Travel Holiday

Greetings from Camp Hollywood

A weekend in Palm Springs will bring out your inner Sinatra
Excerpt by Laurel Delp

If watching golf tournaments on TV is the closest you’ve come to Palm Springs, your image of the place probably feature acres of fairways, big resorts, and even bigger retirement complexes, all connected by boulevards like “Bob Hope Drive” and “Frank Sinatra Drive.” Actually that’s accurate, but only if you include all the satellite suburbs that gave grown up around the real Palm Springs, a jewel-like city at the base of boulder-strewn Mount San Jacinto.

A far cry from the surrounding strip malls and gated communities, Palm Springs itself is filled with striking buildings from two major hey-days: The first in the 1920’s and ’30s, when movie stars and Eastern swells warmed themselves in the winter sun; the second in the ’50s and ’60s,when entertainers like Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack put it back on the map. In the ’70s and ’80s, while the neighboring suburbs boomed, the city became run-down and seedy. But no more. Palm Springs is back – restored, hip and proud of its past.

A High Class Joint

Even if you think of mid-century with a shudder, the Orbit In’s Oasis is so beautifully decorated, it’ll win you over. It’s a typical ’50s L-shaped, single story structure built around a pool. The rooms are gorgeous – furniture by the Eameses, Harry Bertoia, George Nelson, and Isamu Noguchi – but for all its elegance, it’s fun. There’s even Melmac plastic dinnerware in the kitchens, and each evening loony cocktails are served at the bar by the pool. But the Hideaway, it’s sister property a few blocks down Arenas, is the big news. Rooms here are serenely earth-toned, yet just as expensively decorated with original pieces from the gods of mid-century modern. The grounds are larger than those of the Oasis, and the other L around the pool is a big swath of lawn. There’s no bar, though: This is the spot for writing that film noir you’ve always planned. (Or at least reading some of the original novels.)

Breakfast at the Hideaway is strictly continental… but it’s only a couple of blocks to a cluster of good restaurants. You can borrow Schwinn Cruiser bikes for longer trips – say, to visit Palm Springs’ other examples of Desert Modern.