Memorial Day Weekend in Palm Springs: What to Expect

Memorial Day weekend in Greater Palm Springs is the closing weekend of the season, not the opening weekend of summer. That is the opposite of how the rest of the country uses it, and it changes what the weekend is like.

Everything is still open. The crowds are still here. In two weeks, neither will be true.

What the weather does

Late May averages a high in the mid nineties with nights around 66, and effectively no rain — the whole month normals at 0.02 inches.

Mid nineties is hot but it is not July. Mornings and evenings are comfortable, and the middle of the day is the only part you have to work around.

The difference between this weekend and Labor Day

Both are three-day summer holidays in the same desert. They are not the same weekend.

Memorial Day is the last weekend before the summer schedule lands. The canyons are still open seven days a week. The Living Desert is still on 8 to 5. Sunnylands is still open. Restaurants are all trading. Resorts are full and running pool programming.

Labor Day, in September, is the bottom — canyons on three days a week, attractions on morning-only hours, a chunk of the restaurants closed, and rates at their annual low.

So Memorial Day is busier and more expensive, and you get a functioning town. Labor Day is cheap and quiet and you get a reduced one. Pick accordingly.

What is still open

• Indian Canyons and Tahquitz Canyon, seven days a week until early July.
• The Living Desert, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. until the end of the month. It drops to 7 to 1:30 on 1 June.
• Sunnylands, until it closes for the summer in early June. This is the last holiday weekend for the gardens.
• The Aerial Tramway, with its summer pass on sale from 1 May.
• The Saturday farmers market, still outdoors at the Cultural Center before it moves inside for the summer.

Crowds and cost

This is a genuine peak weekend. It is the last holiday of the season and the pool party economy treats it as a finale, so the resorts are busy and priced accordingly.

It is also the weekend Greater Palm Springs Restaurant Week tends to run into, which means a lot of kitchens are doing set menus at a discount. If you are eating out more than once, that is the thing to look up before you book.

A workable plan

• Do the canyons on the Saturday morning, early. It is the last long weekend with full access before July.
• Get to Sunnylands if you have not. The gardens close for three months in about a week.
• Buy the tram summer pass if you are here often — it is on sale from the first of the month.
• Book dinner. This weekend is busy in a way the rest of the summer is not.
• Treat the middle of the day as pool time and do not schedule anything into it.

More guides

• May in Palm Springs
• June in Palm Springs
• Labor Day weekend
• Things to do in Palm Springs this weekend
• Sunnylands tickets and tours

Weather figures are NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals for Palm Springs International Airport. Hours and dates change; check the operator before you go.