Introduction:
So DW and I celebrated a big milestone recently, 5 years of marriage. We decided we would like to celebrate by going on a nice big trip. We started coming up with ideas long ago. First idea was to go to St. Marteen and the surrounding islands of St. Barts and Anguilla. Besides for Zika, we decided maybe we should go somewhere further and more exotic. We were debating between Maldives and going to the Conrad in Koh Samui, Thailand. Clearly Palm Springs is a similar destination, jk. The reason why we ended up vetoing those awesome destinations is because of our little one; she dealt with a health thing over the summer, without going into detail, it was a benign event, but nonetheless, it made us not want to be too far from in case chos v'shalom she needs us. So we wanted a warm place that was close by and Zika free. We decided on Palm Springs.
Flights:
So we still were not 100% set on going to Palm Springs, but all of a sudden one day in November DW calls me on the way to work to give me some good news, no Zika places, and two or three hours later Dan posted $95 dollar flights direct NYC-Palm Springs and vice versa. I thought this was a sign from G-d, so I jumped on the deal and booked it with cash rather than using miles. Flights overall were good each way. The flight on the way there was packed with Chasidim which I did not expect, kind of felt like an El Al flight when some of them refused to sit in their assigned seats. Minor issue was on the way there half of the TV stations on the plane did not work, so I had to watch Trump's State of The Union on MSNBC, that was not a pleasant experience. We took a red eye on the way back, took off early which was nice.
Hotel:
We kept on going back and forth on where we should stay. I wanted to rent a house, DW wanted a hotel. There were plenty of points options in Palm Springs, but I wasn't sure which one would be best. I kept debating between Waldorf, Kimpton, JW, Marriot Shadow Ridge, Westin, the other Westin, etc. Finally at the last minute I was able to book an Executive Suite at the JW with points; had to play around and move some points over. Can't remember what the rate was, you can PM me in the future if you're interested.
About the hotel:
The hotel was beautiful. This is going to sound blasphemous here on the forums, but the hotel kind of reminded me of the Grand Hyatt Kauai. Grand Lobby (obviously nothing compares to GHK), parrots in the lobby, the fruit infused water coolers, the front desk being on the side, the few pools, the never ending hallways leading to all of the hotel rooms, the grand drive from the main road to the hotel, etc. One has to see it for themselves to understand what I am trying to say. Many chasidim stayed by this hotel as well. The views of the mountains were gorgeous. The biggest downside to the hotel was the long walk from the self parking lot to the room I was staying in.
My room: We stayed in the executive suites. I have been in nicer suites in my life, but this one was still pretty nice. The biggest down side was the fact that the bathroom wasn't too fancy considering it is the nicest type of room the hotel has to offer. The room was equipped with 2 smart TV's, had a large dining room table, a big porch, big bathroom, separate bedroom. All in all it was a very nice room.
https://youtu.be/f3QYTNG_-dkI apologize for the not such great quality video and for the messy room, but I took the video a few minutes before Shabbos while we were in the process of packing since we were leaving Motzai Shabbos.
Food:
Our first day we went to Ralph's to pick up some essentials; bread, peanut butter, etc. Turns out they had kosher deli and cheese and challah and that would have been sufficient enough for Shabbos, did not know that ahead of time. For dinner one night we got kosher in palm springs, food was very good, I highly recommend ordering food from them-it is the daughter and son in law of the Chabad of Palm Springs Rabbi, they are looking to expand and open up a sit down restaurant one day soon. On Thursday we decided to drive to LA to pick up some food for Shabbos and get lunch and dinner. For lunch we went to Pizza World, it was very good. For dinner I wanted to go to La Gandola but DW wanted to head back earlier, so we picked up Jeff's for dinner, one can't go to LA without getting Jeff's. For Shabbos we got take out from Western Kosher, Challah from Got Kosher, dessert from Shwartz', everything was very good.
Activities:
Wednesday and Friday we spent most of the day in the resort, mostly chilling by the pool. I got a massage on Friday, it was called the desert journey massage; it was essentially exfoliating the body and the creams and stuff were being massaged onto me. Not my cup of tea, but it was still relaxing. While we went to LA to get kosher food I did not want to not do something touristy, so we did a quick gashmius drive, we drove to all of the (gasp) Modern Family houses from the TV show Modern Family. Pritzus City. Shabbos we just chilled in the room and hung out in the lobby and pool areas. It was very nice.
Car:
Just priced out all of the cars. I got the best price from Thrifty-$27 a day for a Buick lacrosse or similar. We got a brand new Cadillac ATS, beautiful car.
All in all it was a great trip, relaxing. I would recommend Palm Springs to everybody on the forums as a relaxing getaway.
Hopefully I will put the pics up soon.
