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Drift Palm Springs

Drift Palm Springs notches three much-desired wins: It's in the middle of the town's mountain-shadowed and easily walked downtown area, it's freshly built (opened 2023), and it's reasonably priced. It's also as trendy as you might hope a Palm Springs property would be, giving you a dose of design without any off-putting haughtiness. The bar/restaurant Maleza, just off a pool that has a generous southern exposure, serves thoughtfully presented cocktails and chef-designed dishes that call upon the inspirations of the desert lifestyle (lots of fine tequilas and meats), just to drive home the reminders that you're in the Coachella Valley.


Rooms capitalize on the airiness and sunlight that results from concrete-built minimalism, and the design elements bring together natural materials like woods and linens, defining the sleeping quarters with a tactile color language that stands outside the typical hotel experience. Even the configuration of the rooms feels somewhat crafted just for Palm Springs: Some, the ones dubbed Studios, give you the size and amenities you expect from a hotel room, except that housekeeping is on request and is charged extra.



But 30 of the units are multi-bedroom spaces that come with an in-unit kitchen (with a living area like the one pictured above) that you can use to cook your own meals (fridge, stove, toaster, bar with seating, dishwasher, pans, glasses, and cutlery, plus a pour-over coffee maker). Those kitchens, plus the option to expand a unit to include as many as four bedrooms under a single key, make Drift Palm Springs more attractive to groups—it's as if the architect was told to devise a hotel that's ideally adaptable for girlfriend getaways. Not that some of the boys won't like it, too—it's virtually next door to the main drag of gay bars on Arenas Avenue. Your stay at Drift Palm Springs could potentially favor millennial socializing over Boomer-era privacy (the pool closes at 11pm), but that would depend on the guest list when you're there.


(in-room kitchen)