California: Palm Springs Bachelorette Trip
For my friend’s bachelorette trip, we traveled to Palm Springs in California for 4 days during Spring Break. This is probably the first time I’ve done international travel since Covid started so I was really excited for the trip. Here’s a summary of all the things we did while we were there!
Getting there
We flew to Palm Springs from the Vancouver YVR airport, flying with Air Canada. Originally, I had a direct flight but it got cancelled so I had to switch to one with a 1 hour layover in San Francisco. With a direct flight, it is only around 3 hours to travel to Palm Springs. In total, I paid around $480 for my flights.
Accommodations
We stayed at an Airbnb in Palm Springs for around $960 for 3 nights, split between 4 people (~$240 per person). You can check out the actual Airbnb listing here.
I really liked our Airbnb because it was very spacious and the furniture was really retro and stylish. The airbnb had 3 bedrooms that can fit up to 6 adults and 2 washrooms. They have an outdoor pool in the yard (a little small) and had lots of comfortable patio space and seating. It was also really close to the Palm Springs airport and downtown area.
Things to do
Moxie
On our first night out, we went to Moxie, a bar and rooftop lounge in downtown Portland. They have a small dance floor room and lots of seating with an indoor-outdoor vibe (i.e. no windows so it’s a nice summer night temperature).
Of course the 5 of us had fun dancing and drinking, but I have to say that the drinks at Moxie are horrible. Like they taste absolutely disgusting. They were all really strong and only tasted like hard liquor, even if you order a cocktail. The bar was super busy as well so it’s hard to order your drinks.
Chill bar
After having terrible drinks at Moxie, we check out Chill bar, a gay bar and lounge. They make much better cocktails and have a more laidback vibe. Less people were dancing, but they had male dancers on podiums and you could give them tips. The interior was really cool with different coloured lights and a giant robot/person on the ceiling.
The Saguaro
The next day, we had a relaxing pool day at The Saguaro Hotel. They are a super cute Instagram-friendly hotel that boasts a colourful exterior and interior – lots of photo ops! Pool access is free for hotel guests, but you can pay to just use the pool for $50 per person (weekdays only).
The pool is nice and they also have small hot tubs as well if you get cold. There are lots of open chairs for us to sit and relax, or you can rent a cabana or daybed for additional costs, but I don’t recommend it as you don’t really need it to enjoy the pool. Especially the daybeds can only fit about 2 people lying down.
There is also a bar where you can order drinks and food.
We spent several hours here just enjoying the sun and the pool, as well as taking photos.
Day trip to Joshua Tree
We woke up early on day 3 to do a hike/trail at Joshua Tree, roughly a 1 hour drive from Palm Springs. We rented a car so it was easy to drive there. Read about everything we did in Joshua Tree in my other blog post here.
The Village
One of our servers at The Tropicale recommended us to go to The Village after we finished dinner if we wanted to party. He told us to give the bouncer his name and we could get into VIP line for free and we did! Thanks Andy, you saved us a line up and like $70!
The Village was bumping on a Saturday night and much more fun than Moxie (they are actually right next to each other). They have a first and second floor – the first floor played more old school top 40 (90’s and 10’s music) and the second floor played more latin music. There are multiple bars (at least 4) and lots of seating if your feet are hurting.
RetroRoom Lounge
After The Village, we headed to the RetroRoom Lounge, which is a karaoke bar. When we arrived, it was almost closing time so we weren’t able to request for a song, but basically you can add your song to the queue and actually sing karaoke in the lounge for everyone to hear. It’s a lot of fun because people are very encouraging and supportive and you don’t have to be an amazing singer to have fun.
Where to eat
Eight4Nine
On our first night, we had a fancy little happy hour at Eight4Nine, a chic lounge. Read my full review of Eight4Nine here.
The Reef
We came here for cheap happy hour after visiting the Saguaro pool. Read my full review of The Reef here.
In-N-Out
We had 1 late night dinner at In-N-Out – cheap and quick, you can have a meal for $5 usd. They even gave us a hat (but we had to ask for it lol). Burger was decent for the price but the fries were not as good because the cheese got kinda congealed after awhile.
The Tropicale
We came here for our last dinner where we met the awesome Andy. Read my full review of The Tropicale here.
Final thoughts
I had an awesome time at Palm Springs for my friend’s bachelorette. Palm Springs was really sunny and warm and it really felt like a vacation that I needed for a long time. Loved all the palm trees everywhere and the dry heat of the desert, which is different from the humid sticky heat of Asia. Of course, the people I went with were a lot of fun too.
In general, I think Palm Springs can be kind of a boring city. We came during Spring Break, but we still mostly saw older retired folks and there were so many bachelorette groups, the male to female ratio was pretty skewed.
Food was good but definitely had a lot more Mexican and American options vs. any Asian food (like there’s no Chinese restaurants lmao).
I think 4 days was enough as life in Palm Springs is pretty easy-going and slow. Perhaps if you are into golfing or tennis, there are more activities for you to do. But for me, it was mostly chilling by the pool and drinking.
Sincerely, Loewe