The Discovery
The start to this discovery is set in the winter of 2020 and the company I was working for at the time had a small home rented for our team of Drillers. We were on the job for most of 2020 and it was supposed to run through mid 2021. To rent this home (What I will call The Villa from now on), a monthly discount was significantly cheaper than having our team stay in hotels for this long of a time. Every year the two weeks that surround Christmas and NYE tend to be a little wet and our business couldn't do their job properly if it was raining so, like many years before, our guys had the two weeks off around this time. The Villa was still rented for the whole month, even though our guys were not going to be staying there, so my boss sent out a companywide email to see if anyone wanted to stay at the house over the holiday. Smart business move on his part since it was already paid for, and they didn't' want the money they spent to "go to waste". I immediately responded to book the holiday and soon enough I was planning my trip to this vacation home with my friend, Ashley, for a little R& R over the holiday.
I have lived in California my entire life and I pride myself in knowing most of our "best kept secrets" however this home was booked in a place I had never really given much thought to:
That's right, Palm Springs! During the next 6 months I was lucky to be able to spend two separate trips The Villa and was able to get out to explore more than once while in town and let me tell you...What. A. Treasure!!! I feel like "the elites" have been hiding this place from the common people for way too long. Seriously, Palm Springs, where have you been all my life!?! Since then, I have been back several times, and it is now one of my favorite places to take a long weekend and unwind.
What's to Love?
Dry heat; if you have ever been anywhere hot and sticky you know why a "dry heat" is superior. There is far less shock going from a dry cool/air-conditioned space to a dry warm space, your hair can stay down and styled (assuming you like it that way) or you can just keep it off your face to mind whichever style you decided on that day. Also, your clothes IMO don't stick to you as much in a dry heat which makes your warm clothing options seem a bit more open than when you have the humidity.
Another thing to love is the desert sky at night; It's something that is so magical and different than any other sky I have experienced. Because there is less light pollution than other cities, the buildings are more spread apart and not very tall here giving the evening an ancient feel to it. Palm Springs itself is isolated and surrounded by a mountain range that keeps it very peaceful here at night - it should be on your bucket list to experience for sure, it it's not already.
Additional things to love about Palm Springs is that it's always the "right season" to visit, you can choose your level of comfortable for a warm day depending on the season. I feel the weather is always pretty perfect even in the "cold " of winter it's a nice 70 * degrees (Fahrenheit) and almost always sunny. The rain aka cloud percentage is less than 1% a year! Now that's what I call a perfect sunny vacation destination. Pretty much any time of year is a beautiful time to visit which is the weather is my #1 reason to love this place.
And last, but not least, it's oh so affordable to visit! Don't get me wrong you can totally do the five-star experience and spend a lot of money here, but personally, I find a good deal thrilling and part of the fun. If you haven't seen my quick guide on how to travel like a movie star on budget you Definity need to check it out below:
But I digress... after falling in love with Palm Springs' warm days and being lazy around a pool in The Villa I decided to come back and see what it would cost me to do this bougie trip on my own and I was surprised to learn that there are so many affordable options to stay in the little paradise that will fit any budget. For me, a private pool and a hot tub are a MUST when booking a stay in Palm Springs...however if you don't crave privacy there are so many resorts that are-top notch and affordable places to stay where you can share a pool and/or hot tub with fellow travelers. Affordability is my close #2 reason for loving Palm Springs.
If You Are Still Reading and Like a Little Bit of Palm Springs History
Like most of America Palm Springs was once tribal land however these days you don't really see much of that influence on the area save for the fact that there is now an Indian casino presence, and many streets or local sites that still use their native names. The Cahuilla Tribe called this area "Boiling Water" for all of the natural hot Springs that were precent in the area and still are to this day! That's a super fun fact to me considering when you visit the area it is such a sticking desert and doesn't seem like there is any water hidden anywhere. Fun note: These natural hot springs and the pleasant year-round weather make Palm Springs a favorite spot of nudists!
When California was still a part of Mexico, sometime in the late 1770's Mexican travelers established station here and it was thereafter known as Aqua Caliente (Hot Water). About 1,000 years later the US Government declared this the Aqua Caliente Reservation (an area of about 32k acres) which was subdivided into Native land and the Southern Pacific Railroad land. Today, the whole of downtown Palm Springs includes a native square that makes the people of this land the wealthiest triable nation in the US.
"It was in the early 1900s that Palm Springs began to establish itself as the world-class destination it is today. Many of its first residents came here because the dry, hot climate was beneficial to their health, particularly if the person was infected with tuberculosis (John McCallum relocated his family here for that reason). In the 1930s, Palm Springs became the #1 desert getaway for Hollywood stars (Las Vegas didn’t become a Hollywood destination until the late 1940s). Palm Springs is known today as the Gold Capital of the World, but the initial sport associated with the area was tennis, exemplified by the Palm Springs Racquet Club and the Palm Springs Tennis Club (Which is still very popular!).
There was another reason why Hollywood stars flocked to Palm Springs, and it may have been the most important of all....A star’s life in the 1930s could easily be destroyed by gossip or scandal. America was much more puritanical in those days and every star lived under a constant veil of surveillance and paranoia. An extramarital affair or revelation that a star was gay could take you from riches to rags – literally overnight. Gossip columnists like Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper wielded immense power with an insatiable readership of millions who devoured every one of their salacious stories. But word soon spread that there was a beautiful desert sanctuary where one could be relatively safe from their prying eyes. The 1930s was in the economic throes of the Great Depression while Parsons, Hopper and numerous publications had their spies feverishly trailing every Hollywood star for the next juicy scandal. These gossip reporters worked for pennies, but survived because they would be reimbursed for their travel expenses, but only up to a range of 100 miles....Palm Springs is 107 miles from Los Angeles! It wasn’t foolproof, but it quickly gained Palm Springs an enduring reputation as a safe haven beyond the reach of the gossip columnists. Many stars visited or bought homes here including Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, John and Lionel Barrymore, Leslie Howard, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante, Spencer Tracy, John Wayne, Errol Flynn, Robert Wagner, Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope. In 1934, Ralph Bellamy and Charlie Farrell bought a large parcel of land and created the Palm Springs Racquet Club, inviting their fellow Hollywood stars to join them. Today, their names and hundreds of other celebrities are enshrined forever on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars." - History of Palm Springs information cited from the Palm Springs Website: www.palmsprings.com
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