The Best Things to Do on Your Birthday in Palm Springs

We've tried and tested seven brilliant ways to spend a birthday in Palm Springs.

t's your birthday. You can cry if you want to – but we’d recommend throwing a blow-out bash instead. Wondering where to make merry? Pack your bags and make for Palm Springs, the decadent desert oasis famed for being the hangout of the Rat Pack back in the 60s and 70s.

Surrounded by the stunning San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains, blessed with 360 days of sunshine each year and home to some of the buzziest bars and hotels in the world, Palm Springs is, to paraphrase one of the city’s most famous sons, “our kind of place.” It’s an incredible destination to celebrate being older and wiser, and we have a selection of ideas to inspire you on the best way to ring in a birthday in Palm Springs.

Read the piece here:

https://www.plumguide.com/journal/the-best-things-to-do-on-your-birthday-in-palm-springs

Los Angeles: the low-down

When it comes to destinations, there’s no place quite like Los Angeles with its history of Hollywood glamour,  famed themed parks, resurgent downtown district, stellar shopping centres and year round warm climate.
Here’s our guide to where to stay and play in the city of Angels this autumn/winter…

Must see and do
No visit to Los Angeles is complete without paying a pilgrimage to the Dolby Theatre - renowned as the home of the annual Academy Awards. If you want to get up close and personal with a genuine Oscar statuette, you’ll need to be prepared to put your hands in your pocket and pay for a 30 minute tour which take place daily between 10.30am and 4pm (www.dolbytheatre.com/tours/tour-information.)
Next up, head to the nearby Hollywood Walk of Fame (www.walkoffame.com) to pose with a sidewalk star - one of the city’s most beloved free attractions. Honouring luminaries in motion pictures, television, radio, live theatre, and recording since 1960, the famous sidewalk compromises more than 2,600 five-pointed pink stars.

 

From the Hollywood Walk of Fame it’s a short walk to the TCL Chinese Theatre (www.tclchinesetheatres.com/), where screen legends throughout the ages have left their imprints in cement in Grauman’s famous forecourt.
Lastly do check out Downtown LA - an area that has undergone an urban renaissance in recent years. It used to be sketchy (Skid Row anyone?) but now it’s super cool and home to fantastic museums - don’t miss the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (www.moca.org) - and galleries galore, a great food scene (go to the recently renovated Grand Central Market) and South Broadway, an area that’s being touted as LA's next big shopping destination. 

Top shops

As you would expect for such a celeb studded city, Los Angeles is incredibly image conscious. Want to shop for a new wardrobe with the stars? Go to The Grove - a pretty  al fresco shopping centre that’s popular with the likes of Heidi Klum and the Kardashian Klan. (www.thegrovela.com)
Alternatively if you’re feeling flush,  make a beeline for Beverly Hills (www.lovebeverlyhills.com) and iconic shopping streets such as Melrose Avenue (www.melroseavenue-shop.com), Rodeo Drive (www.rodeodrive-bh.com) and Wilshire Boulevard.

 

After dark
When night falls, look to the legendary Sunset Strip - a 1.5 mile stretch of clubs, boutiques and restaurants between Crescent Heights and Doheny Drive. TNT’s tip? Try The Troubadour (www.troubadour.com) , Viper Room (www.viperroom.com) where actor River Phoenix famously overdosed in 1993, and the House of Blues (www.houseofblues.com/losangeles) that’s owned by actor Dan Aykroyd.
Another suggestion is to schlepp to South Park (www.southpark.la) - a huge complex that houses the dining and entertainment hub that is LA Live, the Nokia Theatre (where the MTV Music Awards finals take place) and the Staples Center, aka the home of the LA Lakers baseball team. The saucer shaped Staples Centre is also the place to see artists like Justin Bieber and Bruno Mars in action.

Best kept secret
Every Los Angeles itinerary has to include a bit of Hollywood show business. Luckily, there are multiple opportunities to see a taping of your favourite television shows live so as to get a sneak peek of the TV magic you see at home. Even better? Tickets to the majority of shows are free - try Audiences Unlimited (www.tvtickets.com). It’s also possible to take tours of all the main studios - think Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers Studios. Tours vary from studio to studio but will typically show you around the sets and stages and inside the wardrobe department.

Excursions

 

If you really want to tune into the LA vibe, start your day with a spot of yoga on the sand at Santa Monica (www.santamonica.com) or jog along the boardwalk to Venice Beach (www.venicebeach.com). Here you can watch budding basketball players slam dunk on the concrete courts, while greased up bodybuilders pump iron at Muscle Beach – a legendary al fresco weight lifting centre.

Then make for Malibu - which spans 27 miles of the Pacific Coast Hwy and is home to Hollywood heavyweights such as Barbara Streisand, Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman et al as well as LA’s best beaches. There are over 20 stretches of golden sand to choose from but standouts include Surfrider, Point Dume State Beach and Zuma Beach (you’ll recognise it as the backdrop to Baywatch and I Dream of Jeanie, amongst others.)

Getting around
“Nobody walks in LA.”
So sang The Missing Persons back in the eighties. Yet while the car is still king in the City of Angels, LA is slowly beginning to put the brakes on on its car-centric roots.
Over 120 miles of new bike ways have been created within the city of Los Angeles in the last five years, while Metro and bus options have been increased giving visitors the tools they need to navigate the city without relying on a car.

For the full low-down on Los Angeles, please visit www.discoverlosangeles.com/

Words: Kaye Holland

http://digitaledition.tntmagazine.com/los-angeles-the-low-down/

Where the experts holiday: Nick Kontis, travel author and journalist

Born in Greece on one of the most breathtakingly beautiful islands in the world, Santorini, Nicholas Kontis was brought up in the cultural capital of the Americas, San Francisco. From a very young age, he developed a passion for travel as he shuttled between California home and Athens during summer vacations. At age 12, he learned the meaning of travel immersion as he slept on couches in various relatives’ homes and learned to bake his own bread.
Fast forward a decade and Nick launched the first successful travel agency in the United States that specialised in discount around-the-world airfares. Before long, he had been featured on Arthur Frommer’s travel TV show and Peter Greenberg’s radio show while Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler hailed him as the “father of around-the-world airfares.”
Today Nick is an award-winning travel journalist and author who still calls San Francisco home, while also spending time in the Napa Valley, Greece and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

What do you like to do on holiday?
I seek people and a better understanding of my destination. At the forefront of any journey, travel begins with people. I try to tred lightly on our pristine planet. I want to volunteer more. Yes, I’m Greek, so I am a foodie. I like to seek out parts of a city with their own unique slice of culture, character and charm.  I’m a Greek-Californian living part of the year in Mexico, so surfing and diving and sea are dear to me. You know, when I was 24, I drove from Darwin to Sydney. Oh, to be a backpacker again and do more overland travel. One day, I’m psyching my mind to be 18-24 again.

Where did you last go?
Istanbul in Turkey. The U.S. State Department said: “Do not travel to Turkey.” That was the clincher!
While in Istanbul, Peter Greenberg, the great  Emmy-winning investigative reporter, interviewed me by phone and asked me what’s going at midnight on a Saturday night in Istanbul. I told him the truth, that the Turkish people remain as nice as ever. They were as curious to learn and know more about me, as I was to learn about them. I always say one thing, as you travel the world you learn that people are much more the same than different.  

Do you know where you’re going this year?
I tend to stay in Mexico during the summer. Did you know that low season in Mexico is right now until September and I’m loving it? I’ll probably end up back in Greece, but I have this plan to attempt to visit Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. I’m aiming to be in London in November and I really need to get to Australia. I want to go to Perth.

Of all the places you’ve been to, which was your favourite and why?
You know, I’m asked this so often and the canned response from a travel guy is supposed to be, “I like all places” or something along these lines. I’m going to leave out Greece, Italy and Mexico for now. Back in the day I was mesmerised by Burma -it was as if time had stood still. Even in the worst of times, people are lovely in Burma. I guess I should be saying Myanmar, but the country was known as Burma when I was there. There are so many cool things to do there from drifting down the Irrawaddy River in an old river steamer to lazing on deserted beaches in the serene Bay of Bengal. Plus, the people are passionate and inquisitive.  I had a similar feeling in Nepal, where I once spent a month.

Which destination do you wish to travel to, but haven’t yet been?
Here’s the thing: you may think that you’ve  seen it all, there’s so many new and wonderful people and places to discover. So, getting back to your question, there’s too many to count. I think I have travelled to 85 countries and still have so much left to see. The Silk Road is calling me right now as is Easter Island in Chile. And, as a diver, I want to go to Palau. Then there’s West Africa – I’ve yet to visit – and both poles. Ethiopia and Bolivia are two more. 

In your own country, what would you recommend tourists see that isn’t in the travel guides?
My country of California or my country of America? Yes, I’m kidding, but America is a big place. I think just about every place is in a travel guide nowadays. In California, parts of Yosemite are still less visited. Two other recommendations are the Russian River in Sonoma, just north of San Francisco, and Santa Cruz – a lovely seaside surf town. All these places bring back fond childhood memories.
Other parts of America that are still a bit under the radar include The San Juan Islands in Washington, The Smokey Mountains in Tennessee and Big Bend National Park in Texas. Like Australia, America has great open spaces.

How do you plan your holiday?
Funny, you ask, I’ve spent my working life acting as a travel advisor and now influencer, but I can be my own worse travel agent. However, I ask around. I tend to trust people who have visited a destination where I would like to visit, for advice. As I wrote a book titled Going Local Experiences and Encounters on the Road, Airbnb is an excellent way to travel for a bargain and to meet people. Sometimes, I do not plan at all. Many times I travel on just a one-way ticket.

How often do you go away?
If you consider Mexico, my second home as “going away” I would say I’m away from my native San Francisco for around five months. I’m in Mexico as we speak, so technically I am overseas.

Who do you travel with?
Usually, it’s just my wife and I. That said, I do a couple of trips with friends as well.

Where do you see tourism in your country, in 10 years?
Well, that’s a good question. As much as I want the man in the big white dome to succeed, I cannot support someone who I feel is not pro-people. It’s really sad in America that this guy is dividing our nation for the worse. Did you know that only 38% of Americans have passports? It sickens me that Americans don’t travel much.
I was reminded, as a travel author, not to expect big things from my book as two thirds American’s will not care about immersion into local societies around the world, when they might never leave their state. I always believe that it is my duty to attempt to change as many Americans’ perceptions of people and places that I can.  I just hope that the world still visits America. We’re still a beautiful nation.

 Nick’s first book Going Local – Experiences and Encounters on the Road is out now and available via Amazon (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Going-Local-Experiences-Encounters-Road/dp/0997894709) or his website (www.nicholaskontis.com)

Follow Nick on Twitter & Instagram @nicholaskontis
 

View the post here: http://www.justabouttravel.net/2017/06/30/where-the-experts-holiday-nick-kontis-travel-author-and-journalist/

Post card from Palm Springs

Desert meets mountain vistas, year round sunshine, swanky bars and celebrity appeal help make Palm Springs an inviting destination at any time of year - not just during Coachella -  writes Kaye Holland

In recent years Palm Springs has become synonymous with Coachella - think Glastonbury minus the mud - which, this year, will take place over two weekends in April (14-16 and 21-23) and play host to artists like Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Radiohead, Skepta and Stormzy, as well as around 80,000 visitors.

Coachella - aka the most glamorous music festival on earth -  aside, there are plenty of reasons why you should head to Palm Springs, a favourite hangout of the Rat Pack back in the 60s and 70s. Here’s five of the best…

Celebrity homes
Located 110 miles east of Los Angeles, Palm Springs is where Ol Blue Eyes and his cool cronies escaped to when they needed a break from the pressures of Hollywood. However it wasn’t solely Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jnr and Dean Martin who flocked to this decadent desert oasis. Old school Hollywood actors and entertainers including Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe,and Liberace all had extravagant homes here.
And no trip to Palm Springs is complete without seeing the homes of the aforementioned in addition to the street where Bob Hope and Bing Crosby both lived, the house where Elvis and Priscilla honeymooned, plus the properties featured in both Ocean’s Eleven and Miami Vice. TNT can vouch for the Best of the Best’s 90 minute ‘Rich And Famous’ tour: expect to see the estates of the celebrities who helped put Palm Springs on the map.

It’s got architecture
Architecture is another Palm Springs’ attraction. Not only was Palm Springs a mecca for Hollywood stars but star architects - step forward E. Stewart Williams, John Lautner and Donald Weller - also created some spectacular buildings. As such, the desert town boasts the largest concentration of mid-century modern architecture in America. Keep your iPhone close as you’ll see one storey homes with curved roofs, rectangular pavilions and floor to ceiling glass walls. 
To learn a little more about the area’s buildings, visit the Palm Springs Architecture and Design Centre 

Good retail therapy
Palm Springs is also certain to satisfy shopaholics. For funky vintage stores and second hand furniture shops, the Uptown Design district is where it’s at. Even if shopping doesn’t interest you, don’t miss Dazzles (760-327-1446) whose garden is choc full of kitsch 1960s phone cabinets, plastic flamingos and 1950s sun loungers making for retro sensory overload. 
Elsewhere label lovers will want to head to the Desert Hills Premium Outlets to pick up Prada, Burberry and Armani Exchange threads for a snip of the recommended retail price.

Pool parties
The number one reason people flock to Palm Springs is to drink designer cocktails and dance to fresh DJ spun tunes, around kidney shaped pools until the wee small hours. (ForgetNew York, PalmSprings is the real US city that never sleeps). The pool party over at Ace – a hip, happening and celebrity ridden hotel  – is a great place to drink over sized margaritas. Another hot spot to gather post midnight is the rainbow hued Saguaro Palm Springs -  pronounced Suh-whar-oh - where the pool is surrounded by beds of bright desert flowers.

The great outdoors
Contrary to public perception,  Palm Springs isn’t all about rubbing shoulders with celebs at pumping pool parties. Anyone who loves the great outdoors will want to take a trip to the Indian Canyons – the ancestral lands of the Cahuilla tribe –  and the natural wonder that is the Joshua Tree National Park. Approximately a one hour drive away from Palm Springs, this slice of protected wilderness encompasses two desert eco systems and, of course, the spiky leafed Joshua trees.
Back in Palm Springs, golf enthusiasts can hit the fairways – there’s more than 100 courses to choose from, including the famed PGA West stadium, which hosts the CareerBuilder Challenge (formerly the Bob Hope Classic) every February - or ride the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. The world’s largest rotating cable cars will take you from the scorching desert valley to the summit of San Jacinto mountain in a mere 10 minutes. TNT’s tip: it gets chilly at the top of the mountain – even in summer – so bring a jumper.

For more information on Palm Springs, visit www.visitpalmsprings.com

For more information on Coachella, visit www.coachella.com

View the post here: http://digitaledition.tntmagazine.com/postcard-from-palm-springs/

Star spotting in LA

The famed themed parks,  resurgent downtown district, stellar shopping centres and year round warm climate may have all played a part in luring you to LA. However chances are the real reason you’re headed to Hollywood is in the hope that you’ll see stars. Make no mistake: no trip to the City of Angels is complete, if you don’t spot at least one celeb. Kaye Holland reveals how you can up the odds...

Say hello to Hollywood
 

You can’t come to LA and leave without ticking off the Dolby Theatre, where the stars shimmy along the red carpet for the annual Academy Awards every January. If you want to see inside the actual auditorium, VIP room and gawp at a genuine Oscar statuette, fork out for a 30 minute tour which take place daily between 10.30am and 4pm. Close by lies the Hollywood Walk of Fame, whose pink stars - embedded in the sidewalk - honour the rich and famous. And do check out the TCL Chinese Theatre, where screen legends throughout the ages have left their imprints in cement in Grauman’s famous forecourt, before heading to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Santa Monica Boulevard.  Famous residents include Johnny Ramone - best known for being the guitarist for the punk rock band, The Ramones - Rudolph Valentino and Cecil B de Mile. However if you want to pay your respects to legends like Dean Martin and Marilyn Monroe, you'll need to wander to west to the postage-stamp sized Memorial Park graveyard in Westwood Village.
 

Let your hair down on the Sunset Strip
LA’s nightlife venues tend to be guarded by bouncers who take their jobs a tad too seriously (so you’ll need to look the part and dress up). It’s worth the effort though: evenings out on the legendary Sunset Strip - a 1.5 mile stretch of clubs, boutiques and restaurants between Crescent Heights and Doheny Drive - are the bomb, and the perfect place to rub shoulders with celebs. Try the Troubadour (Joni Mitchell started her singing career here), Viper Room (where actor River Phoenix famously overdosed in 1993 and Tommy Lee Jones once attacked a pap), Bar Marmont (located in the exclusive Chateau Marmont and a favourite haunt of Jonny Depp’s),Sky Bar at the Mondrian hotel and the House of Blues - a celebrated Sunset Strip music hall, owned by actor Dan Aykroyd. Regardless of which 'spot' on The Strip you visit, the odds of seeing a star are high as many live close by above Sunset Boulevard in the exclusive enclaves of Laurel Canyon and the Hollywood Hills.

Schelpp to South Park
Despite what the name suggests, South Park isn’t actually a park. Rather it’s a huge complex that houses the dining and entertainment hub that is LA Live, the Nokia Theatre (the MTV Music Awards and American Idol finals take place here) and the Staples Center. This flying saucer shaped arena is the home of the LA Lakers baseball team whose die hard fans - think Denzel Washington, Jack Nicholson, Zac Efron and Tobey Maguire - regularly turn out to root on their side. The Staples Center also hosts the Kings ice-hockey team. Should you manage to nab tickets for a game you could find yourself sitting among celebrity Kings' fans including Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson and Michael J. Fox to name but a few. You can also see celebrities performing on stage -  Bruno Mars and Justin Bieber have both headlined here.

Seek out Union Station
Situated in downtown LA - an area that has undergone an urban renaissance in recent years - Union station was built in 1930 and is the last of America’s grand rail stations. On arrival, chances are the North Alameda Street station’s glam art deco interior will be instantly familiar, having featured in films such as Speed, Blade Runner 24 and many more. With all day parking costing a mere US$6, why not stop off at the station? Who knows: if Lady Luck is on your side, you might just see a TV show being taped so keep your camera close!

Shop till you drop at The Grove
 

LA is – as you would expect for such a celeb studded city – ridiculously image conscious. If you want to shop for some new threads with the stars, go to The Grove - a Disney-esque  al fresco shopping centre that’s popular with the likes of Paris Hilton, Heidi Klum, Khloe and Kim Kardashian, Ashley Tisdale and countless others. Or make a beeline for Beverly Hills and march your manolos down streets such as Rodeo Drive (aka LA’s most iconic strip), Melrose Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard  - chock full as they are of fashion forward, celeb friendly stores.  A word of warning: the aforementioned streets are pricey (and pretentious) so the likelihood is you’ll need to take out a loan, drain your trust fund and pull out your credit card if you’re planning on making any purchases…

Make for Malibu

Magical Malibu - which spans 27 miles of the Pacific Coast Hwy - is celeb central. Hollywood heavyweights - take a bow Barbara Streisand, Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman et al - all own homes (read mega mansions) here. Malibu’s celebrities can be spotted shopping at the Malibu Country Mart - another al fresco shopping mall bursting with boutiques, galleries and restaurants - working up a sweat at Malibu Creek State Park or chill-axing on one of Malibu’s many beaches. There are over 20 stretches of golden sand to choose from but standouts include Surfrider, Point Dume State Beach and Zuma Beach (you’ll recognise it as the backdrop to Baywatch and I Dream of Jeanie, amongst others.)

Pop to a plastic surgeon
LA is a city that celebrates eternal youth and, as such, the slebs have their plastic surgeons on speed dial (the late Michael Jackson famously remarked that if everyone in Hollywood who had undergone plastic surgery went on holiday, there would be no one left in town!) During my sojourn in the Golden State, I spotted a crazy number of nose bandages (word on the street is that students at Beverly Hills High are ‘gifted’ nose jobs as a 16th birthday present). It sounds a little bizarre, but don’t forget this is Kardashian territory – the youngest of whom, Kylie Jenner, had her first round lip fillers at the tender age of 17. I also saw a lot of Angelenos wearing sunglasses indoors – which my Airbnb host, Cassi, informed me  - usually signifies that someone has had their eyes done. But the most popular plastic surgery procedure in LA is, by far and away, breast augmentation. Angeleno ladies are famed around the world for their ample cleavages (Pamela Anderson in Baywatch anyone?) but it’s still something of a shock to see a pair of LA breasts with your own eyes… The man the stars turn to when something needs smoothing, lifting or tucking? That would be Monsieur Toby Mayer who says: "Everyone in Hollywood has had plastic surgery. They make their living out of what they look like and they want to look good."
Don’t fancy going under the surgeon’s knife? Treat your tresses at The Chris McMillan salon in Beverley Hills. Chris is the maine (sorry!) man behind Jennifer Aniston’s iconic ‘Rachel’  haircut. He's also something of an A lister himself having appeared on former ABC series Extreme Makeover.

Best bookstore
 

LA isn’t completely vacuous though – promise! One of my best LA evenings was spent in The Last Bookstore – a gorgeous (think marble columns and giant doors), independent bookstore housed in what used to be an old bank building – listening to Joshua Fields Millburn, aka one half of The Minimalists, explain why living with a lot less is ultimately more. Or as Joshua and his similarly minded guest speakers such as Colin Wright (an author, entrepreneur and full time traveller ) and writers Skye Steele and Matt Sumell termed it: “Love people and use things. Because the opposite never works.” Check the website (www.lastbookstorela.com) for details of upcoming appearances from esteemed authors.

Tour a TV studio
Want to see modern day stars? Bag tickets to watch fellow Brit, James Corden, tape The Late Late Show for CBS. I mangaged to nab tickets two weeks in advance and got to see the incorrigible Corden (slimmer than he appears on screen) and famous guests  - here’s looking at Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Elisabeth Banks in person. For free tickets try CBS or Audiences Unlimited. It’s also possible to take tours of all the main studios - think Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers Studios. Tours vary from studio to studio but will typically show you around the sets and stages and inside the wardrobe department.

Climb Runyon Canyon
The rest of America may be suffering from an obesity crisis but not so in LA - the City of Angels’s adoration of the body beautiful knows no bounds and subsequently menus at most LA dining spots are full of lactose, dairy and yeast free, low sodium dishes. Seriously.
However if you really want to tune into the Cali vibe, start your day by following in the footsteps of celebs such as Robbie Williams, Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Jake Gyllenhaal and models of the moment Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner by hiking up Runyon Canyon. Alternatively make like Brand Beckham and sign up for a spinning class at SoulCycle. Victoria, David and offspring Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper have all been spotted working up a sweat at the Brentwood branch of the spin studio - as have Vanessa Hudgens, Jonah Hill and Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper.