Palm Springs has always been one of our easy getaway locations ever since moving to Los Angeles six years ago. It’s warm, quiet, filled with lots of great design, and it’s all within two hours (give or take with traffic). Ever since having two kids, we almost always stay in a vacation home when we travel. It’s a much better option for us to stay in a house with space for the kids to play. I am partnering with Airbnb this year to experience what it’s like to stay with my family in a number of the vacation homes available on their site. Airbnb put us up in this awesome house we chose for our Palm Springs stay, and it had the perfect mix of outdoor space for the kids plus comfortable living and amenities. Here’s what we did…

I was in town earlier in the week working on the Modernism House so Bob and the kids joined me for the weekend. I wanted my family to see all the work we had done on the Oh Joy room during the previous week so we stopped there first. It’s always so fun for me to get to show them some of my work in real life since they rarely get to see it in process. The kids wanted to move into the room immediately which is always a good sign 😉 Then, we checked into our Airbnb for the weekend!

I always look for homes with great details. Inside there was a beautiful piano the kids loved, a giant chalkboard wall, and other small instruments and games that kept us entertained on the rainy days. It’s little details like this that make it super fun to stay at a great, well-designed and well-thought out home.

The outdoor space was a dream. While it rained for part of the weekend, the sun finally came out halfway through with enough time to enjoy the pool, the crazy cute gold trailer, and the games the house had in the backyard.

A few other things we did included…

1. Brunch at King’s Highway with a photo booth photo, of course!

2. Design and a treat at Ice Cream & Shoppe. The owner, Athalie, of our Airbnb also owns an ice cream and design shop—pretty much my two favorite things mixed together!

3. Touristy shopping. Sometimes when you’re on vacation, you come across a string of shops for items that you don’t really need but are so fun to try on. We had a great time at this hat shop trying on all different kinds. We even stopped at a sock shop to see all the unique socks they had!

4. A design pop-up. We came across another cute design shop called Desert Wanderlust filled with the work of independent designers and artists from the California area. If you wanted to buy a souvenir, this was a nice alternative to a traditional touristy gift shop with items that felt local but more designed.

5. Dinner at FrankinBun. If you like hot dogs, this place is SOOO good. And that tornado potato might have been the best use of a potato I have ever had. They also have the BEST wallpaper—look really close for the hot dog in a tux!

6. Finally, on the way out of town, we stopped to see the Cabazon Dinosaurs. It’s just 20 minutes outside of Palm Springs somewhat on the drive back to Los Angeles. You can see them from the rest stop or if the museum is open (which it wasn’t when we went), there’s more to explore inside!

I will always love Palm Springs. I loved it before having kids, and it’s even more fun now with kids.

P.S. Palm Springs four years ago!

*This post is brought to you in partnership with Airbnb. All words are my own.