It’s always been my achievable gay dream to visit Palm Springs. The midcentury design, desert landscapes, swimming pools, glamour, old gays – literally everything I’ve ever dreamed of. It’s where I’ll spend the Liberace era of my life, I’m sure of it. My friends had been discussing taking a trip to celebrate the New Year and that’s when I began my Palm Springs campaign. Luckily, they’re gay, too and heeded the calling of the gay mecca.
If you’re thinking of making a trip out west, here’s my guide to making the best of it.
Eats
When a group of gays goes out to the desert, there’s a fine balance between dining in trendy restaurants and showing off culinary skills at home. This trip was mostly to hang out and relax, so we didn’t hit up too many restaurants. But our first night in town, we did order take out from Pepper’s Thai Cuisine. It was actually pretty authentic and delicious. Plus, there was a long wait for a table, so ordering to go is the best way to get a meal here. We also had a great Italian dinner at Appetito another night. They have excellent paninis and I couldn’t resist their brussels sprouts. One afternoon we hit up Tyler’s Burgers, which is a local favorite. Do be warned, it’s quite the wait. They also don’t really have any indoor seating, which probably isn’t an issue in the summer. It happened to be somewhere below 50 when we visited and they also don’t have heaters.
Drinks
The Amigo Room at the Ace Hotel is a great spot to grab a drink. It’s pretty intimate and if you stop in on karaoke night, it’s a tight squeeze. Hunter’s Palm Springs is allegedly the “young” dance club. The crowd was pretty mixed the night we stopped in, which was great, and there’s a separate dance room.
Sights
Joshua Tree National Park is probably one of my favorite hiking spots now and it’s so close. You should definitely make a day trip out here if you’re in Palm Springs. Most of the hiking trails seemed pretty easy and there are tons of photo ops. I’m already planning to make a camping trip to the park in the future.
Shops
Palm Springs is home to an amazing amount of midcentury modern home interior stores and vintage clothing stores. Like, tons. So many that I actually got tired of browsing furniture and I thought that would never be possible. My favorites were Modern Way and Just Modern. I also loved checking out the Mr. Turk store. Definitely pick up some gay garbs if you’ve got some coins to drop.
Let me know if you have any favorite Palm Spring spots in the comments below! I’d love to hear them for my next visit.
