Things to Do in Palm Springs | Palm Springs Travel Tips [VIDEO]

Are you planning to travel to Palm Springs, California soon? Want to know all the important things to do in Palm Springs? This post is for you! 

Palm Springs is filled with activities and sights to see from riding the tram, to visiting celebrity houses, and of course, shopping. If you’re travel to Palm Springs, I highly recommend some of the top spots I mention in today’s video. I really enjoyed the hiking in Palm Springs, visiting the Twin Palms Frank Sinatra Estate, eating at all the delicious restaurants in Palm Springs, and staying at the very luxurious Park Hotel in Palm Springs.

If you’re looking for a more guided tour, I also recommend the Five Star Adventures in Palm Springs who did a great job when I visited and showed me around. I’ll also cover when to visit Palm Springs in this video, because you do not want to go there in the desert heat during the summer! 

Click to watch my full video on Palm Springs!

I’m Kim The Abundant Traveler and welcome back to the channel I put out laid-back luxury travel videos all over this world and I share tips and tricks and hacks from things that you need to know before you go as well as the top things to do while you’re traveling throughout the world make sure to ring that subscribe bell and hit that notification bell because you don’t want to miss an episode today I’m in gorgeous Palm Springs California and I’m going to share everything that you need to know before you come to Palm Springs as well as a few highlights about things that you need to do so let’s start a little bit with logistics about Palm Springs Palm Springs is located 110 miles approximately from la and there is a major international airport as well it’s relatively easy to get here and there are flights coming from southwest united and all the other major airlines what’s nice about the airport it is super charming and the airport is primarily outdoors so once you get off your plane you’re walking through uh bougainvilleas and some little shops on the way to baggage claim the airport is about two and a half miles from the primary area of downtown where the shopping is where the plaza is and lots and lots of restaurants and hotels so it’s relatively easy to get here could you take an uber from the airport if you’re gonna stay just downtown sure you can take an uber however there are a lot of things that are interesting to see and to do so I would suggest that you rent a car if you’re gonna go all out make sure to rent a convertible because that is so much fun going up and down the streets in your convertible something to note though when you are renting a car there is a car rental area about a half a mile from the airport which is not the airport car rental so make sure that when you are booking your rental car that you’re booking the one with the little airplane symbol so as far as how long to stay and when to visit there is a definite high season in Palm Springs and that runs basically from thanksgiving through just after easter right now it’s the end of april and it is already 100 degrees so if you’re coming in late spring or in the summer you can expect it to be upwards of 125 degrees i’d suggest you come in the shoulder season which is early november or late april because I can’t imagine this place in the desert at 125 degrees as far as places to stay in Palm Springs you can stay at all different levels but some of the iconic places to stay are the parker hotel i’ve left a link in the description below or you can rent some of the celebrities airbnbs from leonardo dicaprio to share’s house to actually frank sinatra’s house next time I come to Palm Springs I am going to look up all the celebrity homes where I can stay but honestly where I really want to stay is frank sinatra’s place called twin palms yep this would be ideal if you’re planning on coming to Palm Springs I recommend that you spend three nights if you’re going to stay just in Palm Springs I recommend having a fourth night if you’d like to go out to the coachella valley or palm desert or some of the other areas also when you’re booking your hotel make sure to pay attention how close you are to Palm Springs if you only want to be in Palm Springs if you go out to the sands or laquinta you’re going to be 25 30 minutes away in actually another town so a little history about Palm Springs it has been owned and controlled by the agua calente I believe is the proper name indians for thousands of years they actually still control the land underneath most of the shops and they control most of downtown Palm Springs 40 or 50 years ago this town was famous for housing all the stars so they could get out of ballet today it is the goth capital of the world it is also one of the most famous places in the country to come play tennis at the famous tennis bracket clubs so if you’re going to take a tour of the homes I recommend going with five star adventures with a net I always recommend taking one of those tours about the city as soon as you arrive you get extra tips and tricks things you would never know if you didn’t take one of the tours [Music] so in addition to taking a celebrity homes tour some of the other things that I definitely recommend that you should go see one is go up the tram the tram is incredible it goes up 8 500 feet above the valley floor it’s a great experience only need about 30-45 minutes unless you’re going to be hiking up there but it is a great thing to do make sure also to book in advance right now it’s 20 21 and covet is still happening so they are limiting the seating on the trans something that is very cool about this tram as well is it’s a circular tram and the inside rotates so you don’t have to move around to see up above and down below the tram actually rotates all the way around so you get a view of everything on your 10 minute ride coming up the Palm Springs tramway is well worth it but it’s not going to take you long once you get up here there’s not a whole lot to see and there’s a little cafeteria a couple of sites a couple of viewing points I definitely recommend going up to the top to the jw grimes top viewing point it is beautiful but a tip I have make sure to bring a coat with you it’s about 40 degrees colder than it is on the valley floor something else that I recommend that you do is hike there are some great hikes but the one I did was actually quite short I went to the indian canyons and went up the andreas canyon which is only about a mile loop where there is a beautiful river that runs through it oh my god so I just stepped off the trail to take a photograph I got back there I turned around and I heard a hiss I don’t know if you can see him right there I mean shaking shaking I almost got a rattler at my ankle so there is a reason that they say please stay on the trail because the rattlesnakes know to stay off the trail you get off the trail you’re in their territory yeah [Music] but the andreas canyon is a great place to visit it is a park it cost nine dollars as an adult and it was a great way to start the morning 8 a.m go early because it gets really really hot here in Palm Springs another great thing to do is to go to the art museum it is right in downtown you can walk as you are walking through all the shopping district and they have a really interesting art display called the babies and these are gigantic bigger than us gigantic statues and the eyes are barcodes I don’t quite understand but I guess it’s just not my type of art but the art museum is a great place to go again try and get your tickets in advance just in case so one of the most bizarre things I did while I was in town is go see the artist kenny I went to see his house which is right next to frank sinatra’s house and it is two acres of his art it is bizarre and weird it is like growing up in the 70s again there are painted robots and sleighs and santa clauses and things attached to other things it was a little scary a little bizarre but definitely worth going text him call him in advance look up his phone number online and just show up it’s free but he does want a donation and he would also like you to buy one of his pieces of art at the end of your personal tour I mentioned places to stay but one place that is definitely worth going to that is a hotel is the parker if you can go there for lunch or go spend I believe it’s about 125 for the day pass if you’re not willing to spend the entire night there anywhere from 400 to 9 000 a night it’s definitely a great thing to do to go see that beautiful property and take lots of pictures and enjoy the day and lay back and just hang out probably the best guacamole I have ever had in my entire life was at the parker and they have a delicious watermelon cocktail something else that is a must in Palm Springs is to go shopping shop shop shop shop it is famous for all of the stars and the stars from the 50s and so you get all of this mid-century modern and modernism architecture you get vintage clothing you get gorgeous 1960s and 70s vases and lamps and furniture and it is such a fun place to shop one of the best places to shop is inside the plaza which is one of the original malls in the entire united states another place to go shopping is if you want the modern stuff you can go out to the desert hills outlets as well me I stayed in town I did train a turk I did shag I did this also this fantastic little vintage shop called bazaar this particular shop I found has both vintage and new wear and it is fantastic linda is the owner and it is called bazaar spelled it b-a-z-a-r I love this fun summer little pantsuit and the thing to buy in my opinion here in Palm Springs is you’ve got to buy big big color hot pinks oranges bright turquoise and blue yes this is going into my wardrobe while you are in town another thing that you have to do is the restaurants every restaurant I went to had these gorgeous cocktails and delicious food but make sure that you book a reservation in advance some of those great restaurants that I suggest that you try definitely breakfast at cheeky’s so now we’re at cheeky’s and look right here this is the famous bacon flight we have jalapeno applewood and all these other ones check this out I recommend going to the farm which is farm to table french bishop style a fun restaurant that we tried was trio another great restaurant that we tried that had a very alice in wonderland feel was 849. plenty of restaurants to try plenty of cocktails to try oh if you like mexican food as well definitely try tak kila that’s another great restaurant as well fun fun fun but make your reservations in advance if you’re an early riser I recommend that you go to a coffee shop called coffee spelled with a k they have a beautiful courtyard in the back you’ll see lots of people lounging reading their newspaper in the morning and they have absolutely delicious coffee also if you’re gluten-free they do have a gluten-free muffin so if you’re gonna stay an extra night again four nights if you want to venture out of Palm Springs you can go to coachella valley where the festival is you can go to la quinta which is where they filmed the bachelorette or you could go out to palm desert and another place you can go and go camping and spend a couple of days is to go to joshua tree my next trip I’m gonna go to joshua tree because I didn’t make it on this trip I was only here three nights can’t do it all so make sure that you leave a comment below of all your favorite things to do in Palm Springs because I’m definitely going to come back for another long weekend I am Kim The Abundant Traveler and i’ll see you on the next desert weekend away take care y’all have a great one!

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