FIRST THINGS FIRST: This is a dally-not kind of deal, one that will go away at the stroke of midnight on Monday, May 1. (We say "stroke of midnight" should you live in a home with a bonging, old-school clock, and, if you do, you should appreciate how cool that is.) Here's the upshot: The Coachella Music & Art Festival is done for another year, as is the Stagecoach Festival, as is Desert X, the mondo, big-installation art happening that spread from Palm Springs to Coachella. The area's bustle-iest, do-everything-est time has wrapped, and the kind of attractive quiet that's settling in means that deals around the desert are afoot. So here's the next one:
PARKER PALM SPRINGS... has a May and June special on for coastal guests looking to flee the May Gray and June Gloom phenomenon. Of course, non-coastal guests are welcome, and anybody who wants to lounge poolside, with a book, on a perfect 90-degree day, at the chic hotel. The rooms? They start at $139, May 1 through June 30, but you'll need to make the reservation by the time your aforementioned bonging, old-school clock strikes midnight on May 1. And, of course, while the desert is a mite more chill these days, it isn't as if Palm Springs doesn't have a whole (xeriscaped) garden of fun choices for go-outs; in fact, Greater Palm Springs Restaurant Week spreads out over the start of June, from June 2 to 11. The area will soon bustle again, with its film festival, and Modernism Week, and the big music festivals, but slipping into the Parker Palm Springs, at $139 a night and up, during a peaceful interlude, feels like a fine way to start the weather-warm-up season. And no bonging clock needs to tell us that.
