Guides · Palm Springs
Palm Springs
29 places · 8 areas · a free route, then $4.99 for the whole city · offline map 6 MB
The free route
Free in the app, permanently, before you pay anything. 8 stops, 1 day, about 4.6 km, planned by the app's own engine.
Day 1 · ~4.6 km
1
Frey House II
686 Palisades Dr; Albert Frey's small glass hillside house of 1964, with a boulder inside
Look up from the west end of Tahquitz Canyon Way to spot the small glass house on the rocks, or join a pre-arranged visit.
2
Coachella Valley Savings and Loan
499 S Palm Canyon Dr; Stewart Williams' 1960 bank of curving arches, now a Chase branch
Stand across the street to see the row of white arches that curve down like upturned parabolas.
3
Palm Springs Architecture and Design Center
300 S Palm Canyon Dr; Stewart Williams' glass savings bank of 1961, now the art museum's design center
Look at the glass pavilion from across the street, then go in for the architecture and design exhibition of the day.
4
Village Green Heritage Center
221 S Palm Canyon Dr; the town's oldest building, the McCallum Adobe of 1884, with pioneer houses
Step into the McCallum Adobe and the Cornelia White House next door, then see the re-created 1930s general store.
5
Oasis Commercial Building
121 S Palm Canyon Dr; Stewart Williams' International Style shops of 1953, a protected historic site
Look at the clean horizontal lines of the building above the shopfronts as you walk Palm Canyon Drive.
6
Palm Canyon Drive
downtown Palm Springs; palm-lined main street of shops, galleries and midcentury storefronts under the mountains
Walk the palm-lined street from the Village Green past La Plaza and the modernist bank buildings, and come back on a Thursday evening for VillageFest.
7
Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza
140 N Indian Canyon Dr; tribal museum and spa of 2023 on the sacred hot spring of Section 14
Go through the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum's galleries on the Cahuilla people, then walk the Oasis Trail and the plaza beside the hot spring.
8
Twin Palms
1148 Alejo Rd; Stewart Williams' 1947 house for Frank Sinatra, private, street view only
Look from the street at the long, low house.
More of the top sights
A few of the 29 places in the full guide. Each one has its own written guide in the app: what to do, what to notice, the history, and why it hits.
Indian Canyons
38520 S Palm Canyon Dr; Agua Caliente ancestral canyons with the world's largest fan palm oasis
Palm Springs Aerial Tramway
Tramway Rd valley station; rotating tramcars from the desert to 8,516 feet in Mount San Jacinto State Park
Sunnylands
37977 Bob Hope Dr, Rancho Mirage; the Annenbergs' 1966 estate where presidents met, with public gardens
Kaufmann Desert House
470 W Vista Chino; Richard Neutra's desert house of 1946 for the owner of Fallingwater, street view only
Palm Springs Visitor Center
2901 N Palm Canyon Dr; Albert Frey's swooping gas station of 1965, now the visitor center
Palm Springs Art Museum
101 Museum Dr; art museum founded in 1938, in Stewart Williams' lava-rock building of 1976
Areas
Downtown · Uptown Modern · Modern Neighborhoods · Famous Houses · Civic Modern · South Palm Canyon · Canyons and Tram · Coachella Valley
Illustrations are drawn for the app. Place descriptions are written by hand and checked against a primary source; facts draw on Wikidata (CC0) and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors.