Last November my sister Bethany and I splurged on a relaxing weekend in Palm Springs. Perhaps “splurged” isn’t the best word as we stayed on a strict budget, but this overnight trip gave us a break from our busy lives — which totally constitutes a splurge.

Palm Springs is an hour and forty-five minute drive from Los Angeles and if you’re an Angelino, odds are you’ve already ventured to this desert oasis. But Beth and I hadn’t been since our family drove through on a road trip when we were much younger. It was time to return as adults and enjoy activities like lounging by the hotel pool, checking out trendy restaurants, and visiting the nearby Premium Desert Outlets (where we do some major damage en route to Palm Springs… actually, the word “splurge” very much applies to our outlet hit-and-run).

We check into our hotel room at the Hyatt Regency Suites in downtown Palm Springs and unload our outlet bounty. We chose this location based on it’s convenient walkability to downtown restaurants and attractions. A great deal popped up on TravelZoo a few weeks prior and we jumped on it.

Imagine our excitement as we walk onto the balcony and find this view:

Our room overlooks the front of the hotel where there’s a lounge bar and live music.

I am a sucker for reflection shots.

Here’s Bethany!

Our room is a large suite (this was part of the TravelZoo deal we booked). We love the extra space!

Later that night we’ll watch a movie while sprawled out on this sectional sofa.

There’s a nice restaurant in the hotel but it’s too fancy for us!

And here’s a fun bar we pass en route to the pool:

We make it to the pool just before sunset. While we plan to log some serious lounge chair hours the next day, we’ll take what we can get tonight.

The hot tub is glorious. There’s a chill in the air (it’s November after all) but after our hot tub time we sit next to the fire pit for a good hour.

After changing, we take another peak out our balcony to see the lights.

That night we eat an excellent dinner at Lulu’s — more on that in a separate food post coming soon.

The next morning we rise early to make the most of our pool time. But first a morning snapshot from the balcony:

Pool time!

B + E:

That’s it for now! I’ll follow up with a few more posts on our Palm Springs exploits this week. We made the most of our 36 hours in this desert city and can’t wait to go back.