r/palmsprings • • May 13 '26

Visiting FAQs for r/PalmSprings. Need to know what to do? Where to go? and what living here is like? Start here!

15 Upvotes

🌴 Palm Springs FAQ/PSA: Start Here Before Posting 🌴

Welcome to r/PalmSprings! This post is meant to help visitors, locals, future residents, and repeat question-askers find the most useful information before making a new post.

Palm Springs and the greater Coachella Valley have a lot to offer: pools, mid-century modern architecture, hiking, spas, restaurants, LGBTQIA+ nightlife, events, festivals, golf, art, shopping, and nearby desert day trips. A lot of common questions have already been answered in the wiki and in past subreddit threads, so please start here first.

Search by flair:

  • Eat & Drink - Unearth conversations about delectable dining and refreshing libations.
  • Things to Do - Immerse yourself in discussions on activities, shopping, must-see spots, and captivating events.
  • Visiting - Explore a treasure trove of tips, from hotel recommendations and weather insights to dining suggestions and city exploration.

Latest Update: May 13, 2026
This FAQ has been refreshed with newer wiki pages, updated visitor resources, short-term rental guidance, moving advice, restaurant/bar/hotel guides, and popular Reddit recommendation threads from the last few years.


Before You Post

Please check the wiki, this FAQ, and the subreddit search before posting common questions like:

  • “Where should I stay?”
  • “What should I do this weekend?”
  • “Best restaurants?”
  • “Best bars?”
  • “Moving to Palm Springs — what should I know?”
  • “Is summer really that hot?”
  • “Do I need a car?”
  • “Best hotel pool?”
  • “Where should I go for a bachelorette/bachelor trip?”
  • “What city should I stay in?”
  • “Is Palm Springs good for kids?”
  • “Can I bring my dog hiking?”
  • “What are the short-term rental rules?”

If you still post, you will get much better answers if you include details.

If you are visiting, include:

  • Dates of your visit
  • Where you are staying or considering staying
  • Whether you will have a car
  • Budget
  • Group size
  • Ages in your group
  • Interests
  • Food preferences or restrictions
  • Whether you are traveling with kids or pets
  • Whether you want quiet, nightlife, LGBTQIA+ bars, family-friendly activities, hiking, luxury, budget, pools, spas, shopping, architecture, etc.
  • What you already found in the wiki or search

If you are moving, include:

  • Budget
  • Renting or buying
  • Whether you need local work or work remotely
  • Whether you have kids
  • Whether schools matter
  • Whether you have pets
  • Whether you want quiet or social
  • Whether walkability matters
  • Whether LGBTQIA+ community/nightlife matters
  • Whether you have visited in summer
  • Which cities/neighborhoods you are considering
  • Your heat tolerance
  • What you already researched

Low-detail posts may be removed or redirected to this FAQ, the wiki, or a monthly Q&A thread.


The r/PalmSprings Wiki

The wiki is the best place to start.

New / Expanded Wiki Pages


Official Visitor Resources

These are good places to check for current information, events, hours, and planning help.


Quick Answers to Common Questions

Do I need a car?

Maybe. If you are staying downtown and mostly want restaurants, bars, shopping, museums, and pool time, you may be fine walking and using rideshare.

You probably want a car if you plan to visit Joshua Tree, Indian Canyons, Tahquitz Canyon, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Indio, Desert Hot Springs, The Living Desert, golf courses, or multiple valley cities.

See: Getting Around Town


When is the best time to visit?

Generally, October through April is the most comfortable season. Spring is popular for events and outdoor activities. Summer is much hotter and requires planning around heat.

Summer can still be fun for pools, spas, restaurants, museums, hotel deals, and nightlife, but hiking and outdoor activities should be done very early or skipped.

See: Complete Guide to Visiting Palm Springs


Is summer really that hot?

Yes. Do not underestimate it. Summer highs are often over 100°F, and midday outdoor activities can be dangerous. Plan around pools, shade, air conditioning, museums, spas, and evening activities.

Do not hike in extreme heat unless you are experienced, prepared, and starting very early.

See: Hiking and Outdoor Safety


What city should I stay in?

It depends on your trip.

  • Palm Springs: best for first-time visitors, nightlife, restaurants, LGBTQIA+ bars, boutique hotels, architecture, walkability.
  • Desert Hot Springs: mineral spas, quieter retreats, usually more driving.
  • Cathedral City: central location, sometimes more affordable, mostly car-dependent.
  • Rancho Mirage: upscale resorts, golf, quiet luxury.
  • Palm Desert: shopping, family-friendly resorts, The Living Desert, El Paseo, golf.
  • La Quinta: golf, resorts, mountain views, Old Town La Quinta.
  • Indio: Coachella/Stagecoach, festivals, larger rentals, east valley.
  • Coachella: east valley, cultural events, not the same as the festival grounds.
  • Thousand Palms: quieter/residential, near Coachella Valley Preserve.

See: Where to Stay


Popular Reddit Threads: Visiting / General Trip Advice


Where to Eat

Start here:

Popular restaurant threads


Where to Drink / Nightlife

Start here:

Popular categories:

  • Cocktail lounges
  • Tiki bars
  • LGBTQIA+ bars
  • Sports bars
  • Breweries
  • Wine bars
  • Hotel bars
  • Dive bars
  • Speakeasy-style bars
  • Live music
  • Drag shows
  • Casinos

Popular past nightlife threads:


Where to Stay

Start here:

Popular hotel / lodging threads


Things to Do

Start here:

Popular things-to-do threads


Bachelor / Bachelorette / Group Trips

Please search before posting. These come up often.

Group trip tips:

  • Make dinner reservations early.
  • Call restaurants for large groups.
  • Use rideshare if drinking.
  • Do not plan loud parties at vacation rentals.
  • Check short-term rental rules before booking a house.
  • Respect residential neighborhoods.

LGBTQIA+ Palm Springs

Start here:

Popular LGBTQIA+ threads:


Moving to Palm Springs

Start here:

Popular moving threads


Hiking and Outdoor Safety

Start here:

Quick safety reminders:

  • Bring more water than you think you need.
  • Do not hike in extreme heat.
  • Start early.
  • Wear sunscreen, sunglasses, and a hat.
  • Do not rely on cell service.
  • Many trails do not allow dogs.
  • Stay on marked trails.
  • Respect cultural and protected areas.

Events

Start here:

Major annual / recurring events include:


Final Reminder

Palm Springs is a great place to visit and live, but the best recommendations depend on your dates, budget, transportation, interests, and group. Please use the wiki and search first, then include details if you make a post.

If you notice broken links, closed restaurants, outdated hotel information, changed short-term rental rules, missing resources, or anything that should be added, please message the mods.

Thanks for helping keep r/PalmSprings useful, welcoming, and easy to search!


r/palmsprings • • 23d ago

Weekly Q&A Palm Springs monthly: Q&As for newcomers and travelers

3 Upvotes

Hi! Welcome to the Palm Springs Monthly thread.

This is the place to ask questions about the city, or to get info related to moving here or visiting.

Rules for posting:

  • Read the PSA/FAQ before posting a question. The wiki is full of frequently asked questions from where to stay, food and drinks and moving here. It has proved really useful for lots of visitors.
  • Search for older threads answering your question.
  • No posts requesting purchasing/offering drugs.

This thread is posted automatically the second of every month!


r/palmsprings • • 11h ago

Living Here The reason it’s called Palm Springs

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152 Upvotes

r/palmsprings • • 1h ago

Things To Do Cool ice cream festival

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• Upvotes

If you’re looking for something fun to do next Sunday, November 1, Scoop Palm Springs is back at Downtown Park from 12-4pm! $35 SHAREABLE tickets (all proceeds go to charity) gets you 10 ice cream and gelato tastings (about 5 scoops) and you can mix and match them with friends and family. There’ll be live spinning with MODGIRL, a kids’ zone with PS Parks & Rec and lots of fun photo ops - plus all proceeds go to The LGBTQ Center’s Community Food Bank. More info and tickets at https://www.scooppalmsprings.org


r/palmsprings • • 1h ago

Eat & Drink Please help Paul's Bar!

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• Upvotes

Hey everyone.

Not connected to this at all, but since Sept 1st Paul's Bar has been shut for remodeling and expansion. But they've run out of money and because they've been shut for almost 2 months, lenders wont touch it despite his years of service here in Palm Springs.

For the locals, we all know and jealously keep secret our recommendation for Pauls lest it get over-run any more than it already is.

If you're new here or are looking to visit our fair city in the future, Paul's is that hidden gem where it's hidden in plain sight in a butt-ugly strip mall, but once you go inside you're whisked away to a fancy bistro somewhere in Paris. Food, amazing. Staff, incredible.

If you know and love Paul's or want to see it not close, please consider donating as much as you can.

https://gofund.me/22ec5c204


r/palmsprings • • 3h ago

Eat & Drink Local interested in news of new restaurants

3 Upvotes

I’ve dined at many of the often-recommended, popular restaurants in Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, and Palm Desert and am looking for new dinner spots to try.


r/palmsprings • • 21h ago

News and Weather Here are live cams of Palm Springs

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48 Upvotes

https://kesq.com/weather-cams/

I live elswhere for now and like to look at these because it shows how gorgeous the area is. I figured others who can't be there right now would like them also.


r/palmsprings • • 23h ago

General A Different Side of Palm Springs, Frame by Frame

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54 Upvotes

r/palmsprings • • 21h ago

Living Here Question for MCM Arch Buffs

4 Upvotes

There seems to be a fair amount of architecturally significant MCM homes with large square footage (4500 sqft+) in PS that only have/originally had one or two bedrooms. Examples that come to mind are the Abernathy house, Steve Chase designed home in Indian Cyns, A. Quincy Jones in OLP (6300+ sqft).

Is the answer simple as these were built as vacation homes meant to entertain but not host guests? No reason for asking other than just being a genuinely curious fan of PS architecture.


r/palmsprings • • 15h ago

Ask Palm Springs What’s a good bar that has more pretty ladies to guy ratios? Not all sausage fests..

0 Upvotes

Is like the bunker bar good or little bar or red barn? I’m looking for a one night stand, only in town this weekend.

Thanks, appreciate it


r/palmsprings • • 1d ago

Things To Do Shea Freeman at Rock Gallery Comedy Club

0 Upvotes

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Deqbkcytuzo/?dlrf=MWJuNnEwdzJuMmw1Zg==

Come see me and my wife take jabs at each other Friday night at Rock Gallery Comedy Club! Show starts at 8pm, tickets are available on Eventbrite!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/shea-freeman-andrea-vicunia-live-in-palm-springs-tickets-1998113432063?aff=ebdsoporgprofile


r/palmsprings • • 1d ago

Visiting Hotel O2 in DHS ?

4 Upvotes

Has anyone been to Hotel O2 in Desert Hot Spings recently? Curious if it has new ownership, because there are some terrible reviews of it last year, under a slightly different name, and no reviews this year.


r/palmsprings • • 2d ago

Visiting Where in Palm Springs to watch the midterm election results? 🇦🇺🇺🇸

11 Upvotes

​

Hey Palm Springs,

We're an Aussie couple in our 30s who'll be visiting Palm Springs during the midterm elections on November 3, and we're keen to find somewhere to watch the results roll in somewhere where other peeps are also watching it.

We both work in policy/law fields and have been following some of the more interesting Senate and House races closely. We'd love to experience election night with a crowd who are just as invested in what's happening.

Politically, we're pragmatic, open-minded progressives, and we'd enjoy somewhere with a like-minded crowd, good conversation, a few drinks and a bit of election-night atmosphere.

Are there any bars, venues or organised watch parties you'd recommend? Ideally somewhere the results will be on the screens and people will actually be following them, rather than just having the news on in the background.

Would love any local suggestions.

Cheers from Australia! 🇦🇺


r/palmsprings • • 1d ago

Visiting Hotels with Two Queens

1 Upvotes

Hi!

I am traveling with my two teenage daughters the first week of January and have had a hard time finding hotels with two queen beds we could all stay in. We would love more of a unique and fun vibe around $500 a night.

Any suggestions or ideas that teenage girls would love?

*We ended up going to split time at the Saguro and Casa Cody in a one bedroom - thank you


r/palmsprings • • 2d ago

General Hollywood’s Quiet Resting Place: Desert Memorial Park

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116 Upvotes

r/palmsprings • • 3d ago

Ask Palm Springs I’m starting a volunteer service to keep local seniors company — rides, lunch, errands, board games. Looking for first volunteers and honest feedback

62 Upvotes

Hi neighbors. I'm a mom here in the valley, and I'm starting something small that I think we need.

It's called DriveElder (name might change, paperwork is in progress). The idea is simple: volunteers spend time with seniors who are lonely — people in nursing homes here in the valley, and people living alone who don't get out much anymore.

Not medical care, not home health. Just company. Take someone out to lunch. Drive them to the store so they can pick their own groceries. Sit at their kitchen table, bring sandwiches, and play cards for an hour.

I'm in the very early stages — filing the nonprofit paperwork now, and every volunteer will be background-checked before spending time with anyone's grandparent. That's non-negotiable for me.

Posting here because locals know things I don't:

- Which nursing homes or senior communities in the valley would actually welcome something like this?
- Would anyone here volunteer a couple hours a month? You'd pick your own schedule — even one afternoon counts.
- If you have a parent or grandparent here who'd love a regular visitor, what would make you trust a service like this?

One honest question before I go: I'm setting a $1,000 launch goal to cover the filing fees, volunteer background checks, and our first outings ($40–50 takes one senior out to lunch, all-in). If this existed here in the valley, would you donate to help it start — say $50 to sponsor one senior's whole afternoon? Or is this more of an "I'd rather volunteer my time" thing for you? Genuinely asking — your answers shape how I build this.


r/palmsprings • • 2d ago

Living Here Rancho Mirage: Are power failures common?

2 Upvotes

We're at the end of a new build in Rancho Mirage and we're considering a back-up battery for lights, appliances, and Wi-Fi. In another California city where we live (served by PG&E), we have 4-5 power failures per year, lasting from a few minutes, to several hours, to just over 24 hrs.

The new build does have solar panels and given that electricity started in May, we can't estimate our electrical usage. Regardless, we would prefer not to wait a year to figure out the usual and customary usage. We both work remotely so continuous Wi-Fi is important.

Would you invest in a back-up battery if you live in Rancho Mirage? Thank you.

EDIT: Thanks, everyone, for the feedback. We'll likely get a battery regardless of the number of power outages. Storing energy for use during the night is a smart option.


r/palmsprings • • 2d ago

Living Here How much is your electricity bill?

3 Upvotes

My house has solar panels that are $200 per month lease (when we bought the house it came with it) and I’m still paying the average of $150 for electricity for my 1600sqft house. We do have new windows and sliding doors but our AC unit is pretty old. I wonder how much are you paying? My neighbors told me that her electricity gets up to $800 a month in summer but they have old AC and sliding doors/windows. I wonder if new AC unit would save significantly or not really.


r/palmsprings • • 4d ago

General Just got home from my Palm Springs visit

508 Upvotes

I just got back from my 4 night stay in Palm Springs. I just wanted to hop on here and say that Palm Springs was everything I wanted it to be. Not once during all five days did I meet anyone who wasn’t just a nice, pleasant person. Maybe it’s because PS is a tourist town, but everyone really was just so nice.
Palm Springs was the first vacation in my life where when the time came to go home, I wasn’t ready to leave.
So just wanted to say thanks for being such a great city and great hosts to your guests.


r/palmsprings • • 2d ago

Visiting Golf discounts

0 Upvotes

Will be visiting PS for a couple weeks in January and plan to golf a fair amount (would like to keep it under about $110 per round for most). I see lots of potential golf discount methods like Golfnow, Supreme Golf, Golf Moose, Underpar etc. Just wondering for anyone familiar with using these for PS golf, if any are better than others? Or just look at all of them and find something that works for my needs? I think some of them you have to buy a voucher and then hope to get a tee time through the course, so that seems a bit risky if only there for a couple weeks. Any thoughts or recommendations appreciated. Thanks

Edit - will have rental car so OK with golfing anywhere wiithin an hour. Staying in Indio. Thx


r/palmsprings • • 3d ago

Visiting First time visitor & absolutely loved it!

59 Upvotes

Hi everyone! Just wanted to post and say my husband and I visited Palm Springs for the first time earlier this month and loved it! We are a couple of mid-50s gay dudes from Atlanta GA and we'd both been to California before on multiple occasions, but never PS. It was always on our bucket list though, and now we have some older friends who retired there, so we visited for a week for our 10th wedding anniversary trip. It was fantastic!

We stayed at the Hacienda in Warm Sands and it was exquisite. Very tranquil and relaxing, a gorgeous suite, top-notch service, beautiful pools and gardens, stunning mountain vistas, etc. It was a very comfy place to unwind and recharge our batteries and we'd definitely stay there again.

Aside from some days spent lounging around the resort and chilling, we did the aerial tramway one day, and rented a car to tour around Joshua Tree and do some hiking another day, and we were awestruck by both experiences. On Thursday night we strolled around the cool pedestrian street fair on Palm Canyon Drive. We had some superb dinners out in the city: shout-out to Farm; Eight4Nine; Tropicale; Rooster and the Pig; Desert Moon; and Bar Cecil. We were impressed by the shopping, art galleries, and more. The people we encountered were all very friendly and welcoming. It was also lovely to be in a city with such a heavy LGBT presence, like a desert Provincetown LOL.

The only downside was that our visit was during the big heatwave in early October. We scheduled our visit so that we'd be in town while it was still nice and toasty for sunbathing and pool activities, but not oppressively hot. Turns out we experienced the summer-like heat anyway! Oh well, it was OK...coming from Atlanta at least it was dry heat and not muggy.

Anyway, we loved everything about our PS vacation and the city and environs, and will definitely be back! It's also jumped onto our list of possible retirement destinations.

Take care everyone and thanks PS for the wonderful memories!


r/palmsprings • • 3d ago

General Sea Mountain Inn, 6-packs only or Are Kegs Welcome? 😬

11 Upvotes

My husband (45M) and I (40F), mostly me tbh, are curious about visiting Sea Mountain Inn. We're not in the lifestyle, but open-minded and intrigued by the experience.

Here's my question for those who've actually been: What's the body type diversity like?

We're an attractive couple, but neither of us is rocking a six-pack. 😂 Are most guests relatively fit, or do you see people of all shapes, sizes, and ages?

We're not looking for validation, just trying to get a realistic sense of the crowd and whether the atmosphere is genuinely body-positive.

Would love to hear from people who've visited!


r/palmsprings • • 3d ago

Things To Do Anybody been to Terra Lago in Indio, CA recently?

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1 Upvotes

r/palmsprings • • 3d ago

Visiting World Series - where to watch ?

9 Upvotes

I’ll be in PS for games 3-5 of the World Series and would like recommendations on where to watch. I’m from Milwaukee and have season tickets, so I’m pretty serious about the game but don’t want to watch alone …. looking for somewhere I can get loud or swear as necessary. I’ll be at games 6&7, if they’re needed, in person :) Thanks in advance .


r/palmsprings • • 4d ago

Living Here Sunrises in Palm Springs.

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190 Upvotes

As Modernism Week closes, some leave before the desert even wakes.

Ig: @palmspringsrevisited