the monkey tree hotel: all about our stay in palm springs

While in Palm Springs, we stayed at The Monkey Tree Hotel, a fabulous boutique hotel straight out of the 60’s. The hotel was originally built in 1960 and aside from the amazing retro style design, the hotel also has an impressive history behind it. Several famous stars stayed here in its heyday, including Katherine Hepburn, Lucy and Desi, and The Beatles (except Paul). Allegedly JFK and Marilyn Monroe even had a private encounter here with the Secret Service guarding the entrance to their suite. Over the years, the hotel changed names and owners, but in 2015 the current owners, Kathy and Gary, purchased the hotel and restored it to the original name. 

Kathy and Gary have done an amazing job with the property and really make you feel welcomed and comfortable at their hotel. They also lived in NYC before moving out to the west coast so we chatted about that and they were more than happy to give us suggestions of bars, restaurants and things to do while in Palm Springs. The hotel offers continental breakfast every morning, including homemade bread and muffins, yogurt, granola, fruit, tea and coffee. It’s also an extremely relaxing environment. Children under 14 are not permitted and they encourage all adults to be quiet and respectful. We lounged at the pool every day where 60’s music played over the sound system. In addition to the salt water pool, they also have an exercise pool, hot tub, sauna and a cold plunge. The pool area has a Smeg fridge stocked with sodas and everyday at 4:30 they serve sangria. 

The hotel has 16 rooms and we stayed in the Deluxe King with Kitchenette style. The room had a bed, sitting area, kitchen and bathroom. Each room only accommodates two people, they don’t have portable cots like most hotels. The rooms were very clean and comfortable and the two of us had plenty of room to spread out. Again, since The Monkey Tree Hotel is meant to be a relaxing environment, there weren’t screaming kids or rambunctious party people, so the hotel was peaceful and quiet every night and morning.

Palm Springs is a pretty small town, but The Monkey Tree Hotel is conveniently located to anything you might want to get to. Each hotel room comes with a parking space, so we didn’t have to worry about finding parking for our car. During the day we would drive around but at night we left the car at the hotel and took an Uber to get dinner. It usually took about 10 minutes to get anywhere and about an $8-12 Uber ride. Kathy and Gary also have a vintage car from the 60’s, so they brought it over to the hotel for us to take photos with which was fun! 

We had an amazing stay at the The Monkey Tree Hotel and I would highly recommend it if you’re planning a relaxing trip to the desert with a friend or significant other.

Thanks Kathy and Gary for hosting us and for comping 2 nights of our stay!

If you want to learn more about The Monkey Tree Hotel, check out their website here:
https://www.themonkeytreehotel.com/about