Five reasons to visit Palm Springs (from a magazine chief)
We started Safara because we love to travel. We love that it opens our minds to new people, cultures, and ideas. It builds human connection. It sparks creativity and it fuels the global economy. We live and breathe this – we’re a global, remote team with a unified goal: to make it easier, more efficient, and barrier-free.
During this crazy time, that human connection we mentioned is a bit compromised, right? In the meantime, we want to be the window to your world, bringing you stories and inspiration from our global community of insiders and tastemakers. We’re starting today with Andrew Barker’s five reasons to hit up Palm Springs (when we can travel again, of course). Like you, we’re armchair traveling a lot these days, and planning for the future.
Andrew is a Londoner living and working in Venice Beach, CA, and his dreamy Instagram is testament to his love of travel. As content chief for a magazine all about Californian culture and style, he’s our go-to guy for the Golden State, and beyond. Not only that – like many of us, he’s figuring out how to do something good in this challenging time and has started a Zoom masterclass series, Alone Together, for charity.
We’re taking this time to build out our bucket lists, not just because it’s fun, but because it helps the industry we all love. By following and engaging with unique and local hotels, small businesses, and restaurants, we can collectively give them much-needed hope and encouragement during this strange and abnormally difficult time.
Read on to travel (virtually) with Andrew to the eternally sunny Palm Springs…
Name: Andrew Barker
Where you live: Venice Beach, CA.
Where you’re from: London
What you do: By day, content chief at C Magazine. By night, I’ve started Alone Together with my friend Christian Layolle, a program of Zoom masterclasses for charity to fuel people’s desire for cooking and discovery while stuck at home.
Five reasons to visit Palm Springs
The food: Brunch at Cheeky’s, sundowners at The Ace by the pool, dinner at Workshop, a dance after at Toucans.
The hotel(s): I’m torn – I love how chic Two Bunch Palms is with its stone pool but it might as well be in Tulum. There are more idiosyncratic options from a design standpoint including Dive Palm Springs and Les Cactus which are all botanical wallpapers and wicker chairs.
The store: Angel Views, a thrift store where you can pick up salad bowls, paintings, and retro t-shirts. I’m not really buying ‘new’ unless I really need to at the moment.
The things to do: The cable car that takes you to the top of the mountain where you have views of the Coachella Valley. At the right time of year, you can hike in the snow in the morning and swim in a pool in the afternoon.
The culture: This is cheating, but The Parker Hotel is an institution and there is nowhere better to absorb the culture of Palm Springs as a tourist destination than here in the early evening.
Follow Andrew on Instagram.
