Things to Do in Palm Springs: Tours, Tickets & Day Trips

Ranked by traveller reviews: 1) the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to Mount San Jacinto, 2) a Joshua Tree National Park tour or self-guided drive, 3) the Modernism architecture and history bike tour, 4) a celebrity-homes tour past Sinatra’s, Elvis’s and Liberace’s houses, 5) the Palm Springs windmill tour, 6) the Indian Canyons e-bike and hike, 7) Tahquitz Canyon’s waterfall trail, 8) the Legends and Icons or golf-cart tour of the neighbourhoods, 9) the Palm Springs Art Museum and 10) VillageFest on Thursday nights.

Plan two to three days. Day one: the tramway first thing (cooler and clearer), lunch at the Pines Café or back in town, the Art Museum, the Uptown Design District, dinner on Palm Canyon Drive and VillageFest on Thursdays. Day two: Joshua Tree — leave early, drive Park Boulevard through Hidden Valley and Keys View, exit past the Cholla Cactus Garden and the windmills. Day three: an Indian Canyons or Tahquitz hike at dawn, a Modernism or celebrity-homes tour, Sunnylands, then the pool. Weekend visitors add the Saturday drag brunch.

VillageFest’s Thursday-night street fair, Sunnylands Center and Gardens, the Palm Springs Art Museum’s free Thursday evenings, the Museum Trail and Araby Trail (with the view of Bob Hope’s house), the Coachella Valley Preserve’s Thousand Palms oasis, the Whitewater Preserve, the Walk of Stars, the Albert Frey-designed visitor centre at the tramway road, the Frank Sinatra and Elvis houses from the street, the windmills from the Interstate 10 frontage roads and the free Buzz trolley. Joshua Tree charges per vehicle; Indian Canyons and Tahquitz Canyon charge per person.

Joshua Tree National Park (45 minutes to the west entrance; guided tours from about $127, audio drives $14), Salvation Mountain and the Salton Sea (one hour), the mountain town of Idyllwild (one hour), Pioneertown and Pappy and Harriet’s (45 minutes), the Coachella Valley Preserve (30 minutes), the Living Desert Zoo in Palm Desert (30 minutes), Temecula’s wineries (90 minutes), Anza-Borrego’s badlands (90 minutes) and Big Bear Lake (two hours).

VillageFest on Thursdays, the bars and restaurants of Palm Canyon Drive and the Arenas Road strip, the Purple Room supper club and Melvyn’s piano bar for the Rat Pack feel, Bootlegger Tiki and the Ace Hotel’s Amigo Room, the Agua Caliente casino, the Art Museum’s free Thursday nights, the tramway at sunset with dinner at the top, the drag-hosted sightseeing bus, and stargazing in Joshua Tree, one of the darkest skies in Southern California. Weekend drag brunches are a Palm Springs institution.

Winter is the season — sunny 70°F days for hiking, cycling and golf, snow at the top of the tramway for snowshoeing and sledding, and the festival calendar: the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January, Modernism Week in February, the BNP Paribas Open tennis in Indian Wells in March, and Coachella and Stagecoach in April. Sunnylands is open from November to June. Hotels are at their priciest from January to April; book well ahead.

The Aerial Tramway and snow play at the top in winter, the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, the Children’s Discovery Museum of the Desert, the easy Palm Canyon trail in the Indian Canyons and the waterfall at Tahquitz Canyon, VillageFest’s street performers, the Palm Springs Air Museum’s warbirds, Hidden Valley’s boulder scrambles in Joshua Tree, Moorten Botanical Garden’s cactarium, the Palm Springs Surf Club and Boomers’ go-karts. Every resort pool is a day out in itself.

November to April — warm, dry and sunny, with February and March the peak for weather, festivals and prices. October and May are hot but quieter and cheaper. From June to September daytime highs reach 105–115°F: hikes and Joshua Tree move to dawn, and resort rates drop by half for pool-focused stays.

Yes — the world’s largest rotating tramcar climbs 5,873 feet in ten minutes from desert to pine forest, with 50 miles of trails, a restaurant and, in winter, snow at the top; it is the most-reviewed attraction in the valley. Go early or late to avoid queues, bring a jacket (it is 30–40°F cooler at the top) and buy timed tickets online on weekends and holidays.