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JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa, Palm Springs

Things to do guide

The best things to do in Palm Springs

Updated 7 October 2026 · 15 things to do

Pictured: JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa

Palm Springs is a mirage that turned out to be real. Two hours from Los Angeles, a grid of low white houses, turquoise pools and impossibly tall palms sits on the desert floor beneath a wall of mountain nearly two miles high. Hollywood discovered it in the 1920s, Frank Sinatra made it his playground, and the architects who followed left it with the finest collection of mid-century modern buildings anywhere.

The pace is slow by design. Mornings are for hiking a palm-filled canyon before the heat builds; afternoons belong to the pool; evenings start with a cocktail somewhere that looks like a film set from 1962. Around it, the rest of the Coachella Valley adds golf, gardens, date farms and, an hour away, the weird and wonderful landscape of Joshua Tree.

Don't miss

  1. 1Palm Springs Aerial Tramway
  2. 2Indian Canyons
  3. 3Mid-century modern architecture
  4. 4Palm Canyon Drive
  5. 5Joshua Tree National Park

The big sights

Mountain, canyon and the buildings that made the town famous.

  1. Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

    Landmark

    Cable cars passing on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway
    Photo: Don Graham from Redlands, CA, USA - God bless it!, CC BY-SA 2.0

    A ten-minute ride that takes you from desert to alpine forest. Rotating cable cars climb the sheer face of Chino Canyon to a mountain station high on Mount San Jacinto, more than 8,000 feet up. At the top the air smells of pine, the temperature is far lower than in town, and trails lead off through a wilderness state park.

    The view back down over the valley is tremendous. In winter there is often snow up here while people are swimming below.

    Tip: Take a jumper, even in summer. It is much cooler at the top than on the valley floor.

  2. Indian Canyons

    Nature

    The palm oasis of Palm Canyon near Palm Springs
    Photo: JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD, CC BY-SA 3.0

    Just south of town, on the ancestral land of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, streams run out of the mountains through canyons lined with native California fan palms. Palm Canyon is the best known, a long green ribbon of palms in a rocky gorge, and Andreas Canyon is a shady, easy loop beside a creek.

    This is the Palm Springs that existed before the pools. It suits walkers of every level.

    Tip: Go in the morning and carry water. The canyons can close in extreme summer heat.

  3. Mid-century modern architecture

    Landmark

    The Tramway Gas Station, now the Palm Springs Visitors Center
    Photo: Bryanb7, CC BY-SA 3.0

    From the 1940s to the 1960s, architects such as Richard Neutra, Albert Frey and Donald Wexler used Palm Springs as a laboratory, and the result is a whole town of flat roofs, glass walls, breeze blocks and butterfly rooflines. Highlights include the former petrol station that is now the visitor centre, with its soaring pointed canopy, and the neighbourhoods where film stars kept their weekend houses.

    You can see it by guided tour, by bike or simply by driving slowly and pointing.

    Tip: Design fans should look at Modernism Week, the big architecture festival held each February.

  4. Tahquitz Canyon

    Nature

    A short loop trail on the edge of downtown leads up a rocky canyon to a seasonal waterfall some sixty feet high, dropping into a pool between the boulders. The canyon is also on Agua Caliente land and is full of their stories, with ancient rock art and irrigation channels along the way. It is a moderate walk with a real reward at the end.

Downtown Palm Springs

  1. Palm Canyon Drive

    Neighbourhood

    Palm Canyon Drive in downtown Palm Springs
    Photo: own picture Renhau (R. Haupt, Germany), CC BY-SA 3.0

    The town's main street, lined with palms and backed by the mountain. Downtown is the busy part, with restaurants, bars, ice-cream shops and a walk of stars set into the pavement. Further north, the Uptown Design District is the place for vintage furniture, mid-century lamps and boutiques that make you want to redecorate.

    It is at its best after sunset, when the day's heat fades and the terraces fill.

  2. Palm Springs Art Museum

    Museum

    The Palm Springs Art Museum
    Photo: Gillfoto, CC BY-SA 4.0

    A handsome modernist building tucked against the mountain at the edge of downtown. The collection is stronger than you would expect for a town this size, with modern and contemporary art, studio glass, Native American and Western American works and two sculpture gardens. It is cool, calm and exactly where you want to be at two in the afternoon.

  3. VillageFest

    Market

    VillageFest street fair in Palm Springs
    Photo: Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0

    Every Thursday evening, Palm Canyon Drive closes to traffic and turns into a street fair. Stalls sell art, crafts, jewellery and food, musicians play on the corners and the whole town seems to drift through. It is friendly, free to wander and a good excuse to make an evening of dinner and a stroll downtown.

  4. Moorten Botanical Garden

    Nature

    The entrance to Moorten Botanical Garden and Cactarium
    Photo: YuriVict, Public domain

    A small, family-run garden on South Palm Canyon Drive that has been showing off desert plants since the 1930s. Thousands of cacti and succulents from deserts around the world are packed into a single acre, including a little greenhouse that calls itself a cactarium. It is quirky, quick to see and extremely photogenic.

Around the Coachella Valley

The string of desert cities that runs east from Palm Springs.

  1. Sunnylands

    Landmark

    The former winter estate of the publisher Walter Annenberg and his wife Leonore in Rancho Mirage, a mid-century house where presidents and royalty came to stay and which is still used for high-level meetings. The visitor centre and its beautiful desert gardens, planted like a living painting with cacti and palo verde trees, are open to the public.

    Tip: Tours of the historic house itself are limited and need booking well in advance. The gardens are much easier to visit.

  2. The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens

    Wildlife

    A pathway at The Living Desert in Palm Desert
    Photo: J Dykstra, CC BY-SA 3.0

    A large zoo and botanical garden in Palm Desert devoted to the deserts of the world. Animals from the American Southwest and from Africa live in big, natural enclosures among gardens of desert plants, with walking trails out into the surrounding hills. It is the best family day out in the valley.

    Tip: Animals and humans alike are livelier in the cool of the morning.

  3. El Paseo

    Activity

    El Paseo in Palm Desert
    Photo: Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0

    Palm Desert's smart shopping street, often compared to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. A mile or so of designer names, art galleries, jewellers and restaurants runs along a landscaped boulevard dotted with sculpture. Even if you are only window shopping, it is a pleasant place for lunch and a wander.

  4. Date shakes

    Food

    The Coachella Valley grows most of America's dates, and the palm groves around Indio are a sight in themselves. The local treat is the date shake: vanilla ice cream blended with sweet, caramel-flavoured dates into something thick enough to stand a straw in. Try one at one of the old roadside date farms, which have been serving them for decades.

  5. Desert Hot Springs

    Activity

    Across the valley to the north, this small town sits on top of natural hot mineral springs. Its spa hotels, some of them restored mid-century gems, pump the water into pools kept at different temperatures, so you can soak under the palms by day and under the stars by night. It is a relaxing half-day for couples.

Day trips

  1. Joshua Tree National Park

    Day trip

    Joshua trees and boulders in Joshua Tree National Park
    Photo: Tuxyso, CC BY-SA 3.0

    About an hour away, two deserts meet in a landscape that looks like nowhere else. Spiky Joshua trees stand with their arms in the air among enormous piles of rounded golden boulders, popular with climbers and scramblers. Short trails lead to hidden valleys and cactus gardens, and Keys View looks out over the whole Coachella Valley.

    Stay until dark if you can. The night sky here is spectacular.

    Tip: There is little in the way of food, water or phone signal inside the park. Fill the tank and pack supplies before you go in.

  2. Coachella Valley Preserve

    Nature

    A short drive east, near Thousand Palms, a real desert oasis rises out of the sand. Water seeping up along the San Andreas Fault feeds dense groves of fan palms, and easy boardwalks and sandy trails wind between them to quiet pools. It is far less visited than the Indian Canyons and wonderfully peaceful.

Where to stay in Palm Springs

Not sure which area suits you? Read our guide: Where to stay in Palm Springs →

Getting around

Downtown Palm Springs is small and walkable, and it is flat enough to explore by bike. To reach the tramway, the canyons, the other desert cities and Joshua Tree you will need a car. Palm Springs has its own airport close to town, and many visitors drive in from Los Angeles.

When to go

The season runs from autumn to spring, when days are warm and sunny and nights are cool. Summer is extremely hot, which brings quieter hotels and a strict routine of early mornings, shade and swimming pools. The valley is also busy in spring during its big music festivals and tennis tournament.

Questions about visiting Palm Springs

What is Palm Springs best known for?
Winter sunshine, swimming pools, golf, its Hollywood history and its mid-century modern architecture, all set beneath the San Jacinto Mountains in the California desert.
Is Palm Springs worth visiting?
Yes, especially between autumn and spring. It combines a relaxing pool-and-cocktails break with real scenery: palm canyons, a cable car up a mountain and Joshua Tree National Park an hour away.
What is there to do in Palm Springs with kids?
Ride the Aerial Tramway, visit The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, walk the easy trails of the Indian Canyons and scramble on the boulders at Joshua Tree. Many of the larger resorts have big pools with slides.
How many days do you need in Palm Springs?
Three days is about right for the tramway, a canyon walk, the architecture and some time by the pool. Add a day for Joshua Tree National Park.
Do you need a car in Palm Springs?
You can manage downtown without one, but a car is needed for the tramway, the canyons, the other desert cities and Joshua Tree.

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