Palm Springs Retro Hotel: Pink Walls, a Neon Sign and Nine Suites

The Muse is a Palm Springs retro hotel with pink walls, a black-and-white striped awning, a neon sign out front and nine individually designed suites around one courtyard pool. It's adults-only, mid-century styled and minutes from downtown by car. If your idea of a vacation is a lounger, a cocktail and a color palette that looks like 1962, this is your place.

What makes a Palm Springs hotel feel retro?

Palm Springs got its look in the postwar years, when Hollywood came out for the weekend and architects built low, sunny, glass-walled houses around swimming pools. A retro hotel here keeps that spirit: small, built around the pool, generous with color and a little bit theatrical.

At The Muse, that means a pink building with palm trees and mountains behind it, a striped awning over the door and the neon Muse sign doing its job at night. Inside the courtyard you get scalloped umbrellas, pergola swings, an outdoor fireplace and a six-person hot tub. Nobody needed a mood board. The building is the mood board.

Which suite has the most retro personality?

Every suite is named for a famous muse, and each one is decorated differently. A few favorites for vintage lovers:

• Edie: a white bed against a red accent wall, red pillows and a sputnik light. It has a mini-fridge, microwave and coffee maker.

• Barbie: pink walls and a pink feather chandelier. You already knew.

• Marilyn: navy floral wallpaper, a chandelier, a full kitchen and a private fenced yard.

• Kate: two queens under a purple accent wall and a chandelier, so two friends can share without drawing straws.

• Bowie: the largest suite, with a separate bedroom and a blue velvet headboard.

Booking with friends? Edie and Bowie together make the Duo Suite: two bedrooms, sleeping up to five with an optional rollaway.

What about the retro hotel pool?

The pool is the whole point of a Palm Springs retro hotel, and ours sits in the middle of the courtyard under tall palms with coral walls around it. Bring a flamingo float. Somebody always does. Between swims there's the hot tub, the pergola swings and a lawn that's perfect for the yellow-heels-and-sunglasses photo your group chat is going to ask for.

Grab-and-go breakfast from Aspen Mills, parking and Wi-Fi are included, which leaves more of the budget for vintage shopping.

Where can you find retro Palm Springs outside the hotel?

The town is the other half of the trip. A few places worth the short drive:

• Modernism Week. The big festival of mid-century architecture and design runs February 11 to 21, 2027, with a smaller fall preview each October. Our Modernism Week guide covers how to plan around it.

• The Uptown Design District. North Palm Canyon Drive is lined with vintage furniture, mid-century décor and boutiques. Start with our vintage shops guide.

• The Shag Store. The artist's retro cocktail-party prints are basically a Palm Springs postcard you can frame.

• The Palm Springs Visitors Center. It lives in Albert Frey's former Tramway Gas Station, with that swooping roof, at the north end of town.

• Architecture and Design Center. The Palm Springs Art Museum runs this design-focused space downtown, with rotating exhibitions on the city's architecture.

• Bootlegger Tiki. Tiki mugs, dim light and a strong rum drink, the retro way to end a night downtown.

A retro weekend, start to finish

• Friday: Check in, find the neon sign, and take the first pool photo before the light goes.

• Saturday morning: Breakfast from Aspen Mills, then a drive past the modern homes and the Visitors Center.

• Saturday afternoon: Vintage shopping in the Uptown Design District, then back to the pergola swings.

• Saturday night: Dinner downtown and a tiki nightcap.

• Sunday: One last swim and a slow drive home with a car full of mid-century lamps.

Want to stay in the same mood all year? Our pages on mid-century modern style and our pink Palm Springs hotel go deeper on the look.

Retro hotel FAQ

A small hotel with a very good pool. Check your dates and bring your best vintage sunglasses.