On a hot, sticky day at the end of May, I’m standing in a park in downtown Palm Springs – a small city located in the Coachella Valley in Southern California – experiencing severe déjà vu.
All around me, as far as the eye can see, are people dressed like Marilyn Monroe: there are Marilyns with beards, Marilyns with hairy bellies, Marilyns on skateboards, Marilyns with small dogs under their arms, and drag Marilyns. It’s like a Marilyn Where’s Wally.
I, too, am dressed up as the Hollywood legend, sweating lightly under a bouffant platinum blonde wig and sporting a white, halterneck pleated dress just like the one she wore in the subway grate scene of The Seven Year Itch.
What are we all doing here, clustered around the 26ft statue of the actress which was erected in her honour in 2021?
Well, in just a couple of days it would have been her 100th birthday (on June 1), and her ties to the town include her being discovered as a model by photographer Bruno Bernard at the legendary Palm Springs Raquet Club in 1949, which launched her career, as well as her visits to the homes of friends such as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr, and nights out at places like the famous Melvyn’s restaurant.
The Greater Palm Springs Pride committee had the genius idea of seeing if the town could set a new Guinness World Record of gathering the most amount of ‘Marilyns’ in the same place, aiming to beat the previous one of 254 set in February 2020 in Brighton, Australia.
As a Marilyn impersonator breathily sings Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend over the PA system, the news is announced: “We’ve done it!” 1,037 Marilyns have officially been recorded, and that’s our cue to head to the nearest bar for margaritas.
Epicentre of kitsch
Palm Springs, one of the nine small cities which make up Greater Palm Springs, has long been renowned for its heady mix of nostalgia and kitsch. While this event perfectly sums up its camp, inclusive energy, its lore started decades ago during the Golden Age of Hollywood, when A-list stars would decamp here from LA, seeking a respite from the paparazzi, but adhering to the studios’ rule that they couldn’t be more than a couple of hours away in case they were needed back on set.
Today style oozes out of every pore of this small but friendly town. I take a tour of its perfectly-preserved mid-century modern houses with David Dixon, the creative director of Modernism Week – the annual celebration of this unique architectural style – and we stop by homes once owned by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Lucille Ball (there’s even one which was rumoured to have belonged to Marilyn herself, on Rose Avenue in the Vista Las Palmas neighbourhood; it has a cute, Barbie-pink postbox outside).
Later, I get to see inside the newly-renovated Plaza Theatre, a Palm Springs icon which first opened in 1936 and which, besides screening movies, put on glamorous revues and cabaret shows.
Nature, food and everything in-between
Beyond the city, there’s even more for clients to see. I highly recommend a Red Jeep tour, which whisks you deep into the desert around the San Andreas Fault.
My expert guide, Tom, was full of information about the area’s geology as well as its flora and fauna. We hike through a skinny slot canyon – there are hundreds here which formed by the movement of the tectonic plates and flash flooding – and he also shows me a reconstruction of a typical settlement used by the Cahuilla Indians who were the original inhabitants of this land (for those looking to learn more about this tribe, a visit to the informative Agua Caliente Cultural Museum is a must).
The region is surrounded by mountains – the San Jacinto and the Santa Rosa ranges in particular – but it also sits on top of ancient underground aquifers, which feed natural mineral hot springs. There are around 20 resorts and spas dotted around the town of Desert Hot Springs; for a break after a day’s exploring, book a day pass at Azure Palm, which has the biggest mineral pool in the region.
Food is also an absolute highlight here; carnivores should head to Mr Lyons for the best prime rib in Palm Springs while seafood lovers will be well-served at Pacifica in Palm Desert, for dinner on the terrace with a view to the mountains.
My best brunch tips are the fabulously Moroccan-inspired Pink Cabana at the Sands Hotel in Indian Wells, whose endlessly Instagrammable interiors are courtesy of world-renowned designer Martyn Bullard, and the Eastern Mediterranean-influenced Lola Rose at the Thompson Hotel in Palm Springs.
I end my trip, which started with a huge star, with a few more of them: a star-gazing experience in Joshua Tree National Park, to be precise.
Under the guidance of self-confessed astronomy nerd and former stand-up comedian, Caitlin Gill of Joshua Tree Astronomy Adventures, I see Jupiter, Venus, the Big Dipper and more through her very large telescope.
As the moon starts to rise, shining brightly above the spindly-shaped Joshua trees, I take a sip of hot chocolate and raise my mug, silently, to Marilyn Monroe, and all the other fabulous icons who have put this incredible part of California on the map.
Book it:
Flights with Air Alaska from London to Palm Springs via Seattle, three nights at the Hilton Palm Springs, King Mountain View Room (room only). Four nights at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa, King Balcony Room (room only) from £1,999pp based on two sharing.
purelytravel.co.uk/usa / 0844 80 444 80
For more information, head to visitgreaterpalmsprings.com. The 40th anniversary of Greater Palm Springs Pride takes place between November 5 and 8 2026; pspride.org.
