Tis the season to head for sunnier, warmer climes. For many this means the Caribbean and Mexico while for others, they're keeping it closer to home in Palm Springs, CA. Since we know many who'll head to the desert on Virgin America's new route to Palm Springs, we're thinking it's time to let you in on a few of our own personal favorite PS secrets.

This story will be in the first-person because...I have a confession. Actually, two.

1: I watch too much of the BBC's Top Gear. Typically I just fast-forward through the interviews and in-studio car talk to get the meat of the program, where Jeremy, James and Richard are off driving exotic, winding roads and stopping to have mugs of tea at shady petrol stations.

2: I don't drive that much at all anymore. Living in NYC negates the need for a car, and though I'll occasionally Zipcar to help a friend move apartments, my behind-the-wheel dalliances are mostly limited to long weekends of rental car release.

For these two very important reasons, sometimes an excellent, leisurely drive figures at the front of my vacation. I have had two mindblowing drives this year. First, on the TT racecourse on the Isle of Man (read all about that here), and, second, on the Pines to Palms Highway from Orange Country to Palm Springs, California.]]> JetSetCD 2011-12-21T17:34:51-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/20/8351/7523

Tis the season to head for sunnier, warmer climes. For many this means the Caribbean and Mexico while for others, they're keeping it closer to home in Palm Springs, CA. Since we know many who'll head to the desert on Virgin America's new route to Palm Springs, we're thinking it's time to let you in on a few of our own personal favorite PS secrets.

When you're not guzzling all-you-can-drink champagne in Palm Springs, the thing to do is take in the sights. Just be totally sober before hopping behind the wheel, of course. There's no shortage of vistas in this desert valley surrounded by mountains and blue skies, and we confess that our favorite thing to do in Palm Springs is actually just leisurely cruise around.

Driving here (any time other than Coachella) is a breeze. The streets are wide and well maintenanced, traffic is extremely rare, and oftentimes the buildings that line that road are as photo-worthy as the natural scenery. There's just something about that midcentury modern look, and luckily it's something in which Palm Springs specializes.]]> JetSetCD 2011-12-20T16:49:06-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/18/233832/96

Tis the season to head for sunnier, warmer climes. For many this means the Caribbean and Mexico while for others, they're keeping it closer to home in Palm Springs, CA. Since we know many who'll head to the desert on Virgin America's new route to Palm Springs, we're thinking it's time to let you in on a few of our own personal favorite PS secrets.

There's nothing quite like driving into Palm Springs, or flying in for that matter. From every which way, the scenery is beyond stunning. This is truly a desert paradise, and a playground all the same. It's not too difficult to understand the way we feel about the city, if you watch the bodacious Ann-Margret do her thing from 0:55-1:45 in this scene from The Who's Tommy.

"Today it rains champagne," indeed, and nowhere more so than at Pinocchio's, a restaurant in "downtown" PS that specializes in monster brunches washed down with $3.95 bottomless champagne. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-12-19T17:29:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/11/29/125351/64
How most of Palm Springs looks

This week the Palms Springs International Film Festival announced George Clooney will be the Chairman Award winner, for his work in The Descendents, during their 2012 festival which takes place between January 5-16, 2012.

Along with Clooney, Michelle Williams, whose role as Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn is generating some serious Oscar buzz, will also be honored with the Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award, while Glenn Close will receive the Career Achievement Award. ]]> cmb 2011-11-29T12:53:51-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/5/12/2364/62522

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

Did you know that 90% of America's dates are produced in the Coachella Valley? We didn't...until we visit Palm Springs, CA and indulged in one of the city's specialties: a Date Shake. It sounds weird at first, right? All great unique foods usually do (sound weird), but a date shake is both quenching in the 90+ heat of a late spring day in the desert and tasty enough to nearly fill you up. We highly recommend them, especially if you're as big a fan of bacon-wrapped dates as we are.

The Taste: The shakes, made of dates and vanilla ice cream, are mixed old-school style in metal tumblers. They don't come out frothy, but nicely creamy and chock full of the little date bits (which are lovely to bit onto for a teensy flavor burst). Because of the ice cream, the date isn't as intense as we had hoped it'd be; you get more date flavor from eating one of course, but the date shake is a great way for those who've maybe never tried date to get acquainted with its yumminess.

The one size is not too little and not too much; the shake isn't so rich that you'll get tired of drinking it halfway through, either. Basically, we loved it and would like another soon, please. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-05-13T13:22:16-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/5/24/52917/8799

Get ready to chow down in Palm Springs. More than 100 eateries will take part in Palm Springs Desert Resorts Restaurant Week from June 4 to 13.

Restaurants all over Coachella Valley, from Palm Springs to Indio, will offer special discounted prix fixe menus to diners. All you have to do is show up to the restaurant of your choice and bring an appetite. Though if you have your heart set on dining at certain spots, be sure to make a reservation, since last year 25,000 people ate out during the 10-day event.]]> Jennifer Kester 2010-05-24T11:30:42-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/2/5/105335/4767

This goes out to all you Atomic Ranch readers and melamine fiends: set your George Nelson starburst clocks for 2pm on Friday, February 13, as Palm Springs is due to kick off its annual Modernism Week, celebrating all things mid-century (yes, even avocado-color appliances).

With a week solid of vintage shows, exhibitions, and even double-decker bus tours, Palm Springs is pulling out all the stops to attract everyone from the hardcore retro collectors to the curious.

$75 will get you access to everything, including highlights such as the screening of two films about designers Charles and Ray Eames, a vintage car show, and all-day house tours of some masterpieces of modernist design that will easily put the Brady Bunch's swinging pad to shame.

Even if you've never before considered a multicolor mobile to be a necessary living room element, Modernism Week is sure to delight. After all, you're out in the California sun getting sneak peeks into people's eclectic homes and observing the icons of mid-century design in their natural elements. We guarantee that it will only take you a few A-frame houses before you're obsessing over plastic tables and Osterizer blenders with the best of them.

Related Stories:
· Palm Springs' Modernism Week [Official Site]
· A Palm Springs Event Chock-full of Minimalism [NYT]
· Design Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: NYT]]]> JetSetCD 2009-02-05T12:10:38-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/