This is a great travel story – settle in.
It was blazing hot in Pasadena and we needed to get in a pool ASAP. We love going to Palm Springs, since it is a quick getaway from Los Angeles and always feels like a little mini vaca. I remember seeing an article about this colorful hotel in Palm Springs over on Lil’ Sugar and I immediately decided that this colorful hotel was on my hotel list to check out. When we were trying to get out of dodge quickly, I literally googled ” Colorful Hotel Palm Springs” and sure enough, The Saguaro Hotel came up. I said to my husband “That’s the one, book it!” So, without looking into any other criteria other than: “Palm Springs”, “Pool” and “Colorful Hotel”, an hour later we were in the car with the kids and on our way to Palm Springs.
All of the rooms at The Saguaro Hotel are different colors and the kids were very excited to find out which color our hotel room would be, we all were placing out bets. Would it be purple, green, red, orange, pink or yellow? We couldn’t wait to see!
We arrived at the front desk and started to check it when the hotel receptionist handed us wrist bands and said “Here are your wristbands for the pool party”, my husband and I said in unison “Pool Party!?” Apparently, there are pool parties complete with a DJ every Saturday during the day at the Saguaro Hotel. As if on cue, I suddenly heard the music pumping faintly in the background and my husband and I giggled with a bit of nervousness. We made our way down the colorful hall and the music was getting louder and louder.
We arrived at our orange room, the kids were so excited. Even I was a little excited, you know me – I love a theme.
My husband went to scope out the “pool party” while I got the kids in their swimsuits. He came back laughing and shaking his head “It’s a party!” I got a pit in my stomach. Oh god. We were about to expose our kids to a mid-day rave…this should be fun. When we finally made it down to the pool it was PACKED. And I mean packed. There were no chairs to be found and wall to wall people in the pool. The music was loud but thankfully, not-out-of-control loud. I quickly scanned the crowd and saw late 20’s early 30 year olds, dancing and grooving to the music. Then I spotted one other family with two kids in the shallow corner of the pool.
Most parents would have packed up and hit the road, but we’re not most parents. We can hang with the cool kids and make the best of it. Okay. I have to admit, this was not what I had imagined at all and for about three minutes thought “this sucks”, but then I looked over at Hudson and he was dancing to the music. Hands up, in the air, like you just don’t care kind of dancing! So I thought, suck it up Mom and get in the damn pool.
I told my husband to get me a glass of wine stat and took on the “If ya can’t beat ’em, join ’em” attitude.
We got into the pool near the other family with kids and created our own little kids corner and tried not to look too uncomfortable or out of place. We quickly became friends with the other family and bonded over being the only people with kids there. Our kids could not have cared less about what was going on around them, they splashed around the pool and were having a great time. I tried to keep them from splashing other people, especially the girls that clearly were not interested in getting their hair wet.
A few beach balls were in the pool and our kids started to hit them back and forth and I got nervous about people sans kids getting annoyed or upset, but to my surprise the opposite happened. They joined in. All of a sudden our kids were adding some much needed fun to the party, not taking away from it. There was a nice group of guys and girls that were so friendly to our kids and would even go and swim out to the middle of the pool to get the balls for them. I was shocked and relieved. We ended up relaxing and having so much fun! No one cared that we had kids. In fact, they liked our kids.
Right outside the pool area you can play botchy ball and there was a group of guys playing and they included Hudson calling him “buddy” and let him throw a couple of balls. Again, I was shocked and amazed. These partying 30 year olds were so nice and friendly to us and our kids. Yes, they had been drinking and totally buzzed but that probably made it better. Here is the difference, they were in their 30’s, if they had been young 20 year olds it may have been a totally different story.
Travel Lessons Learned
1. Lighten up and relax more when you travel Moms. Most situations are not that bad. I know we all have high travel expectations and sometimes we get disappointed from time to time but be thankful for where you are and what you are able to experience. In other words, make the best of it.
2. You can not get upset at a Hotel when you failed to do your research, investigate and ask questions. Especially when you book last minute. It could have been worse – what if it was topless pool? (I would have DIED). If you are like us, and sometimes make last minute decisions that means you have to be a little flexible.
3. Not everyone without kids hates kids. In fact, most people prefer kids to the not-so-fun, serious and crabby adults. As long as you’ve raised half way decent little individuals who don’t act totally out of control or crazy, you’ll be fine in most situations.
I learned so much in one day about letting go, jumping to conclusions, making the most of a situation and not letting something get in the way of our good time. Life is not perfect and traveling certainly never is, but it’s all about your attitude and making the best of it.
Sunday in the pool was much more our speed. While most of the other hotel guest were probably hung over, we were up with our kids by 8 am so we got first pick at chairs and had the pool to ourselves for a little while 🙂
Would I stay here again?
Yes, I would absolutely stay here again.
The rooms are nice typical hotel rooms, the pool is area is nice and you are close to the downtown shopping and dining area. They also have bikes for you to rent for free and shuttles that take you to the downtown shopping area. I of course, love all the fun bright colors of this hotel and the kids did too. You can bring in your own pool toys, floaties and rafts. I would perhaps stay during the week, ask about pool parties and other events they might have happening before booking.
Click through the slideshow to see more of The Saguaro Hotel.
Comments
love this post andrea!