My Palm Springs Tips in the Mitsubishi Lancer

Living in Southern California has many amazing perks – great weather, beautiful beaches, fun festivals, and perhaps one of my favorite things about living here is the proximity to cool little vacation towns. One of my personal favorites is Palm Springs.

I have so many great memories in Palm Springs and wanted to put together a little “how to” do Palm Springs, because well, there’s just SO many ways to do it. You could go there to party, to relax at a resort, to gamble, or you can rent a vacation house, lounge in your swimsuit and cover up and drink all day by the pool, which is my personal favorite way to “do” Palm Springs. Check out what you’ll need in order to make the most of the latter.

A Comfortable Yet Cozy Vacation Home

If you’re going to be spending the majority of your time in the vacation home I suggest you make it a comfy cozy one. Airbnb is the perfect place to find these kinds of listings, and mostly all of them come with great amenities like television (with cable), washer & dryer, fully stocked kitchens, linens etc. It’s a complete turn-key situation and you really just need to provide your own food and drink. Just make sure that you have enough space for the folks that you’re hosting so everyone feels comfortable.

Handle the Food & Drink Menu Beforehand

I’m usually the designated bloody mary maker so this is an important one to me, and when I wind down and am in the pool the last thing I want to do is make a store run for alcohol or snacks. So if you’re anything like me, nail down your menu beforehand and divvy up the cooking responsibilities amongst your group so that when you get to your comfy cozy home all you have to do is break out the cocktail shaker and start the party. What I find helpful is to discuss who wants to be responsible for what and then choose a day that, that person will perform their duties. For instance, on this Palm Springs vaca I was responsible for the charcuterie tray and my boyfriend at the time was responsible for cooking dinner one night. It truly just takes the guessing game out of what everyone will eat, because believe me, there’s nothing worse than when you’re starving and you can’t nail down what you’re going to eat because everyone has a taste for something different.

Make Sure You’ve Got Your Pool Tools

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to Palm Springs assuming that my Airbnb has floaties, and pool noodles only to get there and find out that they don’t is simply put – super irritating. Because eventually, I have to go buy all of that from the store and it will have been a complete waste of money because the likelihood I’m going to deflate those things and bring them back home is highly unlikely. So make sure your host has pool supplies. You may not think that having an inner tube is important but when you realize that relaxing with a drink in hand in the middle of the pool is super hard when said pool is 10 feet deep…yeah you’ll be thanking me for this tip later.

Open Concept Means Open Conversation

Maybe it’s the entertainer in me, but I find it really important to connect with people when I’m in the kitchen. There’s nothing worse than slaving away in the kitchen for a big group of people only to feel isolated because the kitchen is cut off from where everyone is mingling. The great thing about this tip is that you will find a lot of houses have open concepts in Palm Springs and those that don’t have big enough kitchens that make socializing easy.

Games, Games , Games

Whether it be Cards Against Humanity, Taboo, or Scattergories, bring a fun game to play with your group!

You’ll probably make plans to hit up that cute local bar everyone’s been raving about, or hit the casino for a night of gambling, but more often than not after all that swimming, drinking and eating you’ll be too pooped and will probably find staying in and playing a fun game is all you’ll want to do. Plus night swimming in Palm Springs is even more fun than day swimming so you’ll want to jump back in the pool when the sun goes down anyway.

Driving into Palm Springs is pretty scenic so take in the views in cool and comfy ride (emphasis on the cool as temps go above 100 degrees in the summer).

I test drove the Mitsubishi Lancer and it was the perfect car to take. It had all the bells and whistles, was a smooth ride, had a great sound system and was really great on gas.