California · city

What a trip to Palm Springs costs

A week in Palm Springs for eight people works out around $7,700 before flights — $168 a night for a place sleeping four, scaled for the group, plus $81 per adult per day for food. From Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle and Phoenix it is cheaper for a family of four to drive than to fly.

A desert resort city in the Coachella Valley, known for its mid-century modern architecture and for the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, which climbs Chino Canyon to a station high on Mount San Jacinto.

with children okadults-only trip goodstroller / limited mobility ok

What a week costs

Lodging and food only. Seven nights, whole-property rental, all fees in.

Group	Lodging	Food	Total	Per person
4 people	$1,180	$2,270	$3,440	$861
8 people	$3,160	$4,540	$7,700	$963
12 people	$4,330	$6,800	$11,100	$928

Note the per-person column does not simply fall. A place sleeping four is the efficient unit; going to eight means changing property class, which costs more than double. Past eight it improves again — each additional person adds roughly half what they did over the first jump. The expensive step is condo to house, not the people you put in it.

How Palm Springs compares

Palm SpringsCalifornia median of 3Cities median of 7All destinations median of 40

Nightly lodging for a property sleeping four, month by month. Medians are taken across the seeded destinations in each group, so they are the middle of that group rather than any one place.

Averaged across the year, Palm Springs runs $199 a night for a property that sleeps four. That is 32% below the median for all 40 destinations in the library ($295), making it the 6th cheapest of 40 destinations. Against its own kind it is priced almost exactly at the typical city ($195).

The same week costs $375 more in January than in May on lodging alone, before anyone has bought a flight.
Although it is more expensive than the typical city across the year, it undercuts one in May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep.
It is at its most expensive in January and cheapest in May — the opposite of the library as a whole, which peaks in July. Advice about avoiding summer prices is the wrong way round here.
Within California (3 destinations here), it is 46% below the regional median of $372 a night.
Driving beats four seats from Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle and Phoenix. The longest of those is Seattle — 1,104 road miles and 17.9h each way, and only $170 cheaper than four seats — thin enough that most groups would fly anyway.
The cheapest seven nights of the year fall in May, at $1,176 for the whole property — $1,551 for the same week in January.
The sharpest single step is between April and May: moving the same week across that line changes the lodging bill by $375.
The closest thing to it on price is Savannah, GA, another city: $7,497 for a week for eight against $7,701 here, 3% apart.

When to go

Palm Springs is at its most expensive in January and cheapest in May — a 32% swing on the same property.

Month	Per night, sleeps 4
January	$222
February	$222
March	$222
April	$222
May	$168
June	$168
July	$168
August	$168
September	$168
October	$222
November	$222
December	$222

Getting there

The two halves are not priced the same way, which is the whole point: a seat costs per person, a car costs the same whatever the headcount.

	Flying		Driving
From	Round tripper person	Each wayhours	Round tripper car	Each wayhours	Cheaperfor four
Atlanta	$506	8.5h	$3,075	32.6h4 days	flying
Chicago	$602*	8.1h	$2,765	29.4h3 days	flying
Dallas	$442	5.2h	$1,899	20.2h3 days	flying
Denver	$446*	4.4h	$1,330	14.3h2 days	driving
Los Angeles	$350	3.0h	$208	2.9h	driving
New York	$750*	9.6h	$3,970	42.1h5 days	flying
Seattle	$462*	4.9h	$1,678	17.9h2 days	driving
Phoenix	$364	3.4h	$476	5.8h	driving

Drives over ten hours are shown in days as well: nobody drives that in one go. The nights on the road are not counted here, so a long drive is cheaper on this page than it would be in life. * published DOT average for that airport pair. Others are modeled from distance. Driving uses the IRS standard mileage rate, which includes running costs, not just fuel.

See all 7 cities in the library →

Compare Palm Springs against other destinations →

Where these numbers come from

Lodging is indexed from the US federal per-diem schedule (GSA) for this county, calibrated against real rental listings. Food uses this location's own federal meal tier. Fares come from the DOT Consumer Airfare Report where that airport pair is published, and from a model fitted to 2,089 real DOT fares otherwise. Everything here is an estimate for planning, not a quote — check real prices before booking.