The Hilton Palm Springs Resort is an ideal place to stay if you want to be within walking distance of The Vineyard Shopping Center, the Palm Springs Art Museum, and downtown Palm Springs.

Downtown Palm Springs, California, is a vibrant, compact hub of shops and boutiques, restaurants, bars (one featuring a lively drag show), the Palm Springs Art Museum, and numerous art galleries and public art displays. And it is all within easy walking distance of the Hilton Palm Springs Resort.

The Hilton Palm Springs Resort is a bit of a throwback design, not quite modernism, but still very much in touch with a ’70s boxy architectural style. It continues to try to plant its design foot in the ‘70s with a colorful groove decorating the interior spaces. The large, airy lobby and sitting area feature red, brown and blue splashes of color in the lamps, chairs and carpet.

The hotel itself is built around a large interior pool space with a huge pool, two hot tubs and plenty of sun deck space covered with an assortment of lounge chairs and cabanas. Palm trees and ample grass all around the pool area – entirely within the hotel building for a true oasis — create the feeling of a sanctuary from the hot desert and downtown hubbub outside. The Terrace Restaurant has outdoor seating adjacent to the pool area, and it looked to be a lovely area to enjoy breakfast. Because some COVID restrictions were still in place during our visit, however, we instead chose to order breakfast for takeout on several mornings to enjoy the meal on our deck overlooking the pool … also lovely.

About half of the 255 rooms face the pool area by design, and some (the ones facing west) have wonderful views from the deck toward the San Jacinto Mountains rimming the south of Palm Springs. The rooms on the outside of the hotel face streets and parking areas, although certainly on the south side, you still have views of the mountains.

The bedroom area of a Presidential Suite, where both the living room and bedroom have access to a long private balcony.

Each of the rooms, from the Presidential Suites and Junior Suites to the standard King or Double Queen rooms, are extremely spacious and very comfortable. In fact, we were amazed at the size of a standard room – at about 450 square feet for a king, more than enough space to feel comfortable and not cramped during a Palm Springs stay.

A Junior Suite at the Palm Springs Hilton.

The hotel was updated a few years ago, with a multi-million-dollar renovation, meaning each room boasts a large flat-screen TV, furnished terraces (for pool-facing rooms), free Wi-Fi that works very well, comfortable beds, comfy seating, and bathrooms that are both big (some so big you could rent them out as meeting spaces) and offer plenty of counter space and toiletries.

The bathroom of the Presidential Suite could hold a large party — with much of it just in the gigantic shower.

There is a full-service day spa on site that offers massages, facials and nail services. However, the few times we walked by the open door to the spa, we saw a woman at the front desk not wearing a mask, despite hotel mask mandates for guests and staff.

This Hilton also boasts a very serviceable fitness center with updated equipment and large windows overlooking the pool area. Unfortunately, though the fitness center is typically open 24 hours, it was closed during our stay because of COVID restrictions.

We love the fact that the Hilton Palm Springs Resort does not charge a resort fee! As we have stated many times, resort fees are, well, typically a way for a hotel to gouge more money out of its guests by promoting lower room rates, and then hitting them with a “oh, by the way, you have to pay this every day, too” once the room has been booked.

We do have one quibble though, that has nothing to do with anything COVID-related. Despite not charging resort fees, the $18 daily fee the hotel tacks onto a bill for self-parking is rather exorbitant in our view. Especially when, as we experienced on one night during our stay, the parking area quickly filled up other than a few spots somewhat distant from the hotel entry. There is a sign that indicates if the parking lot is full and you’ve paid for parking to see the front desk and a parking spot will be found, but frankly, that’s asking too much. If we’re paying $18 a night, hunting for a spot should not be part of the bargain.

All in all, the Hilton is a Hilton, albeit a verrrry nice resort-style hotel. As a Palm Springs hotel, you still get what you would expect from an international chain – high standards of service, COVID-level sanitization and certified cleaning protocols, and supremely friendly and well-trained staff. On multiple occasions, our encounters with staff at the front desk and when we were ordering our breakfast takeout were stellar examples of how to treat guests. The hotel is also pet friendly with a per-stay fee, not per day.

Since it is situated next to the Palm Springs Convention Center, usually 60 percent or more of the hotel’s business comes from conferences and meetings, but of course that took a nosedive during the pandemic. Still, it has managed in 2021 to start coming back with desperate leisure travelers, and we were told it expects the convention business to rebound soon enough. Meanwhile, the Hilton has redone its downstairs bar, creating a rather hip “takeout” style food venue, currently only on select nights, with “The Heyday,” a popular area food truck.

Formerly Harvey’s Bar, this comfortable lounge downstairs is now “They Heyday.”

Would we stay at the Palm Springs Hilton again? In a heartbeat, primarily because of its location – and the size of those standard king rooms. As a part of our stay, we were upgraded to the grand Presidential Suite – with a bathroom big enough for a large party — but next time we’d be very happy with a standard room or junior suite, too. The location certainly can’t be beat.

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