A family weekend in Palm Springs
Palm Springs reads as a grown-ups' town from the outside — pools, cocktails, architecture tours — and that has kept a lot of families from noticing that it has a genuinely excellent zoo, one of the best aviation museums in the western United States, and a cable car that takes children from a hot desert floor to snow in ten minutes.
What it also has is heat, and the single decision that makes or breaks a family trip here is whether you plan around that honestly.
October through May, this is an easy holiday. Days in the 70s and 80s, everything open, hotel rates reasonable outside the festival weeks. This itinerary runs comfortably as written.
June through September, it is a different trip. Average highs are 102°F in June, 106°F in July, 105°F in August and 101°F in September, and overnight lows sit near 80°F — so there is no cool window at either end of the day. The valley record is 124°F. In those months the plan compresses: outdoor things happen before 10am, everything else happens indoors or in water, and the hotel pool is the main event rather than the backdrop. The Living Desert understands this perfectly and opens at 7am all summer.
Both versions work. What doesn't work is arriving in July with an October plan.
A few practical notes. The Living Desert is cashless — no cash at all, including for the giraffe feeding. The Aerial Tramway takes a maintenance shutdown each autumn, so check the dates before you build Sunday around it. And several of the cheap or free attractions here go dark in summer: Sunnylands reopens 9 September 2026 and the Village Green Heritage Center is closed until 15 October 2026.
One last thing that catches families out every week: no dogs at Indian Canyons or Tahquitz Canyon, at all. If you're travelling with the dog, the Air Museum is the only stop on this itinerary that will take them.
Saturday
47900 Portola Avenue, Palm Desert — about 25 minutes from Palm Springs. $44.95 adults, $34.95 ages 3–17, under 3 free, and entirely cashless. Open 8am–5pm from October to May, but 7am–1:30pm daily from June to September. Feed a giraffe ($10, 8am to 1pm), ride the carousel, and give the model railroad twice as long as you think it needs. Allow three hours.
160 S Palm Canyon Drive, back in downtown Palm Springs. A walk-up counter, which is exactly what you want with overheated children — every shake comes with a warm mini donut on the straw, baked in house. Order the Date Walnut once so somebody in the family has tried it. Then go back to the hotel pool and stay there until six.
1800 E Palm Canyon Drive. If you're staying here, dinner is El Jefe on the lawn — tacos, a pool menu, and a courtyard loud enough that nobody notices your family. $5 tacos on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 to 9pm. If you're not staying here, come anyway; the restaurant is open to the public and the rainbow doors are the most photographed thing in town.
Sunday
745 N Gene Autry Trail, daily 10am to 5pm. The best hot-day activity in the valley — 80-plus aircraft across 91,000 square feet of air-conditioned hangar, with almost no ropes between kids and the planes. Adults $25, teens 13–17 $23, and children 12 and under free with a paying adult. Leashed dogs welcome, which nothing else on this list allows.
1701 S Palm Canyon Drive. One acre, 3,000-plus cactus varieties, and the Cactarium — the first greenhouse in the world built specifically for cacti. $7 adults, $3 ages 5–12. Half an hour is plenty. Closed Wednesdays October to May, and Friday to Sunday mornings only in summer, so check the day before.
The finale, and the thing children actually talk about afterwards. $20.95 for ages 3–10, $36.95 adults, $15 to park. It is 30 to 40 degrees colder at 8,516 feet — coats, genuinely, even in August, and in winter there is often snow on the ground up there. Last car up 8pm, last car down 9:30pm. Note the annual maintenance shutdown, which in 2026 runs 8 September to 4 October.