A weekend in Palm Springs
Written October 2026
Is Palm Springs even a place you take kids? It has a reputation: cocktails by the pool, mid-century houses, hotels that politely ask you to be over 21. All true. But it's also a town with a tram that spins its way up a mountain, a zoo where you hand a giraffe its breakfast, and more swimming pools per person than anywhere you've been. Kids are not confused about whether this is a good trip.
The thing you plan around is the heat. So this weekend runs on a desert schedule: out the door early, the big outing done by lunch, the hot middle of the day in the pool, and back out when the sun drops behind the mountain. Day one stays in Palm Springs, with the tram in the morning and downtown in the evening. Day two drives down the valley to the zoo in Palm Desert and comes back by way of the air museum.
It works from about three years old up (there's a toddler version further down).
Where to stay
Here's the honest part: a lot of Palm Springs hotels don't take kids. Many of the small, pretty boutique places are adults-only, and they mean it. So check before you fall for a photo. Every hotel below takes kids.
You've got two ways to do it. Stay downtown and you can walk to dinner, the splash pad and ice cream, and the tram is a short drive. Or stay at one of the big resorts down the valley in Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert or La Quinta, where the pools are huge and day two's zoo is close. From those, downtown Palm Springs and the tram are a real drive back up the valley, so you trade walkable evenings for slides.
Either way, the pool is half the trip. Pick the hotel by its pool and you won't go far wrong.
Hyatt Palm Springs
The easy pick downtown: every room is a suite, and it sits right on Palm Canyon Drive, in the middle of downtown and its restaurants.
Suite with separate bedroom · Pool
Renaissance Palm Springs Hotel
The best pool setup in town for small kids, with a separate kids' pool and a sandbox beside it. Downtown is only a few blocks away.
Pool
La Quinta Resort & Club, Curio Collection by Hilton
The pool-hopper's pick at the east end of the valley: dozens of pools, so nobody has to share. It's a long drive from the tram and a short one to the zoo.
Pool
Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa
The water park one, in Rancho Mirage: slides, a lazy river and a sandy beach, so the hot afternoons plan themselves. It's a drive from downtown Palm Springs, not a walk.
Pool
JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa
The splurge in Palm Desert, where boats carry you around the resort's own waterways. Close to the zoo, and a long drive from the tram.
Pool
Some booking links here pay Play Day a commission. It does not change which hotels are named or the order they are in.
At a glance
- Walking
- Light on day one: an easy loop trail at the top of the tram and a few flat blocks downtown. Day two is the big one, a couple of miles around the zoo, most of it in the sun.
- Ages
- Three and up for the plan as written. The tram and the zoo work for everyone, the air museum is best from about five, and toddlers get their own version below.
- Season
- October through April is the season, with warm days and cool nights. May is hot but doable on this schedule, and September is hotter still. June through August is properly extreme, with average highs over 100, and the trip becomes mornings and pools only.
Getting around
You need a car. Palm Springs has its own small airport a few minutes from downtown, and it's about two hours from Los Angeles when the traffic behaves. Downtown itself is walkable once you've parked, but the tram is up a canyon road on the edge of town and the zoo is in Palm Desert, about half an hour down the valley.
The valley is one long strip of towns (Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert and on) joined by Highway 111 and the freeway. Everything in this plan sits along it, so nothing is a hard drive. It's just a hot one, so start the car a minute before you load the kids.
Up the mountain, then downtown at dusk
Start with the tram while everyone's fresh, come down for a deli lunch, and then do what the whole town does in the afternoon: get in the pool and stay there. Downtown is for the evening, when the sidewalks cool off and the splash pad is in the shade.
- MorningGive it about three hours
Palm Springs Aerial Tramway
A cable car that climbs the cliffs of Chino Canyon in about ten minutes, with a floor that slowly turns so everyone gets the view without elbowing for a window. You get on in the desert and get off in a pine forest at about 8,500 feet, where it's roughly 30 degrees cooler than the valley. In winter there's often snow up there, which blows a kid's mind when they were in a swimsuit an hour ago.
At the top, a concrete path leads down from the station into Long Valley, where there are picnic tables and an easy, level nature loop of under a mile. The path back up to the station is the uphill part of the morning, so save a snack for it.
Bring a layer for everyone, even when it's hot at the bottom. And if anyone's wobbly about heights, stand in the middle of the car and look up the mountain, not down.
- Entry
- Paid
LunchGive it about an hour · 4.2 mi from the last stopSherman's Deli & Bakery
A classic deli a few blocks off the main drag, with sandwiches stacked taller than seems sensible and a bakery case you walk past on the way in (a tactical error, or a bribe, depending on how you play it). Then back to the hotel. The afternoon belongs to the pool.
- Takes reservations
- No
- Kids' menu
- Yes
- Late afternoonGive it about an hour · 0.3 mi from the last stop
Downtown Park
Once the sun slides behind the mountain, downtown gets comfortable fast. This small park in the middle of it has a playground, a splash pad and a 26-foot Marilyn Monroe, skirt flying. Your kid will have questions. Bring a towel.
The art museum is a few minutes' walk from the park, at the foot of the mountain, if you'd rather have an indoor hour than a wet one.
- Entry
- Free
- Restrooms
- Yes
- Good for ages
- Ages 5 and up
- Nearest food on this plan
- Great Shakes, 0.2 mi
Also here: Palm Springs Art Museum
DinnerGive it about an hour and a half · 0.3 mi from the last stopLas Casuelas Terraza
Mexican food from a local institution on Palm Canyon Drive, run on four generations of one clan's recipes. Ask for the palapa patio, the lively one with the bandstand. Nobody will hear your table over the music, which is the whole idea.
Dessert is a short walk up the street at Great Shakes. Get the date shake: dates are what this valley grows, and here the date paste is made in-house and blended into date ice cream.
Also here: Great Shakes
Walk Palm Canyon Drive back toward the hotel and look down: the sidewalk is the Walk of Stars, and hunting for names is a decent way to keep tired legs moving.
Giraffes in Palm Desert, warplanes on the way back
Today is the drive down the valley. Be at the zoo when it opens, because the animals and the kids are both at their best before the heat builds. Then it's a quiet garden, the pool, and an air-conditioned hangar full of planes for the hottest part of the afternoon.
Early morningGive it about three and a half hoursThe Living Desert Zoo and Gardens
A zoo of desert animals set in the actual desert, at the foot of the mountains in Palm Desert. You can feed a giraffe from a platform at eye level (theirs, not yours), walk through an enclosure with wallabies hopping around you, pet the goats and, in the cooler months, ride a carousel of endangered animals. There's a huge outdoor model railway, too, which train kids will not want to leave.
It's a real walk and there isn't much shade between the animals. Do the far end first while it's cool, and finish at the splash pad.
In summer the zoo opens earlier and shuts by early afternoon, so check the listing and plan to be there at the start.
Late morningGive it about an hour · 5.7 mi from the last stopSunnylands Center and Gardens
On the way back up the valley, in Rancho Mirage: nine acres of desert gardens on flat paved paths, about a mile of them, with a café at the end. It's a good slow hour after the zoo, with room for a stroller and for kids to run ahead without anyone minding.
It's a cooler-months stop, since the gardens close for the summer heat. Past it, skip straight to lunch and the pool.
AfternoonGive it about an hour and a half · 6.6 mi from the last stopPalm Springs Air Museum
Hangars full of warplanes from World War II onward, right beside the airport runway. The hangars are air-conditioned and there are no ropes around the planes, so kids can walk right up to a propeller taller than they are. A lot of these aircraft still fly, and the guides on the floor will happily explain what every lever did.
There's a scavenger hunt to work through, which turns a wander into a mission.
This is the stop to drop if the pool is winning. No one has ever regretted a second pool afternoon.
- Entry
- Paid
Back to Palm Canyon Drive for dinner (Las Casuelas and Sherman's both work a second night), then one last lap. Lappert's has scoops and Dole Whip right on the Walk of Stars, and the mountain goes pink just before dark.
If it's 110 degrees
It will be, from June into September. The trip still works, but only at the edges of the day. Do the tram first thing (it's the one place that's cool at noon) and be at the zoo gate when it opens. Everything between late morning and sunset is water or air conditioning.
For water beyond the hotel, Palm Springs Surf Club has waterslides and a lazy river beside its wave pool in season, and Palm Springs Swim Center is the city's public pool. For indoors, there's the air museum and the Children's Discovery Museum. Zebra World in Cathedral City is an indoor playground for the days when even the pool is too hot (it happens).
Car seat buckles get hot enough to hurt. Throw a towel over the seats when you park.
With a toddler
Keep both mornings and shrink them. The tram cars and the paved paths by the top station take a stroller, though the trails beyond them don't, so the viewing decks may be enough. At the zoo, do the giraffes, the goats, the carousel and the splash pad and call it a win.
The Children's Discovery Museum is built for exactly this age, so give it a proper visit. For a playground early or late, Ruth Hardy Park has a tot lot, and Sunrise Park has turtles that squirt water. Moorten Botanical Garden is a small cactus garden a toddler can walk all of, though it keeps shorter hours in summer, so check the listing.
With big kids
Add a hike. Tahquitz Canyon is a two-mile loop up rock steps to a seasonal waterfall, on the Agua Caliente reservation at the edge of town. Go early, carry more water than seems reasonable, and skip it in summer. At the top of the tram, the Desert View Trail is a mile-and-a-half loop to overlooks back down at the valley.
Palm Springs Surf Club's wave pool takes bookings for surf sessions, and Boomers in Cathedral City has go-karts, mini golf and an arcade for the evening. Give the air museum longer, too. This is the age it's made for.
What to skip
Hiking after mid-morning in the warm months. The canyon trails look short on a map, and people get into real trouble on them every year. And don't book a hotel on looks alone: check that it takes kids before anything else, because plenty of the prettiest ones here don't.
Questions
Is Palm Springs good for kids?
Yes, more than its reputation suggests. The aerial tramway, The Living Desert zoo and the air museum are three really good kid outings, and every afternoon is a pool afternoon. The catch is the heat, so you plan early mornings and stay in the water at midday.
What is the best time of year to visit Palm Springs with kids?
October through April. Days are warm enough to swim and cool enough to be outside all day. May is hot but fine if you do your outings early, and September is hotter. June through August has average highs over 100.
Is Palm Springs too hot for kids in summer?
For being outside at midday, yes. A summer trip can still work as a pool trip: the tram first thing, the zoo right at opening, then water or air conditioning until evening. Hotels are much quieter then, which is the upside.
Are hotels in Palm Springs adults-only?
A lot of the small boutique hotels are, so always check. The bigger hotels downtown, like the Hyatt and the Renaissance, take kids, and so do the big resorts down the valley. Five that do are under Where to stay.
Is the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway worth it with kids?
Yes. The ride is only about ten minutes, the car rotates so everyone sees out, and the top is a cool pine forest with an easy nature loop. Bring layers, since it's roughly 30 degrees cooler than the valley. Kids who are nervous about heights should stand in the middle.
How many days do you need in Palm Springs with kids?
Two is right. One morning for the tram, one for The Living Desert, and two long pool afternoons. A third day is for a resort with a water park, not for more sightseeing.
Photos
Palm Springs Aerial Tramway: Mfield, Matthew Field, http://www.photography.mattfield.com (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Sherman's Deli & Bakery: Visitor7 (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Las Casuelas Terraza: Dianaajmnz (CC BY 4.0) · The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens: David Balmer (CC BY 3.0) · Sunnylands Center and Gardens: Visitor7 (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Palm Springs Air Museum: Alen Ištoković (CC BY 3.0) · Hyatt Palm Springs: Farragutful (CC BY-SA 4.0) · La Quinta Resort & Club, Curio Collection by Hilton: Coolcaesar (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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