Holiday House Palm Springs

A 1951 Herbert Burns motel restored in 2016 — twenty-eight adults-only rooms organized around a courtyard pool, palms, and a citrus grove. Holiday House is one of the cleanest Modernism-era restorations in Palm Springs: Burns, the architect, was one of the figures who defined the Desert Modern style in the 1940s and 50s, and the restoration treated the building as the design object it always was.

The aesthetic stays close to the original — single-story stucco rooms with floor-to-ceiling glass to private patios, white-and-natural palette, mid-century furniture. The pool is the centerpiece. The whole property is adults-only and reads more like a private vacation house at scale than a hotel.

The setting

Holiday House sits in central Palm Springs, in a residential pocket near the Movie Colony East — a few blocks from Palm Canyon Drive and a short drive from Palm Springs' main commercial strips. Modernism Week venues are scattered through the surrounding neighborhoods. The Aerial Tramway is fifteen minutes north.

The Palm Springs Art Museum, downtown's restaurants, and the Saturday VillageFest are within five to ten minutes. Joshua Tree's south entrance is forty-five minutes north.

The building

Designed by Herbert Burns in 1951 and restored under a thoughtful preservation hand in 2016. The structural shell — single-story rooms wrapping a central courtyard, deep eaves, breeze-block detail — was kept intact. Materials are stucco, painted concrete, glass, walnut, and the kind of mid-century textile palette the era did so well.

Public spaces are limited and intentionally so: the courtyard with the pool is the social center. There's a small lobby and a coffee bar. The aesthetic is playful-retro applied with restraint — there's not a fake mid-century cliché in sight.

The rooms

Twenty-eight rooms in the original Burns plan. Categories are simple — standards, larger rooms, a few patio suites. Each room has floor-to-ceiling sliding glass to a private patio (some open onto the pool, some onto the courtyard, some onto a garden). Beds are king. Bathrooms are restrained mid-century — terrazzo, walnut vanities, deep tubs. Furniture is original or carefully sourced.

Rates from $425 in shoulder; Modernism Week and Coachella weekends climb significantly.

Food & drink

There's a coffee bar and a small breakfast service. No full restaurant. Palm Springs has a deep restaurant scene within five minutes — Workshop Kitchen, Mr. Lyons, Sandfish, Tropicale, plus the Palm Canyon Drive walking strip.

On the property

The courtyard pool is the daily program — heated and saltwater. The citrus grove and a few fire pits are the quieter corners. Adults-only is enforced. There's no spa on site; in-room treatments can be arranged.

• Heated saltwater courtyard pool
• Citrus grove, fire pits
• Coffee bar, light breakfast
• Adults-only
• Open year-round

Who it's for

• Modernism Week visitors and architecture travelers
• Couples who want a quiet, design-led adults-only hotel
• Anyone who appreciates that some hotels really do leave the original architecture alone
• Repeat Palm Springs visitors looking for a smaller, more curated alternative to the big mid-century resorts

Who it's not for

• Travelers under 21 — adults-only
• Families
• Anyone wanting a full-service hotel with restaurant, bar, and programming

Nearby

Palm Canyon Drive's restaurants and shopping are a few minutes by car. The Palm Springs Art Museum is five minutes. The Aerial Tramway up Mount San Jacinto is fifteen minutes northwest. Indian Canyons hiking is ten minutes south. Joshua Tree's south entrance is forty-five minutes north. Modernism Week's tour buses pick up across the surrounding neighborhoods each February.