Los Angeles to Palm Springs

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Los Angeles to Palm Springs

Not surprisingly we woke quite early and were showered, dressed and having breakfast by 7.15 nicely in time to meeting the Tropical Sky rep. at 8 am in the lobby.

Marc appeared complete with maps, a useful guide to our tour and all our hotel vouchers. He took us quickly through the trip and left us to get on and enjoy it.

Having checked out we went straight back to Dollar Car Rentals as Marc had been quite clear that we really needed a navigation system and we had not got one. He was right !

Armed with our Garmin we decided to head for Hollywood via Sunset Boulevard. One wrong turn later and we found ourselves heading up through an area of rather expensive looking houses to the hills with a long, long queue of traffic coming down the hill on the other side. We decided that turning round and joining that queue was not a good option so Bob reset the Garmin for Palm Springs and we hit the 7-lane freeway. Our tour brings us back to LA so we will perhaps find Hollywood on our return.

The freeway was an ‘interesting’ place to be as we drove round the outskirts of Los Angeles until we eventually found a road west. We have of course heard of LA traffic and everything we have heard is correct. There is a lot of it ! Marc had advised us to wait a few hours before trying to leave as it is always snarled up until at least 11am. We meant to take route 10 to Palm Springs but missed the turn so used route 6 instead. The further we drove the less traffic there was until we were on just a 2-lane road. The further we drove also the hotter it got.

It had rained overnight in LA and was really grey and damp as we set out. By 11am the sun had started to burn the cloud away.

We drove up through the hills eventually heading west. All very rocky and barren with very little green anywhere. No sign of any agriculture, plants or animals, just sandy coloured steep slopes on either side.

We didn’t stop on the drive, as the road was so busy it was tricky finding any pulling off spots.

It was not until we were approaching Palm Springs and had reached the desert that we realised quite how hot it was. We turned off the freeway and stopped the car so Bob could take the roof down on our convertible Mustang and had immediately to slather on the suntan lotion. Beyond hot !



Also very windy. The very flat desert area we were in (Coachella Valley) was covered with wind turbines, all laid out neatly, in rows. In this location, unusually for us as we normally hate them, they looked quite good but they are all much, much smaller than the European versions. They all also looked 10 times as effective as they were all whizzing round at a great rate of knots. We conclude that the mountains, which back the desert, create a wind tunnel.

15 minutes later we were in Palm Springs after driving along one road where we were warned to watch out for drifting sand. Makes a change from snow for us this year.

Our hotel, Renaissance, is superb and we have an upgrade to a junior suite. Aircon is on. The car shows temperature of 104 and still showed it at 9pm.

Lynne had instructed us to take a trip on the Airial Tramway so we drove the 5 miles up the very steep (with aircon off) hill to the tramway station and had a fantastic ride 2.5 miles up the mountain until we could look down at the desert laid out below us. Temperature much lower at the top at only 80 degrees !

Back on the ground again we stopped at 711 to pick up drink (soft) supplies and then had a swim in the lovely hotel pool where the water was so warm we felt chilled getting out as the sun had dropped behind the mountain.

Our evening out was excellent. Palm Springs have a Spring Fest every Thursday night and block off the main street. We didn’t know that but eventually found a parking spot and joined the crowds. Had dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant looking out onto the fair and afterwards strolled, without buying but admiring, some lovely arty, crafty wares.



Back at the hotel and asleep by 10pm after an exceptionally good day. What an excellent start to our holiday.

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