There is a moment on the drive east, somewhere past Banning, when the wind farms appear, the San Jacinto Mountains close in, and Los Angeles finally lets go of you. Half an hour later you are in a city of low white houses, clipped palms and swimming pools that look as if they were designed for photographs, because many of them were. For a Palm Springs weekend getaway, the desert still does midcentury calm better than anywhere in the country, provided you plan it with a little care.

When to go

The season runs from late autumn through spring, when days are warm, nights are cool enough for a fire, and the mountains hold their color at sunset. Summer belongs to the locals and to the very determined.

The calendar’s centerpiece is Modernism Week, which returns from February 11 to 21, 2027. For eleven days, private midcentury homes open for tours, designers give talks, and evening parties fill some of the city’s best-known houses. Tickets went on sale on November 1, and the most sought-after home tours and the best private houses go first, so if February appeals, plan now.

Where to stay: a house of your own

Palm Springs was built as a place for private houses, not hotels. The architects who made the city famous, among them Albert Frey, William F. Cody, Donald Wexler and E. Stewart Williams, did much of their finest work for families and friends who came out from Los Angeles for the season, and the right way to experience their city is still from behind your own gate.

A private residence changes the weekend entirely. The pool is yours alone. Breakfast happens when you wake up, not when a restaurant opens. There is space for friends to arrive on Saturday, a kitchen where a chef can cook dinner while you watch the light change on the mountains, and none of the small negotiations that come with shared lobbies and shared loungers.

When choosing a house, a few things matter more than the photographs suggest:

• The neighborhood. Vista Las Palmas, the Movie Colony, Old Las Palmas and Racquet Club Estates hold the city’s most celebrated midcentury streets, and each has its own character.
• Orientation. A pool that faces the San Jacinto Mountains catches the late-afternoon light that makes Palm Springs famous.
• Shade and privacy. Mature hedges, covered terraces and misters make the difference between using the garden all day and retreating indoors at noon.
• Walkability or a driver. Some streets are a short walk from Palm Canyon Drive. Others are worth the drive for the quiet, provided someone else is driving.

Where to dine

No restaurant in the Coachella Valley holds a Michelin star yet, but the guide now recommends a small group of Palm Springs tables, and they are the right place to start.

• Workshop Kitchen + Bar, in a striking concrete-and-wood room that won a James Beard Award for its design, is the most polished dinner in town.
• Bar Cecil, on South Palm Canyon Drive, is another of the guide’s Palm Springs selections and the right choice for a long, unhurried dinner.
• Tac/Quila, on North Palm Canyon Drive, is in the guide too, and makes a strong case for Mexican cooking in the desert.
• Alice B., from chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, joined the guide in May 2026 with Californian cooking and Mediterranean influences. Its new Gertie’s Salon & Bar is an easy place to begin the evening.

For breakfast, Cheeky’s on North Palm Canyon Drive is also in the guide, and its weekend line is part of the ritual.

How to spend the days

Begin at the Palm Springs Art Museum’s Architecture and Design Center, housed in a midcentury bank building on South Palm Canyon Drive. It gives you the vocabulary for everything you will see afterwards. Then drive the neighborhoods slowly: Vista Las Palmas, the Movie Colony and Racquet Club Estates hold some of the finest midcentury residential architecture in the United States, much of it still lived in.

On a clear morning, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway lifts you from the desert floor into the pine forests of Mount San Jacinto in about ten minutes, with the temperature dropping as you climb. In the afternoon, do very little. A pool, a book and an early dinner reservation is the correct Palm Springs itinerary.

Getting there

Palm Springs is roughly 110 miles from Los Angeles. Leave before the Friday afternoon traffic builds, or go Saturday morning and stay through Monday. Palm Springs International Airport sits about ten minutes from downtown, which makes it easy for friends flying in to join you. Once you arrive, a car with a driver means you never have to decide who skips the second glass of wine.

The short list

• Book February now if Modernism Week 2027 is on your list. The best houses go first.
• Stay in a house of your own, ideally in Vista Las Palmas or the Movie Colony, with a pool facing the mountains.
• Reserve Workshop for your best dinner and Alice B. for the evening you want to linger.
• Start at the Architecture and Design Center, then drive Vista Las Palmas.
• Leave Los Angeles early, or not until Saturday.

Our team arranges Palm Springs weekends end to end, from a private residence with a pool to the car, the reservations and a chef for the night you would rather stay in.