Palm Springs With A Twist
If, from the title, you are expecting a blog about Palm Springs’ cocktail culture, you are in for a surprise. The “twist” refers to the delightful “Twist” Airbnb where we stayed AND our “twist” on how to get around when visiting Palm Springs.
Yes that is beached whale in the distance.
Twist Design
First off, neither the Twist owner nor Airbnb sponsored our stay so we are not “obligated” to say nice things. But we will because it is true.
Loved this view as we headed out for an adventure everyday.
Upon our arrival, as were getting out of our Uber car, we immediately loved its ultra clean, two-story white mid-century motel-like architecture. Our love was heightened when we opened the gate to see the crystal blue water of the pool with funky orange lounge chairs and giant unicorn, swan and whale pool toys floating in the pool inviting us to come play with them.
Then when we opened the door to our apartment, we immediately loved the space, colours and playful furniture and art.
The large west-facing windows gave the spacious, open living room, dining room and kitchen lots of light (often desert architecture, because of the heat, avoids letting the sun shine into the house, resulting in interior rooms often feeling dark and dingy). The windows and generous balcony offered a great view of the mountains. I immediately thought I could live here and as the week progressed that thought was confirmed over and over again.
Comfy couch...
Mellow Yellow...
And a beer or glass of wine....
Flower power....
Hot Tip #1
Our apartment #207 was at the back of the building so it was super quiet.
Yep, that's me relaxing on the balcony...
Twist Location
The fact we could walk out the door and be immediately in the Design District with its mix of new and vintage furniture and home accessory stores as well as art galleries, was great.
We did a window walk-by the first afternoon, then a stroll the next day and another walk-by at night as some of the well-lit windows are like art installations.
A 15-minute walk via the Design District gets you downtown with more boutiques, restaurants, cafes, museum and art galleries.
This was Brenda's favourite shop...gotta like those mail boxes.
Museum or home store?
Guess what kind of shop this was....
Windows as art....
Form & Function
Hot Tip #2
Admission for the Palm Springs Art Museum (PSAM) is free every Thursday night and second Sunday of the month. It is a “must see” with its always entertaining and enlightening exhibitions. It’s an easy and short walk from The Twist on the back roads through the charming Old Las Palmas community to get there.
There is nothing weird, wild or wacky about PSAM, which makes it easy to enjoy the art and not get lost.
Definitely the most imaginative exhibition I saw in 2017 was Kinesthesia: Latin American Kinetic Art, 1954–1969. This is Gyula Kosice's installation "La ciudad hidroespacial."
Carlos Curz-Diez's installation "Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color and Space." The three empty rooms and a hallway flooded with colored lights was like walking into a neon-light sign. Disorienting and playful at the same time....
Backstory:
This exhibition is the first in-depth examination of the pioneering role played by South American artists in the international Kinetic Art movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Grounded by scholarly research into experimental art movements of the late 1940s and early 1950s in Buenos Aires, Caracas, and Rio de Janeiro, Kinesthesia begins its survey with the layered “vibrational” works created by Jesús Rafael Soto for the historic Le Mouvement exhibition at Galerie Denise René in Paris (1955) and goes on to explore more than fifty examples by nine artists.
The works of internationally well-known figures, such as Carlos Cruz-Diez, Gyula Kosice, and Julio Le Parc, along with Martha Boto, Horacio García-Rossi, Alejandro Otero, Abraham Palatnik, and Gregorio Vardánega, will be a discovery for most viewers in the United States.
Kinesthesia makes a compelling case that although Paris remains the indisputable capital of Kinetic Art, much of the Latin American work thought to be in that category did not come into being as a consequence of the movement, but often anticipated, and unfolded in tandem with, the better-known European developments.
Twist Bikes
We loved the Twist’s bright orange cruiser bikes that allowed us to explore the residential neighbourhoods nearby and further afield. Old Palmas and the Movie Colony communities just west and east of The Twist are full of classic mid-century modern homes – it’s like cycling through a copy of Architectural Digest.
We did the Palm Springs Mid-century Modern Architectural Self-guided Tour on bike:
Treasure Hunting Twist
Then another day we took the bikes and headed to the Antique District just south of Downtown where we found amazing treasure hunting at Revivals Thrift store, ECHO Vintage Furnishing (good prices, professionally curated), Antique Galleries of Palm Springs (huge) and Sunny Dunes Antique Mall.
Echo Vintage Furnishings is heaven for mid-century lovers.
Antique Galleries Palm Springs is packed with treasures on two floors.
Imagine finding a grand piano at a thrift store.
Untitled, Jensen, 24" x 11" oil painting. Picked up this artwork to add to our collection at the Antique Galleries of Palm Springs for $50 CDN.
Hot Tip #3
Check out Peninsula Pastries in the same outdoor mall as Revivals. It is a little bit of Paris in Palm Springs - the chocolate tongues are to die for.
The chocolate tongues were worth every penny....
Transit Twist
Everybody told us we needed a car in Palm Springs. Nobody told us public transit can work just fine for tourists. While the buses don’t run every 5-minutes, Google Maps can tell you when the next bus is so you just plan for that. Bonus: the cost is only 50 cents for seniors (60+) and youth (5 to 17 years), $1 for adults while kids under 5 are FREE. Ten-ride and 31-day passes are also available. We were able to take the bus to Cathedral City to check out the Goodwill and Revivals thrift stores, as well as Target and Trader Joes.
Link: Sunline Transit
Hot Tip #4
There is also a free trolley service Thursday to Sunday, 11 am to 1 am called Palm Springs BUZZ. Hop on and off as much as you wish. The BUZZ serves the City of Palm Springs by travelling down Palm Canyon Drive to Smoke Tree, and up Indian and Palm Canyons Drives to Via Escuela (that’s the simple description—there are some small detours off the main streets.)
Yes everything in Palm Springs is playful and colourful....that is probably why it could become my happy place.
Last Word
We can hardly wait to get back to The Twist and Palm Springs. It could easily become an annual visit.
Hot Tip #5
For those really hoping this blog would be about cocktails, we have recommendation on that too. Checkout Melvyn’s Sunday Afternoon Jam. It is right out of the ‘50s, you would swear the Rat Pack is somewhere in the building. It is the perfect spot to order your favourite cocktail and enjoy some live music from the ‘50s. I had a Black Russian for probably the first time in two decades. FYI: I think there were still some patrons as well as the staff, have been hanging out here since the ‘50s. Great people watching!
