For a fabulous weekend getaway for under $250 each, read this article.  If you want to skip straight to the details (air, hotel, etc), they’re at the end of the article.

A Winter Break That Won’t Break Your Bank

Let’s say it’s winter and you’re dying to get away for a few days but you can’t decide whether you want warm climes or snow, activity or relaxation?  What if I told you, you don’t have to decide, you can have it all in the space of one weekend?  Ah, you say, but after a blow-out holiday season, who has the time or the money?  No problem.  A couple of winters ago, my spouse and I went sunbathing, snow-shoeing, hiking and shopping all from a Friday to a Sunday for under $250 each including airfare.   If we told you our base for this vacation was Palm Springs, would you be surprised?  We were.

It all started with Southwest Airlines offering fares we couldn’t pass up.  A quick flight to Ontario Friday morning, a rental car, and we were in Palm Springs before noon.  Surrounded by the pink desert mountains, and warmed by balmy 80 degree sunshine, we were ready for action.

Our first stop was the famous Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. The Tramway stands in the middle of the desert at the foot of the San Jacinto mountains. It boasts the world’s largest rotating tramcars — 80 passenger cars that revolve slowly from within, providing a spectacular 360 degree view of the valley floor and surrounding area.  (For anyone concerned that they might get dizzy or motion sickness, rest assured that you barely notice you’re rotating, except for when you realize that instead of looking directly at the sheer face of the mountain, you’re now facing out towards the Salton Sea.)  The Tramway rises vertically over 2 and 1/2 miles and when you reach the top it’s as if you just went instantly from the Sahara to the Sierras.  One minute you were in the scrub and dust of the desert, the next you’re in a snowy forested wonderland.

Once at the top of the mountain, the choices are plenty.  Sip coffee or have a full-course meal in the mountain-top restaurant with the panoramic view, take a slow stroll down a paved trail from the cable-car station to the ranger station, stopping to pick up fallen pine cones, or take a longer hike into the wilderness area.  The weekend we were there, there was so much snow on the ground that many people were snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing.  And although it was cool enough to wear a jacket over our t-shirts, we didn’t need our sweatpants. After an invigorating long walk along a snowy, pine-covered trail, we left the park in the late afternoon.

Palm Springs on a weekend evening is delightful. South Canyon Boulevard is lined with art galleries, shops and restaurants to suit all tastes. From antique jewelry to funky crafts, designer clothes to tacky souvenirs, Palm Springs is definitely a lot more hip than its golf-course image had led us to believe.  There’s every level of dining too.  Staying within our budget, while we were tempted by the fascinating entrees listed on the Twisted Fish menu, we opted for matzo ball soup and piled-high corned beef sandwiches at Sherman’s Deli.

The next morning, (after enjoying our complimentary breakfast poolside in the sunshine,) we set out for one of Palm Springs’ best kept secrets — the Indian Canyons at Agua Caliente Indian Reservation. There are three Canyons,  Palm, Andreas and Murray.  We picked Murray to start with which turned out to be an easy, but spectacular hike.  Setting out from the Andreas Canyon parking lot, you begin by walking through the kind of landscape you might expect from the desert — wide expanses of scrub desert, dotted with the kinds of plants you know were used for medicinal purposes by the native Indians.  But after about 20 minutes or so, the path changes direction — and  you are rewarded by the spectacular sight of a palm studded oasis.  The oasis turns out to be a stream that you can follow for several miles.  The trail winds its way  back and forth across the stream while you continue to be surrounded by rocky gorges and fan palm trees.

Returning the same way we came, we were more than ready for our packed lunch and Andreas Canyon is the pefect place to have a picnic.  You can choose to sit at a picnic table with a panoramic view of the area, or to find a more secluded table nestled among the fan palms and within sight of the stream.  Andreas Canyon boasts more than 150 species of plants within a half-mile radius in its lush oasis.  It also has a very easy loop nature trail which we strolled down after lunch.  Palm Canyon looked enticing, but by then we were ready to return to our hotel and spend the rest of the afternoon basking in the warm sunshine and taking quick dips in the pool.

In the evening we drove to Cathedral City, just a few miles from Palm Springs.  We were headed for “El Gallito”, a family-owned Mexican restaurant that has become a cultural icon.  It turned out to be both as popular as we’d heard (the wait was 40 minutes, which enabled us to have some interesting conversations with locals seated in the waiting area outside) and as tasty as we’d anticipated. The food is all home-made, including the tortilla chips.  We ordered a variety of enchiladas, tacos and the chile verde, all of which were delicious and the refried beans melted in our mouths.

Our main reason for coming to Palm Springs had been to see Joshua Tree National Park. Everything else was just icing on the cake.  But when we woke up on Sunday morning, we were shocked to find it was pouring with rain.  Assured by the local TV station’s weather report that the skies would clear (which they did), we set off on route 10 for the southern entrance to the park.

Although we use tour-books to plan our trips, when we go to a state or national park, we prefer to get information directly from those who work there.  The park ranger helped us plan an itinerary that turned out to be perfect.  Our first stop was Cottonwood Spring, a delightful natural oasis and a hike towards Mastodon Peak admiring the desert scenery and the fascinating plant-life as we walked. Joshua Tree National Park is actually made up of two different deserts — the southern entrance is in the Colorado Desert and the northern part of the park is in the Mojave Desert.  As we drove northward, we noticed how the low creosote bushes were giving way to tall spiny ocotillos and then to massive patches of cholla cactus. At the Cholla Cactus Garden we followed the nature trail and learned how these incredible cactus form and survive and why they’re called “jumping” Cholla.   Continuing our drive north, we began to see the namesake Joshua Trees and the rugged mountains of the upper desert.  We made several stops at groups of extraordinary rock formations — Split Rock, White Tank, Skull Rock, Arch Rock, following interpretive trails at the latter two and noting with envy the lucky people who got to camp at these granite monoliths.

Our final stop was Hidden Valley, originally an entirely closed circle of rocks with its own eco-system.  Many years ago a small section of the rocks was dynamited to create an entrance which enables visitors to take the most stunning one mile loop trail in a landscape that is so surreal you can’t help but feel you’re on a movie set.

We exited the park at the northern entrance near the town of Joshua Tree in the late afternoon and headed back to Ontario airport, arriving back in Sacramento in the late evening.   Though just three short days, it felt like we’d taken a complete vacation to somewhere far-away.  And we didn’t break the bank doing it.

Shoestring budgeting:

Airfare: Southwest Air: $39 + tax per person

Rental car: Budget: $64, inc. tax for 3 days.

Hotel: Vagabond: $119 inc. tax for 2 nights.

Meals: Dinners were less than $10 per person. Lunches were less than $5 each.

Entertainment: Palm Springs Tramway $20 per person (discounts for children and seniors.)

Entrance Fees: Indian Canyons entrance fee, $6 per person; Joshua Tree National Park, $10 per car.

If You Go:

To Palm Springs: Take Rt. 10 from Ontario Airport, turning off at Route 111 towards Palm Springs, drive time approx. 1 hour.

To Indian Canyons: Head out on South Canyon Road.  Agua Caliente is just 3 miles south of Palm Springs.

To Joshua Tree: Take Rt. 10 from Palm Springs to Joshua Tree National Park turnoff sign (approx. 1 hour.)

To Ontario from Joshua Tree: Rt. 62 to Rt. 10 to Ontario.  Approx 1 1/4 hours.