Mark Stefanos
The Renaissance, Riviera and Saguaro hotels became home to Splash House again this past weekend. After speaking with Splash House founder Tyler McLean last week, we knew we had to get out to Palm Springs to take in the full city experience for Weekend 2.
We kicked off the festival at the Friday After Hours with UK groovester Max Dean, followed by the venerated Disclosure, who closed the night out with a DJ set mixing some upbeat ditties with their catalog of modern classics. The Afters is a sight to behold, turning the backside of the Palm Springs Air Museum into a stage with thousands of fans dancing and eating popsicles against a backdrop of historic war planes.
Pool festivities began midday Saturday. The weather was about ten degrees cooler than Weekend 1, still in the high 90s, but bearable enough to sustain the midday sun as long as you were hydrated and lotioned (or in the pool). We started at the Saguaro, then bopped to the Renaissance, probably the biggest of the hotel venues, and danced in the crowd to Ranger Trucco and Max Styler between floating and eating sessions. We then hopped the shuttle — a party in and of itself — to the Riviera for a lit set (both the energy and the literal lights) by Boys Noize. At night, Discip and Cloonee kept the After Hours active and spirits cheery.
We played Sunday in reverse, hitting Riviera first, then Saguaro for Taiki Nulight and Andruss, who got booties shaking. Then we were off to the Renaissance, where AYYBO and Sofi Tukker closed out the fest (the music portion at least) with a bang.
Splash House Weekend 2 (Mike Kim)
Stacked as they are, Splash House is a lot more than these lineups. The draw of the two-weekend affair is the overlapping partying that happens between rooms, in hallways, on the shuttles and in Airbnbs throughout the town. It’s akin to Burning Man or car camping at Coachella — the buzz of the shared living experience that feels like you’re a college freshman bouncing from dorm to dorm to Denny’s, but a more mature version given the slightly older demo that makes up the majority of the attendees. Like Burning Man, where each camp has a theme or purpose, many of the rooms have a theme, and decorate their balcony, and sometimes dress up, accordingly, with some competing in the Bitchin’ Balconies contest to award the best decorating efforts.
Lots of attendees make it a yearly pilgrimage, with some vets talking about the “good ‘ol days” of the fest pre-pandemic. Some even come for Weekend 1 and stay through both weekends. It’s the kind of festival that’s great for a one-off, but we can definitely see how it gets even better with repeat visits, as you learn the lay of the land, party with new crews, and become integrated into the community.
When we weren’t taking part in the festival, we were able to zip around Palm Springs and experience the fullness of the culture. The beauty of having Splash House in August is that it’s the tourist low season, which means you can check out the town’s best attractions and restaurants without having to deal with the crowds or waitlists of peak months. Despite an influx of maybe 10,000 partiers in town for the festival, the streets are pretty clear for breezy drives. You can get basically everywhere you want within 15 minutes and park on the street for free.
A question that seems to come up with our Palm Springs trips is, Why here? How did this stretch of desert turn into the town we know today?
Those questions were answered at the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, which chronicles the history of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. Descendants of the Cahuilla people, they have inhabited the Palm Springs area since time immemorial, with archaeological evidence of their presence dating back over 8,000 years.
The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum (Mark Stefanos)
It’s an impressive museum featuring a variety of state-of-the-art exhibits and presentations that give you a full sense of Cahuilla history, the hardships they endured through U.S. land expansion, and how they’ve endured through it all and preserved their heritage. It’s a must-see to learn about Palm Springs’ history, and you can take in the five exhibit areas in about two hours.
On the same complex as the museum, and the same tract as the Agua Caliente Casino, is the The Spa at Séc-he. The creation stories of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians center on sacred sites like the mineral hot springs, and you can today take in those same waters on the tribe’s sacred 12,000-year-old spring, known as Séc-he (“the sound of boiling water” in Cahuilla), revered for its healing properties.
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One of the top spas in the country, your experience begins with a 15-minute private dip in a bath filled with silky mineral water, unearthed from the spring for the first time in many millennia. After that, the award-winning complex offers a variety of amenities like quartz beds, salt caves, saunas, a full fitness center and salon, as well as communal outdoor fresh water and mineral water pools. After two days of pool parties, the Spa is the perfect place to rejuvenate before you head home and take on the week.
After experiencing the Splash House After Party at night, you must get the full experience of the Palm Springs Air Museum during the day. The five hangars of the museum house one of the world’s largest collections of planes and various aircraft from World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the wars since, plus interactive exhibits, like flight simulators, artifacts, artworks, a research library, and a kids’ area with cockpit access.
F-117A Nighthawk at the Palm Springs Air Museum (Mark Stefanos)
In the World War II hangar, we boarded a real, giant B-17 Flying Fortress, where we got a tour by an Air Force vet, who gave us the gritty details of the missions the bombers flew in various theaters of the Second Great War. The “Top Secret” Houston Hangar features a formerly operational F-117A Nighthawk, the world’s first stealth aircraft. The angular beast takes up the whole hangar — it’s pretty stunning to stand in front of it and take in the engineering marvel.
No visit is complete without a trip up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. It unexpectedly closed during Weekend 1 of Splash, so we were lucky that it reopened for Weekend 2. After a 15-minute drive from downtown, you get on board the world’s largest rotating aerial tramcar. A 10-minute ride aboard takes you about 2.5 miles and almost 6,000 feet, from the desert floor at Valley Station to the Mountain Station of the San Jacinto with an elevation of about 8,500 feet. It rotates the whole time, giving you a 360-degree view of the Chino Canyon and the Coachella Valley down below.
View from the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway (Mark Stefanos)
Once you’re at the top, there’s a three-floor visitors center at Mountain Station that includes the fine dining restaurants, Peaks, and Pines Café, plus observation decks and a museum. Or you can pop outside and explore, hike or camp at Mount San Jacinto State Park. With temps reaching nearly 100 degrees in downtown Palm Springs that day, being outdoors in the Park in the cool 72 degrees was a treat.
A perk of visiting Palm Springs in low season is you don’t have to make restaurant reservations a week in advance, as eating at the best spots is always the top travel priority of your gluttonous correspondent.
On Friday evening before the Afters, we were finally able to check out Bar Cecil, one of the hottest dining spots in the Coachella Valley. Inspired by British photographer and designer Cecil Beaton, the boutique Michelin restaurant and bar is decked with sophisticated décor and original artworks. Plus the food is great, launched by Palm Springs native Executive Chef Gabriel Woo and now led by Chef de Cuisine Bryan Ramirez. We sat at their vibey bar, and got their terrific deviled eggs, and pork chop and steak entrees.
On Saturday before the Splash, we grabbed brunch at Lola Rose Grand Mezze on the second floor of the Thompson Hotel. The spacious restaurant has two halls and overlooks the hotel pool and downtown drag, and is led by Coachella Valley-native Chef Quentin Garcia, who’s worked at Michelin restaurants and featured on “Chopped: Spin it to Win It.” The restaurant features Mediterranean food with California’s seasonal flavor. We weren’t in a breakfast mood, so we got the kebabs, which were perfect, and they came with a cucumber yogurt sauce, rice and salad, as well as refreshing hibiscus iced teas.
The Avalon Hotel & Bungalows adult pool (Mark Stefanos)
The Avalon Hotel & Bungalows, just off the main downtown drag, was our home base for the weekend, a cute, upscale mid-century complex with unique rooms and bungalows. When not having a comfy recoup from the festival in our room, we kicked it at the adults’ pool and enjoyed a perfect steak frites from the house restaurant Chi Chi, while soaking in an incredible view of Mount San Jacinto.
To figure out what to do on your next Palm Springs trip, check out visitgreaterpalmsprings.com or on Instagram @visitgreaterps.
Exit message at the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum (Mark Stefanos)