Sitting in lush farming land, replete with manicured golf courses, condominiums and millionaires, Palm Springs does not conform to any typical image of the desert, embodying a strange mix of Spanish Colonial and mid-century modern styling. The massive bulk of Mount San Jacinto looms over its low-slung buildings, casting a welcome shadow over the town in the late afternoon. Ever since Hollywood stars first came here in the 1930s, laying claim to ranch-style estates and holing up in elite hotels, the clean dry air and sunshine, just 120 miles east of LA, have made Palm Springs irresistible. For years, high-school kids arrived in their thousands for the drunken revelry of Spring Break, until civic zeal ran them out of town, while others come specifically to sober up: the Betty Ford Center in nearby Rancho Mirage draws a star-studded patient list to its booze- and drug-free environment, attempting to undo a lifetime's worth of behavioral disorders in an $11,000 28-day stay. The town is also regarded as the country's largest gay resort. Hotels in Palm Springs |
Palm Springs hotels
