Doug and I took our very first kid free trip recently to Palm Springs, California to attend a dear friend’s wedding. I’m going to be 100% upfront that this was not a trip that we intended to do on a shoestring budget. We knew going in that Palm Springs is not known as a cheap place to travel and that wasn’t the intent of our trip. We booked our room at La Quinta almost a year in advance so we knew we had time to save and plan out what we wanted to do (if anything!) while we were in the Palm Desert. And if we’re getting technical, Doug and I did not actually stay in Palm Springs. We were mostly in the Palm Desert/La Quinta area. We spent our last day in downtown Palm Springs.
Our first priority was celebrating with our friend and having a bonus first kid free trip to enjoy some rest and relaxation was such an added bonus. It’s been a HARD year. We haven’t been on an airplane ride since January 2020 when we flew across the country with a baby and a toddler. Both Doug and I have had career changes during the pandemic and we desperately needed some time to have uninterrupted conversations and connection as a couple. Maybe it was the sunshine or some time to clear my head for a minute. Or maybe it was dancing and crying with joy to see friends who love each other so very much get married. Whatever it was, this trip rejuvenated my soul and maybe a bit of the wanderlust I have deep down inside.
Here’s a little round up with all of the juicy details I know you are here for – how much did we really pay for that fancy BMW? Does La Quinta really cost $799/night?
Where we stayed:
Night 1: Embassy Suites, $295
Nights 2 & 3: La Quinta, $290 + taxes and resort fees
Embassy Suites:
Doug and I were originally planning on flying in on Saturday morning but we ended up finding better flights out of Seattle on Friday. We were fortunate to have family helping with childcare (THANK YOU) and they were supportive of adding an extra night to our trip so we ended up flying out of Seattle on Friday and we booked an extra hotel night in Palm Desert at the Embassy Suites.
Pros & Cons: Embassy Suites is known for having a “suite” room for every room so it was huge and would have been perfect for a small family traveling. I’m keeping this in mind for future family vacations. The Pool area and outdoor area was really great and big. Breakfast and happy hour refreshments are included and the outdoor terrace was such a nice place to relax with coffee and a hot breakfast in the morning.
We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Palm Desert which felt kind of like a giant strip mall parallel to a very fancy shopping street “El Paseo” which reminded us of Rodeo Drive. It’s lined with designer stores and restaurants. The hotel room was nice and clean and it worked for what we needed it to – a last minute hotel booked less than a month before we left where we could ease into vacation life.
La Quinta:
The first time I heard about La Quinta was when they filmed the pandemic sessions of the ”The Bachelorette” here (Clare and Tayshia’s seasons) and I was stoked that we were going to get to stay here. La Quinta is a truly gorgeous resort and the grounds and pools are amazing. The food is very expensive on site.
I think there are 41 swimming pools on site?! It felt open and we often had the pools to ourselves! Our room at La Quinta was more like a little cottage and felt very private. Our friend’s wedding was across the street at a different golf club, and the wedding room block at La Quinta was perfect and I felt like what we paid for our room made sense for such a nice and well kept resort. I do believe that our room normally costs more than what we paid. We booked almost a year in advance and through a wedding room block which is why we could afford it.
La Quinta was a beautiful resort and I could see how it would be really fun to bring a whole family here or look into renting one of the bigger casitas on site…but we’d be packing our own food 😉 They did have a little marketplace with premade wrap and salads that were a little more reasonable ($13) and they had breakfast burritos in the morning ($10). Cheeseburgers by the pool were $20. FYI – La Quinta is not in Palm Springs, it’s about a 45 minute drive
Where we ate:
Some of our meals came with hotel or with the wedding festivities so here are a couple of our noteworthy restaurants meals out, we can’t wait to come back and try more! Also, try be sure you try a date shake when you are in the area – they are really yummy and taste like a vanilla milkshake 🙂
Las Consuelas – Downtown Palm Springs. We went after our flight was delayed overnight and walked right in with no wait at 8:30 on a Monday night. Pay off to have a late dinner where early birds seem to be the norm….I had the chicken tortilla soup, Doug had fish tacos and we both had the most delicious margaritas!
Sherman’s Deli – We also had some really tasty deli sandwiches in downtown Palm Springs from Sherman’s Deli. It was a great option for a quick and more low key bite as we explored downtown instead of sitting down for a heavy lunch.
Can’t wait to try more food next time!
What we drove:
Turo Car Rental, 4 days (Friday-Monday), $410 total
As a fun surprise for Doug, I thought it would be fun to rent a luxury car through Turo. I knew that we’d be doing a fair amount of driving between the airport and La Quinta and I’ve been wanting to try out Turo. Wow this was such a fun splurge and way to drive around the desert! In Seattle there are so many hills and turns and traffic, that it truly felt like we were having an out of world experience getting to drive a fast car without car seats in the back. Don’t worry we were extra safe and I actually ended up driving the car a lot. Fun fact, one of the very first cars I had as a 16 year old was a stick shift BMW 325i. If I stalled then it wouldn’t necessarily turn on again – what a good way to learn stick shift!
We definitely won’t be renting fancy cars everytime we go on vacation, but wow this was FUN! I’d 10/10 recommend.
Also, car pickup and dropoff was SUPER easy. We walked out of the airport across the street to the courthouse where the owner of the vehicle swung by and dropped off the keys for us. When we returned the car, I just let him know we had parked the vehicle and the owner was able to lock the car by remote. I can’t wait to try another car rental through Turo!
What we did:
That’s about it! The wedding was our priority and we got to spend some time with friends who were also there a wedding guests. We relaxed, went on drives in the desert to see sights and different landscapes (we even drove by REAL polo fields where they were playing polo on horses! Doug and I squealed like children), and we swam in the pool. Sometimes I have the tendency to churn like a little wheel with activities I want to do on vacation and I have a hard time relaxing. I appreciated taking a moment to enjoy the warm sun and swimming pools and didn’t worry about cramming in a ton of activities. Maybe next time 😉 It did seem like a really fun place to shop, eat out, golf, ride bikes, go for walks, hike, Joshua Tree, check out modern art museums, MCM house tours….sounds like we’ll have a busy Palm Springs trip next time.
That’s about it! The wedding was our priority and we got to spend some time with friends who were also there a wedding guests. We relaxed, went on drives in the desert to see sights and different landscapes (we even drove by REAL polo fields where they were playing polo on horses! Doug and I squealed like children), and we swam in the pool. Sometimes I have the tendency to churn like a little wheel with activities I want to do on vacation and I have a hard time relaxing. I appreciated taking a moment to enjoy the warm sun and swimming pools and didn’t worry about cramming in a ton of activities. Maybe next time 😉 It did seem like a really fun place to shop, eat out, golf, ride bikes, go for walks, hike, Joshua Tree, check out modern art museums, MCM house tours….sounds like we’ll have a busy Palm Springs trip next time.
