Even if you’re not driving a 1960s convertible or sporting vintage cat-eye shades, in Palm Springs, you are part of mid-century style. The Southern California city, just a two-hour jaunt from Los Angeles, is the destination for 20th-century modern design. Visitors delight in the groovy geometry and bright colors that make Palm Springs’s architecture so iconic.
And they soon learn that in crossing the San Jacinto Mountains, the atmosphere feels breezier. There’s magnificent nature all around to explore via canyon hiking trails, star gazing in Joshua Tree National Park, or soaking in hot mineral springs. There are seasonal events, including international film festivals, LGBTQ+ weekends, and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. And there’s culture, like the renowned Palm Springs Art Museum and the Cahuilla Nation’s Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza, a multi-faceted institution and spa that opened in 2023.
There also are delightful ways to get hip on all things midcentury modern. February’s annual Modernism Week brings open houses that are rarely publicly accessible, along with year-round tours of the city’s mod best. You can enjoy cocktails and steak at Palm Springs’s timeless restaurants. Or you could just sit beside a swimming pool and soak up that divine desert air.
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How we choose the best things to do in Palm Springs
Every review on this list has been written by a Condé Nast Traveler journalist who knows the destination and has visited that activity. When choosing things to do, our editors consider landmarks and experiences that offer an insider’s view of a destination, keeping authenticity, location, service, and sustainability credentials top of mind.