Palm Springs ​

Palm Springs is where the Rat Pack came to escape Hollywood, and the mid-century modern architecture they left behind has turned the city into a design pilgrimage. The aerial tramway is the real engineering marvel though — a rotating gondola that climbs from the desert floor at 2,643 feet to the top of Mt. San Jacinto at 8,516 feet in 10 minutes, dropping the temperature 30 degrees and swapping cactus for pine forest. It's the most dramatic climate change you'll experience without getting on a plane.

The Coachella Valley extends east through Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells, and out to Indio where the festival happens. But Palm Springs itself is the anchor — boutique hotels, poolside cocktail culture, Thursday night VillageFest street fair, and enough mid-century architecture tours to make any design nerd forget about the 115°F heat.

Photo Gallery ​

Good to Know ​

Summer: Hotels are dirt cheap because it's 115°F. You get what you pay for — and what you pay for is heat stroke.

Modernism Week: February event celebrating mid-century architecture. Book early, it sells out.

Wind: The San Gorgonio Pass funnels wind through the valley. Those wind turbines on I-10 aren't decorative.