Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs

The Saguaro, Palm Springs

I hope you're ready for the first instalment in my California diaries, because here it is! I went through the literally +2000 pictures I snapped over the past two weeks, and selected the best stories to tell you guys. Today, I'll take you through our experience of Palm Springs.

While Palm Springs might not be one of the first things on your average young person's to-visit-in-California list, some older people we know mentioned the place to us when we talked about our upcoming trip, and after a bit of googling our interest in the city grew. Palm Springs is basically an oasis in the middle of a rather desert like stretch of California, close to Joshua Tree park (content for one of my upcoming posts) and sitting in the shadow of Mount San Jacinto, which shields it from winds and keeps the place toasty (or simmering hot) throughout the year. 

The city became popular with movie stars in the 1930s, and remained so throughout the 50s and 60s when the Rat Pack came there to party. The mid-century vibe is still very apparent when you drive through the city, making it a perfect slice of nostalgia/Americana for the touristy who enjoys that type of thing (I absolutely do!). We stopped here on our way from Oceanside to Joshua Tree Park to have lunch in one of the fancy hotels, get some sun (the coast had been cloudy and about 61°F/16°C when we left in the morning) and spot our first real live hummingbird!

Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs

The drive up to Palm Springs was the first taste of a U.S. roadtrip we had during our journey, and as Google Maps led us off the beaten path and into the countryside, we quickly fell in love with the quiet of the roads and the vast openness of the landscapes that zoomed by. You just don't see stuff like this in Belgium, you know? And while you could compare certain areas in California with the Mediterranean, this feeling of open land as far as the eye can see is not something you can still find in Europe, I think. Also, the further we drove inland, the more the skies cleared up - hallelujah! I was more than happy that I'd brought a spare outfit to deal with the +10°C temperature increase we experienced throughout the day.

Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs
Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs
  
We made a little pitstop to stretch our legs, take a bathroom break and buy some freshly picked cherries at this little farmer's market/diner, with those gorgeous mountains in the background.

Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs
 fiddler cap: Brixton - crochet top: Forever21 - denim: Zara - hoop earrings: New Look

This was our rental car, btw. Love our Jeep Grand Cherokee!

Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs
Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs

Nothing sums up the experience of visiting America as a European better than this pic. Doesn't this look like a movie set, or a two-dimensional backdrop in a theater?? It's just so damn photogenic. Especially now that the clouds had disappeared.

Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs
Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs

This is Mount San Jacinto. Pretty impressive, especially with the fields of windmills at its feet.

Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs

And then we arrived at Palm Springs! A thriving city filled with fancy hotels, palmtrees, surprisingly verdant fields and references to the glamour of a bygone era.

Colony Palms Hotel, Palm Springs
 sunglasses: c/o Komono - skirt: c/o Shein - Vans: c/o ZEB

I switched out of my jeans and into my skirt, and we dropped by Colony Palms Hotel based on a Pinterest recommendation that looked nice. A cool thing to keep in mind when visiting places like these is that in most super fancy, super expensive hotels, you can simply walk in and have lunch or dinner next to the pool even if you're not staying there. Perfect way to sniff up some of the glamour without paying an arm and a leg. But let's be honest, those views of the mountains are priceless, and I'd definitely pay to chill out on those poolside sunbeds. SO goals.

Colony Palms hotel, Palm Springs
Colony Palms hotel, Palm Springs

The restaurant was Moroccan in style, and the restrooms contained references to the Ratpack heyday of the city. Recommendation! My guy had the fish tacos, and I enjoyed a beetroot/fig/strawberry/mozzarella salad. The terrace had these misting/nebulizer thingies that kept us cool in the heat - heaven.

Colony Palms hotel, Palm Springs
Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs
Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs

The Movie Colony neighborhood was apparently one of the areas popular with filmstars, so I obviously had to get a touristy pic taken. The heat here was amazing - I definitely sweated my butt off, but in a very glamorous and pleasant way, you know? I felt like I was a hot air balloon floating through the palmtree lined streets!

Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs
Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs
Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs

While exploring Palm Springs, we stumbled upon what seemed like a graveyard/storing space of brightly coloured, outrageously designed parade floats. Kind of scifi/Dia De Los Muertos themed. If anyone has a clue what this is, let me know! 

Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs
Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs
Travel: California diaries - Palm Springs

Afterwards, we quickly made our way to The Saguaro, which is arguably the most perfect bit of brightly coloured 50s/60s nostalgia and oh-so pinterest/instagram friendly. The place is a bit less impressive and a bit more run-down in real life, but still incredibly photogenic. 

The Saguaro - Palm Springs
The Saguaro - Palm Springs
The Saguaro - Palm Springs
The Saguaro - Palm Springs

The Saguaro felt a bit like a tourist trap, but since prices for staying there aren't too high, I still think this is a really cool place to experience.

Btw, you know how important staying online is for me, and roaming in the U.S. is incredibly expensive so just don't even try it. I spent some time finding a portable wifi router to take along with us, but while the options in Europe and Japan are quite extensive at this point, the U.S. seems to lag behind a bit. Most people end up just getting a U.S. sim card with data to use, but a portable wifi router is much more convenient if you're traveling with a group of up to 10 people, or if you want to use your laptop on the go. 

Since I couldn't find an offer that felt dependable and adequately priced to me, I ended up reaching out to the guys behind Travelwifi, which I had used several times already on holiday in France. In my experience, they're always available if you have issues, their delivery and return shipping is easy as 123, and their devices have always functioned flawlessly for me. I ended up mailing them to see if they had a U.S. offer and as it turns out, they're launching a worldwide program later this month! I got to test-drive one of their devices during our California trip, and I couldn't recommend them more. 

Travelwifi - portable wifi in the U.S.

The only place where we had no coverage was in Joshua Tree Park (but there's no cell phone coverage there anyway), and our internet also became spotty at times in the Hollywood hills. But other than that, fast and steady internet everywhere. I definitely feel comfortable recommending them to all of you internet addicted travelers out there. I just loved being able to google everything wherever we went, which absolutely made our trip more filled and rewarding. I ordered the 1GB/day plan, which including two way shipping would cost €180 for two weeks, but we probably could have made it with 500MB/day as well, which will come to a total of €135 for two weeks.

Travelwifi - portable wifi in the U.S.

We only had about 2 hours to spend here before driving on to Joshua Tree park, so this was definitely a blitz visit. So that's it for a first taste of our trip to California! I'm still reeling from jetlag, but I'll try my best to have the full report up within reasonable time ;-) hope you enjoyed this little slice of Palm Springs!

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