Coachella Valley: an oasis in the desert

The Coachella Valley, also known as Greater Palm Springs, is a favourite destination for music fans thanks to the world-­famous festival that takes place there every year. But this desert valley in California has a lot more to offer, as you are about to find out. Spotlight talked to Jean Paul Zapata, the media relations manager with the region’s tourism agency. First, he talks about the Coachella festival.

So, the name Coachella is very popular these days because it’s the Coachella Music and Arts Festival that takes place in April. It’s obviously a very big celebrity-studdedmit viel Prominenz besetztcelebrity-studded event, so people travel from all over the world to see their favorite musicians, and there are also a lot of art installations.

What to distinguishunterscheidendistinguishes the valley as a whole from other parts of California?

We’re an isolated community out in the desert but we’re very diversevielfältigdiverse. I also think we have a rich history that ranges from a Native AmericanUreinwohner NordamerikasNative American heritageErbe, Kulturheritage. We have a strong agricultural history, which I think is surprising for the desert. Hollywood is obviously to revereverehrenrevered and desired around the world, and we have a little bit of that Hollywood heritage, with old, glamorous Hollywood actors who’ve made their homes here, as well as having the highest concentration of mid-century modernfunktioneller 50er-Jahre-Stilmid-century modern homes, so that’s really fantastic. It’s something that people travel to see as well.

There are nine cities in the Greater Palm Springs area. What are the highlights for visitors?

If you’re driving in from Los Angeles on the 10 freeway (US)AutobahnFreeway, Desert Hot Springs is going to be on the left side. It’s a bit of an entrywayEingang, Zugangentryway into Joshua Tree National Park. Desert Hot Springs has a fantastic collection of mineral springQuellesprings that have been to utilizenutzenutilized as gorgeousgroßartiggorgeous resorts. You have everything from a bit more casualzwanglos, lockercasual to very high-endluxuriös, nobelhigh-end. Then you have Palm Springs, again, the highest concentration of mid-­century modern homes. It’s very LGBT-friendly, fantastic boutiques. Palm Desert, which is a fantastic collection of high-end retailEinzelhandel, Ladenretail and then also private art galleries. Palm Desert has a road that you can take up into the mountains, Highway 74, and you can take that up to Pinyon Pines, Idyllwild, which is a popular kind of cabinHüttecabin snow retreat, and further on into San Diego. Coachella, it’s a beautifully diverse community, a very strong Mexican-American heritage population, and so fantastic restaurants, bakeries. And then, furthest down, you have Indio, which is a fantastic combination of kind of ruggedzerklüftet, wildrugged nature, but then you also have the Indio polo fields, which is where the Coachella Music and Arts Festival takes place annually.

What kind of visitors come to the Coachella Valley?

When I moved here, someone joked and said one of the best things to do when you come to Palm Springs is absolutely nothing. So, there’s definitely that very chillentspanntchill pool culture. It’s amazing to just to hang out (ifml.)herumhängenhang out, to basksich aalen, sich sonnenbask in the sun. It’s an amazing destination for foodieFeinschmecker(in)foodies because of our agriculture heritage. We have lots of local restaurants that take advantage of that. It’s definitely a really great place for families as well. We have lots of hotels with beautiful spaWellness-Bereichspas, so we get lots of weddings, events, bachelorette partyJunggesellinnenabschiedbachelorette parties, very popular with the LGBT community as well. The destination is very open and welcoming. So yeah, there’s a little bit for everyone. You can be as active as you want, whether it’s engaging in, you know, Coachella Festival, Stagecoach [festival], or if you’re more of a nature person and you want to get out and do a Red Jeep tour in the San Andreas fault zoneStörungs-, VerwerfungszoneFault zone or if you’d like to go hiking, you know, in our gorgeous mountains, or if you just want to chill and, you know, have everything taken care of for you.