HotelChatter

The resort has just opened up a new Moroccan-themed spa, and is also home to the Purple Palm restaurant, with its classic French menu and poolside dining. If you get sick of just lounging by the pool like a pin-up girl, try walking into downtown Palm Springs, just a few blocks away.

The rooms are decorated in mix of Spanish colonial and Moorish chic, with a hint of ’50’s Hollywood thrown in. That means carved wooden furniture, lively geometric patterns, and low-key poolside cabanas and lounge chairs for you to sit in while you read trashy celebrity magazines.

The hotel, which recently completed a major renovation, was on Condé Nast Traveller’s 2008 Hot List, and Travel + Leisure’s 2009 “20 Dream Escapes” list. If that doesn’t get you to make a reservation, then consider that the hotel was a favorite hangout of the infamous Purple Gang (the Jewish mob!), and was home to an infamous speakeasy, brothel and gambling house in the 1930’s. It makes today’s hotels seem so tame...