Palm Desert in the summer w/ kids

We are heading to Palm Desert for a week at the end of June. We have been looking on line and will be doing the resort pools and Knotts water park.

Any suggestions on what else to do with children (ages 4-12) there during the summer?

Thanks!

The Air Museum at the Palm Springs Airport is fun, and there is always the mountain tram ride. There is also a large outlet mall in Cabazon, which is about 30 or so miles west off of Interstate 10.

They have a cool zoo. What is it called?? but it worth seeing.

Bring something to wear on your feet at the waterpark. We were there in July a couple of years ago at the waterpark and you will burn your feet btw rides if you do not have watersocks or flip flops on. Have fun. Because of the heat we spent most of our time in the bath oops I mean pool. :ignore: The kids loved it.
Turkel

Bill4728 said:

They have a cool zoo. What is it called??

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That would be the Living Desert and it is fun enough for more than one visit.

Of course everything is very hot by the end of June!

Maybe a trip to the beach too? Sea World in San Diego? Or LA?

Jim,

We were there last summer (very end of August, first two weeks of Sept), and the first couple of days it was humid and verrrrrry hot and I thought that maybe we wouldn't really enjoy our vacation due to the extreme heat. It got better after a couple of days (humidity went away) and we fell into a nice routine of pools at our resort in the morning, then naps and relaxing in our villa in afternoon or doing an outing somewhere, then pools again after dinner. It was one of our best family vacations we've had because it actually felt like a real vacation, we didn't come back exhausted and the kids loooooooved our routine.

We have young children (15 months and 4 yo at the time), so we didn't do too many outings away from our resort. You will want to do more.

Definitely need water shoes for the whole vacation, including using the pools at your resort.

The Living Desert is wonderful, but you will need to go first thing in the morning and leave before lunch. The animals won't be active when it's hot.

The tram to the top of Mt. San Jacinto is a great summer outing because it's 20-30 degrees cooler at the top. Yeah!

There is a Children's Science museum in Rancho Mirage. Haven't been there yet but heard good things about it.

In Indio there is an indoor warehouse/party place where they have lots of different bounce houses and they have open play times throughout the week. CAn't remember the name of it right now. We didn't visit it, but I'm glad I know about it for future reference since we go out there a couple times a year.

Although CAbazon is a great outdoor mall, the problem with it in the summer is that it's outdoors. The kids will be bored to tears here, so I wouldn't recommend it, although your wife may like it!

We often stay at the JW Marriott in Palm Desert villas property and the main hotel gives free boat rides from 4 to 5pm. everyday. It's a 5 minute ride around their lakes and is basically a commercial for their property and restaurants. The kids won't know or care and they would really enjoy it. And did I mention it's free?

There is a wonderful restaurant/shopping/theater complex in RAncho Mirage called the "River" you will definitely want to check out. It's quite spectacular for a shopping area and your family would enjoy dinner and a movie there one evening.

This topic has also been discussed at Tripadvisor, so you may want to check that out!

If you had a cool morning and wanted to get up early, a short hike at the Palm Canyon in Indian CAnyons is a really beautiful experience. Definitely something to do only ifj you can get there early.

Have a wonderful family vacation! We love it there.

Janna

We had our best vacation in Rancho Mirage because it was so relaxing. We swam everyday, we went bowling, took the tram to the mountains, and the Children's Discovery Museum.

ragtop said:

That would be the Living Desert and it is fun enough for more than one visit.

Of course everything is very hot by the end of June!

Maybe a trip to the beach too? Sea World in San Diego? Or LA?

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Even though we are heading to Newport after that, we wanted to do a day trip from Palm desert to Seaworld. It seems to be a 2+ hour trip. Has anyone done that as a day trip? Was the drive too long? We were even thinking about a day trip to Disney (so we have more time at Newport to do other things), has anyone done that? I worry about traffic on that one.

The drive from Shadow Ridge to Seaworld will be at least 2.5 hours, maybe 3 each way. I think you should wait until you are at NCV because it's only about an hour south of you then. Disneyland will only be about 45 minutes away, maybe less depending on traffic.

To drive from Palm Desert to Disneyland would be at least 1 1/2 hours without traffic. Doable if you don't mind driving. Actually, we live 1 1/2 hours from DL and have annual passes. People in my area think nothing of driving that distance to go all over. If you do drive to DL take the 60 West, stay in carpool lane as you approach the 57 to Anaheim/Fullerton (if you stay in this carpool lane you buypass the 57/60 merging mess). I think a day at DL is easier done than a day at Seaworld, from the Palm Desert location. Least busy day at DL is Wednesday, so try to go that day.

Have fun!

Janna