called XēBA BOTáNICA, where I bought a CBD body butter. We took some Pioneertown photos outside the non-functioning places, and then hit the road.
Around lunchtime, we started searching for places to eat and ended up stopping for sandwiches at a place called Capriotti’s in Riverside County. Overall, it was a fun little quick trip to the desert! Shout out to Anica for driving the whole way!
In the future, I definitely want to go back and explore more in Joshua Tree. I’ve been to the national park, which wasn’t that special in my opinion (it’s hard to compete with WA national parks), but there are more things like sound baths and restaurants I want to try. Maybe I’ll be back next winter!
Google Map of the places we went to:
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