Palm Springs, California Attractions

With literally hundreds of courses, Palm Springs is a golf mecca in the Southern California desert. Known for its year-round sunny skies and stunning landscape, you'll find all the elements of a great golf vacation in Palm Springs.

The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies is a world-famous, Broadway-caliber celebration of the music, dance, and comedy of Mid-Century America with a cast old enough to have lived it. Venerated guest stars and international vaudeville acts join the Follies' world-renowned line of Long-Legged Lovelies and Follies Gentlemen, all ranging in age from 54 to 83. The Follies has proven, beyond a doubt, Billie Burke's (a.k.a. Mrs. Florenz Ziegfeld and a star in her own right) famous quote, "Age doesn't matter unless you're a cheese." Our pledge is to remain true to the spirit of early Palm Springs while promising a world-class entertainment experience at every performance. Please enjoy your visit to the Follies website as a remembrance of your last visit, in anticipation of your first or to just check-in with your Follies family before your next.

Fifteen miles long, Palm Canyon is one of the areas of great beauty in Western North America. Its indigenous flora and fauna, which the Cahuilla people so expertly used and its abundant Washingtonia filifera (California Fan Palm) are breathtaking contrasts to the stark rocky gorges and barren desert lands beyond. A moderately graded, paved foot path winds down into the canyon for picnicking near the stream, meditating, exploring, hiking or horseback riding. While in Palm Canyon visit the Trading Post for hiking maps, refreshments, Indian art and artifacts, books, jewelry, pottery, baskets, weaving, and conversational cultural lore.

More than just your average art museum, the Palm Springs Art Museum is a showcase for world-famous art as well as a host for award-winning musical productions. Fill a day with cultured fun as you take in Dale Chihuly glass art in the morning and the crescendos and diminuendos of an orchestra in the evening.

A sight usually reserved for birds and pilots is available to anyone who boards the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, a 12,800-foot-long ride that takes passengers to a mountain station 8,516 feet above sea level. Beneath the tram, the arid landscape surrounding Palm Springs stretches out for miles. The ride takes around 9 minutes, as the 80-passanger rotating tram ferries vista-seekers into the San Jacinto Mountains.

The Living Desert was established in 1970 by several trustees of the Palm Springs Desert Museum who foresaw the impact that resort development would have on their local desert ecosystem. This foresight led to an interpretive nature trail and preserve in Palm Desert. Among the trustees was Philip L. Boyd who also founded the Riverside campus of the University of California and the Deep Canyon Research Station in Palm Desert. Among his first tasks was to hire a resident naturalist. This person turned out to be a young woman with energy, intelligence and ambition, as well as experience as a zoo keeper and park ranger, plus graduate work in wildlife biology. Karen Sausman was President and CEO of The Living Desert for forty years and has recently retired. The vision that built The Living Desert and the love of the desert shared by Phillip Boyd, Karen Sausman, our members, volunteers, staff, trustees, and friends, will be carried forward by our new President and CEO, Stacey Johnson. For almost four decades The Living Desert has been engaged in the important work of preserving, conserving and interpreting the desert and all its varied plant and animal life. Even as we take immense pride in our accomplishments over the last forty years, we remain as dedicated as ever to the goals that initially inspired us when we first began operations in March of 1970.

To say Joshua Tree National Park is immense would be an understatement. The park covers almost 800,000 acres of desert near Palm Springs. Within its borders visitors will find both fragile ecosystems and immoveable geological features. While a true park experience should be spread out over a few days, those with limited time should make sure to visit Keys View, where vistas of the Salton Sea and faraway Mexico await.

Dining in the desert has never been so cool. A rare Alpine mountain experience awaits you, travel on the longest tram ride in North America and have "a culinary experience above the clouds". Peaks Restaurant is nestled on top of the San Jacinto Mountain at 8516 feet above sea level. Floor to ceiling windows treat guest to a panoramic view of the San Bernardino Mountain range, sunsets, glistening snow and the twinkling lights of the Coachella Valley.

Renowned Austrian Chef/owner Johannes Bacher of Johannes Restaurant offers a unique and innovative Euro-American-Asian cuisine like wiener schnitzel, raw and organic salads, spaetzel and sauerkraut combined with delightful flavors ranging from polenta to wasabi. Everything is freshly made in-house. He also carries a vast variety of award-winning wine selections to choose from.

A casually elegant restaurant, Spencer's features four-star American fine cuisine with a French and Pacific Rim influence, prepared under the direction of Chef Eric Wadlund. The broad menu includes fresh seafood and world-class steaks. Nestled at the base of soaring Mt. San Jacinto, Spencer's glamorous decor and mountain views are the perfect blend of stylish elegance and comfortable informality. Two phenomenal patios, one with gigantic ficus trees, and the luxurious interior created by renowned Los Angeles restaurant designer, Dodd Mitchell, provide a visual feast. The true star, however, is the cuisine.

What makes a great pizza? It starts with a great oven! Matchbox Palm Springs has an authentic wood- fired masonry oven where the fire has burned constantly since the day they opened. Modern gas and electric ovens cannot produce the intense heat needed - over 800 degrees - to achieve the crispy, smoky crust that this oven provides. With dough made fresh daily in-house, their goal is to make the best pizza in the desert!

Zin American Bistro is an attempt to modernize and Americanize the traditional French Bistro concept. With Zin recently receiving 3.5 stars and a review of "quite possibly the best food for the money in the Coachella Valley" from author Peter Osbaldeston's Palm Springs Dining Bible, Chef Nicolas Klontz and wine director Mindy Reed have indeed raised the bar of casual fine dining in Palm Springs.

A chic and sophisticated decor provides the setting for distinctive "world cuisine", a provocative mix of zesty influences that creates a delightful dining experience in Palm Springs. Plush high-backed semicircular banquettes surround the dining room and offer comfortable and private seating. The cuisine has a light, exotic feel with an emphasis on Pacific Rim specialties, from Chilean Sea Bass baked in Banana Leaves or Kahlua-Barbecued Pork Chops to all sorts of tasty tapas, salads, wood-fired pizzas, and desserts.

Chop House Palm Springs offers PRIME, all-natural and grass fed beef and chops, butchered in-house and grilled the classic way, allowing flavors and tenderness to develop fully. The seafood is sustainable and they offer organic vegetables wherever possible. They are one of America's Finest Prime Time Top 10 Steakhouses, as well as a DiRONA recipient (Distinguished Restaurants of North America. They have been voted "Best Steaks in the Desert" for several years.

It's all about cravings. Satisfying the ones you have, and creating sensory experiences that are totally unexpected. Fine dining is re-defined in Circa 59, taking the stage with eco-friendly fish, delicious premium cuts of meat, locally grown farm fresh produce and "shareables" you'll have difficulty, well, sharing.

The Palm Springs Air Museum is a nonprofit educational institution whose mission is to exhibit, educate and internalize the role of the World War II combat aircraft and the role the pilots and American citizens had in achieving this great victory. In addition to flying aircraft, related artifacts, artwork, and library sources are used to perpetuate American history.

The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum inspires people to learn about the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and other Native cultures. They keep the spirit alive through exhibitions, collections, research, and educational programs.

The Moorten Botanical Gardens boasts 3,000 examples of desert cacti and other desert plants grouped by geographic regions: Arizona, Baja California, California, Colorado, the Mojave desert, the Sonora desert, South Africa, arid South America, and Texas.

When it comes to fun, Boomers! Palm Springs got it all. Race to victory on the Go Kart Tracks, become a golf legend on the Mini Golf Course, or get the highest score in the giant arcades. Boomers got all the greatest attractions and games so there's plenty of fun for all ages.

When it comes to fun, Boomers! Palm Springs got it all. Race to victory on the Go Kart Tracks, become a golf legend on the Mini Golf Course, or get the highest score in the giant arcades. Boomers got all the greatest attractions and games so there's plenty of fun for all ages.

To some, the concept of a "living desert" may be a bit oxymoronic, when in fact deserts are home to some of the most diverse life on the planet. The Living Desert, found a short drive away from downtown Palm Springs, showcases exotic animals accustomed to this environment, including meerkats, giraffes, leopards, zebras and even cheetahs.

Zeldaz has been around for over 30 years. This experience has made them one of the best nightclubs in Palm Springs.