Jessica & Julian
Things To Do
Downtown Palm Springs
Downtown Palm Springs has lots of shops and restaurants, like Koffi--a cute cafe with attached garden park. Also, the VillageFest Street Fair takes place every Thursday night on Palm Canyon Drive, occupying roughly three blocks of town and offering a wide variety of entertainment, art, food and shopping.
Robolights
There's nothing quite like it. Kenny Irwin Jr.'s fantastical, winter-wonderland-meets-sci-fi art installation...full of robots, post-apocalyptic Christmas scenes, and 8.4 million lights.
Palm Springs Aerial Tramway
Ascend two-and-one-half miles to a pristine wilderness aboard the world’s largest rotating tramcar. During your approximately ten-minute journey, tram cars rotate slowly, offering picturesque and spectacular vistas of the valley floor below. Once you reach the Mountain Station—elevation 8,516 feet—enjoy two restaurants, observation decks, natural history museum, two documentary theaters, gift shop and over 50 miles of hiking trails. Make sure to bring warm clothes as the top of the mountain is 30 degrees colder than Palm Springs, and can be snowy in the winter.
Wildlights at The Living Desert Zoo & Gardens
Marvel at over a million twinkling lights, as the desert’s favorite holiday tradition returns with new features for 2017
Palm Springs Art Museum
The museum has an art collection that rivals metropolitan museums, and includes works from Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Ansel Adams. Enjoy the museum on Thursday evenings (4-8pm) for free.
Joshua Tree National Park
Worth a day trip if you've never been. You can drive through the park and see lots of cool plants and rock formations.
Salton Sea - Bombay Beach Ruins
If you're into dystopian wastelands, you can't miss a trip out to the Salton Sea. Required viewing prior to your visit: "Plagues and Pleasures of the Salton Sea," narrated by John Waters
World's Biggest Dinosaurs
Made famous by PeeWee's Big Adventure, it's worth a stop and photo op, on your way to or from Palm Springs
Date Shake
Drink a date shake, one of the famous treats the desert region is known for. The Saguaro's restaurant, El Jefe, has a great one.