For couples · Palm Springs · United States
Romantic things to do in Palm Springs
Ideas for a couples' trip, from small moments to a special day out.
Updated By the AMZBooking editorial team
Pictured: Mount San Jacinto State Park, Palm Springs · Photo: Binksternet, CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answer
Palm Springs is built for slow couple's breaks: adults-only courtyard hotels, private pools, desert sunsets that turn the mountains pink and dinner on a patio under heaters. Midweek visits in the shoulder season are the calmest. Couples tend to stay in Uptown Design District.
Key facts
- Romantic ideas
- 5
- Couple-friendly sights
- 1
- Area for couples
- Uptown Design District
- Best months
- February–April and November
Plan a trip to Palm Springs
Compare flights, places to stay and rental cars, then book with the provider you choose.
Romantic ideas
1.Sunset at the Mountain Station
Ride the tramway in the late afternoon and watch the sun drop behind the San Jacinto range from the terraces at about 2,600 metres.
2.Adults-only boutique hotel
Restored 1950s and 1960s motels in the Uptown Design District and Movie Colony offer small, quiet pool courtyards without children.
3.Mineral spring spa day
Book a soak and treatment at The Spa at Séc-he, built over the hot spring that gave the city its name.
4.Stargazing in Joshua Tree
Drive into the national park after dark for some of the clearest night skies near a major city, with the Milky Way visible on moonless nights.
5.Architecture bike ride
Cycle through Vista Las Palmas and the Movie Colony on a cool morning, stopping for coffee on Palm Canyon Drive.
Sights couples love
Historic site · Rancho Mirage
Sunnylands
The free gardens are a calm stop in themselves; the estate usually closes for part of the summer, so check its calendar.
- Time needed
- 1–3 hours
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- History
- Architecture
- Couples
Where couples should stay
$$$ · Best for couples, shopping and food lovers
Uptown Design District
North of Alejo Road, Palm Canyon Drive becomes the Uptown Design District, a stretch of mid-century and vintage furniture dealers, galleries and design shops in low modernist buildings. Many of the small 1950s and 1960s motels here have been restored as adults-oriented boutique hotels, and downtown is a 10–20 minute walk away.
- Good
- Design shopping on the doorstep; Characterful small hotels; Calmer than downtown at night
- Watch out
- Spread out along one long road; Many small hotels are adults-only
- Nearby
- Palm Canyon Drive, Movie Colony, Palm Springs Visitor Center
Romantic day trips
- Joshua Tree National Park (About 1 hour to the West Entrance) — Two deserts meet in this national park: the higher Mojave with its forests of Joshua trees and granite boulder piles at Hidden Valley and Jumbo Rocks, and the lower Colorado Desert with the Cholla Cactus Garden.
- Pioneertown (About 50 minutes) — Built in the 1940s as a living film set for Westerns, Pioneertown's Mane Street still has false-front buildings and a frontier atmosphere in the high desert above Yucca Valley.
- Idyllwild (About 1 hour 15 minutes) — A mountain village at about 1,650 metres in the San Jacinto Mountains, with pine forest, cabins, art galleries and trails such as Devil's Slide and the climb towards Tahquitz Peak.
- Salton Sea and Salvation Mountain (About 1 hour 45 minutes) — California's largest lake formed by accident in 1905 and is now a shrinking, salty inland sea with eerie half-abandoned resort towns such as Bombay Beach and huge flocks of migratory birds.
- Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (About 2 hours) — California's largest state park surrounds the small town of Borrego Springs with badlands, slot canyons and palm oases.
For dinner
Share local specialities such as Tamales and Deli pastrami and rye. Some of the most traditional Mexican cooking is in Cathedral City, Coachella and Indio rather than downtown Palm Springs.
Questions travellers ask
+Is Palm Springs romantic?
Palm Springs is built for slow couple's breaks: adults-only courtyard hotels, private pools, desert sunsets that turn the mountains pink and dinner on a patio under heaters. Midweek visits in the shoulder season are the calmest.
+What is the most romantic thing to do in Palm Springs?
Sunset at the Mountain Station: Ride the tramway in the late afternoon and watch the sun drop behind the San Jacinto range from the terraces at about 2,600 metres.
+Where should couples stay in Palm Springs?
Uptown Design District: Vintage furniture showrooms, restored motels and brunch spots on North Palm Canyon Drive.