Travel Tuesday: Family-Friendly Trip to Palm Springs & Joshua Tree National Park

Joanne July 31, 2018

Happy Travel Tuesday!

Right after Memorial Day, we headed out on a quick getaway to Palm Springs for a birthday trip for Dahlia and Babymoon for me. I was actually cleared to travel after having a restriction for much of my pregnancy so I was excited to get away. We had always wanted to check out Palm Springs albeit during the music festival season, but a much quieter vacation is what we were looking for this time around.

Though some people make the eight hour drive (or so) from the Bay Area, we decided it would be best to fly since it was only a one-and-a-half hour flight. We landed at their cute airport and right away I was loving the midcentury modern style AND the heat. It was pretty hot (mid to late 90’s), but when talking to some Uber drivers, they’ve mentioned it sometimes gets well into the 120’s. EEEK!

Dahlia in front of the Palm Spring Airport

For the first couple of days, we only used Uber and walking to get around as our first hotel was right in the downtown area. For the first night, we stayed at the Kimpton Rowan Palm Springs. We used our credit card points for a free night here which meant we’d be hotel hopping for the remainder of our stay which we normally don’t mind because we love checking out a couple of places to change it up. We instantly dropped off our bags in our room and headed straight for the rooftop pool and stayed until we had to get ready for dinner time. YASSS!

Day 1: Pool Day!

Exterior of the Kimpton Rowan Palm Springs

The room was amazing. The entire hotel was ultra-modern and had high ceilings as soon as you walked in, a cafe style restaurant on the first floor and more upscale restaurant near the pool. Unfortunately, we didn’t eat at either place as we opted for poolside dining ;).

Dahlia had the grilled cheese with fries

After our day at the pool, we showered, changed and got ready to eat dinner. The great thing about the Kimpton Rowan is it’s within walking distance to the downtown area. We opted to eat at Las Casuelas Terraza which our Uber driver had suggested. It’s a very well known restaurant with the locals and they sometimes have live music playing which is a plus. They have plenty of seating, a kids menu and delicious Mexican food.

After dinner, we walked across the street from Las Casuelas to find the Village Green Historical Landmark that you can visit during the day which has the oldest structures in Palm Springs including a museum, old general store and more.

We continued our walk to find the Sonny Bono statue and also the Palm Springs Walk of the Stars which is similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Day 2: Water Park Wonderland

Before checking out of the Kimpton Rowan hotel to our new digs, we walked over to Raw Remedy Organic Juice & Raw Food Bar. We wanted a light breakfast and got some avocado toast and a couple of smoothies which were delicious (but pricey, of course — what avocado toast isn’t.)

After breakfast, we unfortunately had to check out of the Kimpton Rowan and into our hotel down the road, the Renaissance Hotel. We had recently stayed at a Renaissance Hotel in Denver and knew it would be a great choice and it was.

After setting our stuff down, we grabbed an Uber and headed to Wet n’ Wild Palm Springs. This water park was a perfect place to go on a hot day with kids during the weekday and being pregnant, I was able to hang out and lounge around while Jason played with Dahlia in the wave pool or kiddie slides for much of the time. They had convenient locker areas, an ample amount of chairs, various water slides and play areas for all ages, and food & drink options as well. I bought tickets online just a few hours before to get a bit of a discount as well.

After staying at the water park until closing, we headed back to our hotel for more pool time! As soon as we got to the pool area, the tenants were handing out free popsicles, a nice touch to end our day. We stayed for an hour or so before we headed up to our room to get ready for dinner.

For dinner, we headed back to the downtown area utilizing the Renaissance’s shuttle service. They dropped us off at Lulu California Bistro, an eclectic American restaurant. We had noticed this place the night before and loved the energy and the abundance of folks dining. If there’s a lot of people, it must be good, right? Right! The food was good and desserts were great. After dinner, we called it a night!

Day 3: Desert Living

The next day, we decided to trade in water for desert. We decided to get a rental car and Jason got us breakfast at a nearby place where they also had date shakes which seem to be a ‘thing’ in Palm Springs. Well, let me tell you, it was one of the most delicious smoothies I’ve ever had. We opted for the chocolate flavor versus the vanilla and it was rich, decadent, and oh so yummy! It was definitely something I’d never had before and would recommend it to anyone traveling to Palm Springs to try. It’ll also help you cool down since it’s so hot there.

After brekky in our hotel room, we headed out to the Living Desert Zoo & Gardens. Before we headed out though, I bought tickets online through costco.com and got a great discount for the adult tickets and just bought Dahlia’s child ticket online through the zoo’s website.

Not gonna lie, the zoo was hot. The good thing about it is they had adult strollers for me and Dahlia to ride in while Jason got his workout in and pushed us around. They also have a covered shuttle that can take you around for a small fee. Both great options for a hot day and they had plenty of covered areas for shade.

Pretty cool, you can spend the night in one of their tee pees for their Starry Safari Outdoor Adventure

After our day of visiting with the animals, we headed back to the hotel to watch the Warriors now infamous overtime playoff game. We’re glad we didn’t miss it, but knew we were going to miss much of Palm Springs’ weekly night market called Villagefest.

After the game, we were able to catch the last hour of Villagefest. We saw so many different art vendors amongst a lot of other interesting things like “Ask the Rabbi” and fun food vendors too.

When Villagefest was over, we ended up having dinner at Bill’s Pizza which is a local favorite. I had fun watching inebriated people walk in and out purely for my own entertainment. Oh! And the pizza wasn’t too bad either.

Day 4: Joshua’s Trees

The next day, we decided to venture out early to Joshua Tree National Park . I had heard and seen so much of this park that I knew we had to go being that we were so close to it from Palm Springs AND we had a car to use. Most people opt to hike, rock climb or also camp here overnight but because I was 32 weeks pregnant, we were pretty limited.

Nonetheless, off we went. The drive was roughly a 45 minute scenic drive from our hotel passing through the windmill farm.

Our first stop was to the Joshua Tree Visitor Center. Here, we were able to talk to a park ranger who helped us with our itinerary since I was physically limited and we were limited on time. We also got to know why the funky trees are named “Joshua Trees” and even bought some souvenirs before we enjoyed headed into the 15th largest national park.

Our Joshua Tree Itinerary (Landmarks):

Joshua Tree Visitor Center
Jumbo Rocks
Skull Rock
Keys View
Cholla Gardens

First of all, wherever you go in Joshua Tree, it’ll be picturesque. We did an impromptu photo shoot since I couldn’t do any hiking and was already sporting my big baby bump. Most of the shots we took were taken very close to the road so we didn’t do much hiking at all and the views were still stunning.

First stop: Jumbo Rocks

Yep. This is literally named for what you see. It’s just a giant pile o’ rocks that create this formation. I’m sure rock climbers can climb but we just took more photos 🙂

Second Stop: Keys View

This was quite a drive upwards but the views were well worth it! I really loved the drive here and overlooking the Coachella Valley was absolutely breathtaking.

Continuing our drive, we kept finding many spots to stop and check out. This park is so huge that you’ll end up at different landmarks taking a crazy amount of photos while soaking up the sun.

Third Stop: Skull Rock

This was an amazing rock formation that Jason was able to climb atop. It’s obvious why this was called Skull Rock but there was also a bunch of different formations for people to hike easily to or rock climb.

Fourth Stop: Cholla Gardens

After Skull Rock, getting to Cholla Gardens was a bit of drive. We even stopped at a place I thought was Cholla Gardens but kept driving to find the real thing. Whoops! I had never seen the Cholla Cactus and they are stunning, but you can tell they can be extremely dangerous plants.

Side note: The parking lot was filled with a crazy amount of bees so I made Jason take the photos 🙂 He honestly took one for the team and we got out of there unscathed.

After our hot afternoon in Joshua Tree, we headed back to Palm Springs and on the way back we called to make reservations at the swanky Tropicale Restaurant. The world cuisine here is good though they didn’t have a designated kids menu and I swear Dahlia was probably the only kid in there, whoops! I heard they have a great sushi happy hour and its a great lounge for late night fun too.

After dinner, we headed back to the downtown area to walk it off and get some dessert. We made our last stop to Lappert’s Ice Cream which was a familiar to us because they have a few Lappert’s in Hawaii hence why they sell the ever-so-popular Dole Whip. YUM!

Day 5: Time to Get High!

On our last day, we finally decided that we would do the infamous Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Yes, it is a tourist trap, but it’s also something we had never done before. So, we tried it. I was extremely nervous because for one, I am somewhat afraid of heights and two, I was eight months pregnant! All these different scenarios kept going through my head but off we went.

During our ascend, there was a woman in our carriage who was extremely scared and she made me more scared. Her husband covered her eyes the entire time while she hummed to herself and I kept thinking, well I guess there’s always someone who’s got it worse than me. The ride up wasn’t so bad except the carriage actually rotates 360 degrees the entire time and looking down does not help if you have a fear of heights.

The views at the top are amazing though. The temperature is naturally cooler when you’re more than 8000 feet high. So, this is a great place to escape the Palm Springs heat. The day we went it was 98 degrees on the ground and around 70 degrees at the top of the mountain. We ended up eating some lunch in the lodge and there’s a couple of places to grab a bite to eat overlooking the beautiful views. What’s also really awesome is that there is the Mount San Jacinto Park at the top where you can go hiking and even camp overnight.

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After visiting the Aerial Tram, I was glad to be back on the ground. We headed back to our hotel to take one last dip in the pool then it was off to the airport. Overall, we had an amazing trip to Palm Springs. We had always wanted to go and it’s definitely somewhere we could go back to get more R&R and a Date Shake.

Happy Traveling!