Clean lines, bright front doors and blue pools under the mountains. Here’s how to enjoy the desert’s sunniest season.
By the Global Escapes travel team · Updated
When it’s gray and chilly at home, Palm Springs is sunny, dry and close to 70 degrees, with snow sometimes dusting the peaks right above town.
The season runs from about November to April. Days are warm enough for the pool and cool enough for a round of golf or a morning walk in the canyons, and evenings call for a sweater by the fire pit. By May the heat builds quickly, and in summer the town slows right down.
What sets Palm Springs apart is its look. From the 1940s through the 1960s, architects like Albert Frey, E. Stewart Williams, Richard Neutra and John Lautner built homes, banks and hotels here for Hollywood’s weekend escapes, and much of it still stands. Add a lively food scene and an easy pace, and four or five nights fly by.
You can see a lot from the car, but the best of Palm Springs design is worth slowing down for. These are the places we’d build a day around.
Each February the whole valley opens its doors for home tours, talks, double-decker bus tours, parties and a vintage show. The 2027 festival runs February 11 to 21, with tickets on sale November 1, 2026, and the most popular tours go fast.
Albert Frey’s 1965 Tramway Gas Station, with its swooping hyperbolic paraboloid roof, now welcomes visitors at the foot of the tramway road. It’s a perfect first stop for maps and ideas.
Vista Las Palmas, Twin Palms and the Movie Colony are lined with butterfly roofs, breeze-block walls and brightly painted doors. Most homes are private, so admire them from the street.
Palm Springs Art Museum’s design center fills a 1961 bank building by E. Stewart Williams downtown, with exhibits on the architects who shaped the desert.
The Annenberg estate in Rancho Mirage, where presidents and world leaders have gathered. The center and gardens are free to visit. Tours of the historic house are limited, so we book them early.
The world’s largest rotating tram car climbs more than two and a half miles up Chino Canyon in about ten minutes, to 8,516 feet. Bring a jacket, as there’s sometimes snow at the top.
Mornings on the fairway, afternoons by the pool and dinner under the stars. That’s the rhythm most of our travelers fall into within a day.
The Coachella Valley is one of the great winter golf destinations, with fairways framed by palms and sharp desert mountains. La Quinta Resort & Club, a Spanish-style resort marking its centennial, gives guests access to five championship courses, including the Stadium Course at PGA West. February and March tee times are the hardest to find, so we lock them in with your stay.
Back in Palm Springs, The Parker is a playful, art-filled estate with lawn games, a lemonade stand and a spa, an easy drive from downtown. Whether you choose a big resort or a small boutique hotel, the pool is the point, so we look closely at sun, cabanas and quiet corners before we book.
The valley and the high desert around it make easy day trips, and each one feels like a different world.
Joshua Tree National Park is about an hour away, where twisted Joshua trees and giant boulders glow at sunrise and sunset. A private guide adds the stories behind the landscape and takes care of the driving, so you can simply look.
Closer in, the Indian Canyons, on the land of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, shelter palm oases and gentle trails along desert streams, lovely on a cool morning. And for an afternoon of shopping and galleries, El Paseo in Palm Desert is a short drive down the valley.
The small things that make a Palm Springs winter feel easy.
Modernism Week and peak golf season overlap, so the best rooms and tee times go first. We start planning six to nine months out.
Desert nights cool off quickly, often into the 40s. Layers make patio dinners and fire pits comfortable.
The air is dry and the sun is strong, even in January. Sunscreen, a hat and plenty of water go a long way.
Most famous homes are private residences. Modernism Week tours are the best way to step inside.
The valley stretches for miles. A rental car or a private driver makes golf, dinners and day trips simple.
Palm Springs pairs nicely with Joshua Tree, Death Valley or Sedona for a longer desert journey.
Planning the whole trip?
Month-by-month timing, drive times and the places our travelers love most, from Sedona and the Grand Canyon to Santa Fe and Palm Springs.
See the American Southwest guideTell us when you’re thinking of going and who’s coming along. An advisor will take it from there.