Family Vacation to Omni Rancho Las Palmas in Palm Springs
How gorgeous is this property? My family got the opportunity to stay at Omni Rancho Las Palmas, in Rancho Mirage, this summer. Disclosure: they let us stay one night for free and one night at a discounted rate. All opinions and memories are my family’s.
You already know of my love for Palm Springs. Well my family loves it too. We try to get one family trip in to the desert each summer. But this time we wanted to stay somewhere that we have never stayed before.
I’d been hearing about Omni Rancho Las Palmas for years and decided we should check it out. Especially because they are very family friendly and have their own water park! And seriously, how gorgeous are those grounds in the photo above? Yeah, that was the view from our room. Not bad at all.
We pulled up to the front of the hotel to check in. Immediately walking in to the lobby I was impressed. How had I never been there before?! The furnishings were very nice and the atmosphere was really welcoming. It felt much higher end than I had expected.
We got our room assignment and headed to check out our room. The boys could hardly wait. I think they are most interested in the hotel rooms than anything else a hotel could offer.
Upon checking in, we were told they had a King room for us. Know going in that means one King bed and a pull out. In my head, I didn’t think that the kids needed to sleep on a pull out so I asked for a room with two beds. The front desk staff graciously changed our room for us.
But when we got to the room, we realized that meant two DOUBLE beds…If I was going to get any sleep at all, that double bed wouldn’t work. We called the front desk and they changed our room back to the King. And were super nice about it!
Much better. And trust me, the pull out bed is actually super exciting to the kids. There are also suites available on property that look great from their online photos. I also think I would request a non-pool view room as the pool can get SUPER crowded and noisy.
BUT if you are looking for ease of use with your older kids, poolside could be a great option.
But back to the beds…kids love hotel beds. And of course they have to check them all out. They were super comfy.
M immediately decided that he was going to cozy up and take a nap. It lasted all of two minutes. But it was a quiet two minutes…
And of course they had to check out the mini bar. One thing that struck me is that for as many families must go through this hotel, the rooms are impeccable. Sometimes you can really see a lot of wear and tear on a room. But not these. They are maintained REALLY well.
The boys could not wait to get to the pool and Splashtopia. I didn’t take my phone or camera with me to the pool so check out the hotel website to see all that Splashtopia entails. We headed straight to the Lazy River and in my head it was going to be the most relaxing afternoon ever. But…kids don’t really know how to relax.
Just know that going in. You are going to get splashed. My youngest decided that they should be called Bumper Boats and took every opportunity to ram his inner tube in to me. My kids loved the water slides and the water park area was small enough that it was pretty easy to keep track of the kids.
The whole area is fenced in so as long as you set up some ground rules for your kids, you will be able to enjoy it and not stress about where they are. This resort is truly for families (although there is an adult pool that looked pretty dang tranquil).
I was really surprised how busy the hotel was, mid-week, for this time of year. Other hotels in the area would have pretty empty pools but this one was bustling our whole stay.
Any hotel that serves Icee (Icees? Iceei – I have no idea what the proper plural is for that) is ok in my kid’s book. They only lasted about an hour in Splashtopia because they were more interested in hitting the pool bar where they serve Icee’s.
And then they wanted to retire back to the room because hotel TV is so much better than TV at home.
You gotta love a place where your entire family can get the drink of their choice. While the boys explored the room and checked every channel, my husband and I enjoyed our drinks on our patio. It was a gorgeous day!
And then my youngest started doing some yoga on the lawn outside of our room…
We decided to stay on property for dinner and made a reservation at BluEmber. We weren’t expecting much as a lot of hotel restaurants are just ok. But we were pleasantly surprised! And while the hotel gave us one night stay for free, we were not given any credits on the food. I just want to point that out because we could have gone any where and we decided to go to there. And really liked it.
The food was fantastic. The wine list was awesome. The service couldn’t have been better. Although it had an upscale feel, the kids fit right in. We encouraged them to be on their best behavior but the restaurant made it easy for them to behave. We opted for a special summer deal they were having that was a 3 course meal for $30. I started with a delicious caesar salad, moved on to this amazing mushroom ravioli and finished with a yummy strawberry shortcake.
And what was super awesome was they had a kid’s buffet! My kids are really picky eaters and both of them REALLY liked the food. And even better, the kid’s ate free as part of another summer promotion. But if you are looking to get out for little while, the River shopping center is right across the street.
There are tons of dining options there including Fleming’s, Cheesecake Factory and PF Changs. It would be a little bit of a walk but it is totally doable. And I can’t move any further without letting you know that there is a Starbucks right at Omni Rancho Las Palmas, Amen. There is also a bar, and a cafe with grab and go type options.
After dinner on our first night, the hotel was showing a swim up movie! The kids LOVED that. When we checked in, they gave us a calendar of events for the week and there were tons of fun family activities to keep everyone entertained including in the evening.
So imagine our disappointment when we woke up the next morning and the sky was rainy and gray and it had really cooled off! We had planned on spending the day by the pool so since that wasn’t very appealing, we decided to head in to town to grab breakfast.
I love breakfast at King’s Highway so we headed there. We have stayed at The Ace as a family so the boys love returning there also.
I adore family time with these guys. We are so busy and we don’t eat out very much so I just get so excited to spend time with these cuties.
We shared a ton of laughs.
This kid.
After breakfast we headed back to the hotel. The weather was still pretty gray and yucky but we decided to head to Splashtopia anyway. We spent a little time there and then moved over to the pool. We ordered Icee’s and some snacks from the pool servers and my oldest thought that was the best thing EVER!
And when I charged it to the room, I thought his head was going to explode. I think I’ve created a monster. We hung out in the room for a bit and then my husband decided to take the kids exploring. He texted me this photo of the pool table they found.
You know, in the bar. But since no one else was in the bar, they got to play a game of pool.
We enjoyed BluEmber so much the first night that we decided to go there again the second night! The second night was equally as amazing as the first. And a super nice lady offered to take our picture when she saw us trying to take a family selfie.
As you can tell, the weather finally cleared up by the afternoon and we were treated to a gorgeous Palm Springs sunset. I had heard there was an arcade at the hotel so after dinner we set off to surprise the boys with it.
It is located off the lobby, over by the meeting space (just ask for directions from the hotel staff!) It is a portion of a ballroom turned in to a play space and the kids loved it. We played ping pong and a few video games before heading to the room.
The room also had a video game station, a Lego area, air hockey, a jukebox and those grabber games where you try to pick up a toy with those big metal claws.
We checked out the next morning and headed to Cheeky’s for breakfast on our way out-of-town. We really enjoyed our stay at Omni Rancho Las Palmas. It is a great family hotel and I loved getting to share it with my kids. The beds were comfy, fantastic service, delicious food and awesome memories for us to cherish.
And no trip to the desert is complete without a stop at the dinosaurs.
A little air guitar on a dinosaur’s toes never hurt anyone.
Thank you, Omni Rancho Las Palmas, for letting my family come and check out the hotel! We had an amazing time in the desert and can’t wait for our next visit!