Good news! I'm so glad you can make it. Here's the best advice I can give you.

Los Angeles/LAX

Hire your car at the airport. There's a better selection and you'll have your own transportation to your hotel. Staying downtown LA is okay but there's not much there. Then again, you don't have much time. I would probably just reserve the LA portion until after you have been in Palm Springs. You'll have 5 or 6 days to take in all of the sights in La La Land.

Pick up the car at LAX since you're going to return it there once you leave. Drive out to the Palm Springs area on Thursday and check in to your hotel. You'll drive about 2 hours from LAX to the desert. It might take you a little longer since you probably won't be in the car and on your way until 3:00. It will be a bit of a drive. As an option you can take your time, drive from the airport to perhaps Pasadena, about 40 minutes away, walk around Old Town Pasadena and have some dinner, then wait for traffic to die down. You could then leave Pasadena at about 7:30 and get to the desert by 9:00 or 9:30. Get to your hotel and allow yourself some time to unwind and adjust to the time change. We're about 9 hours behind you. This part of the trip should be about relaxing so I'd do that. You'll have all day Friday to lounge by the pool. The weather is better than in LA. It's still quite warm and the sun is always shining.

As an alternative, you might spend the night of the 26th in LA since you've had a long flight. You won't see much but if you stay in Pasadena you'll have a nice night with lots to walk around and see, in terms of shops and people watching. (I used to live in Pasadena so I'm biased.) Check out late morning on the 27th and make your way to Palm Springs from there. You'll get in in time for a late lunch or afternoon tea/cocktails.

Palm Springs

Palm Springs is actually quite far from the site of where WestFest will be. It's about a 40 minute drive. That's not necessarily bad but I'd prefer to stay at the La Quinta Resort & Club where everyone else is staying. I don't know what the rates are at this point but they were $150 per night. Palm Springs is just a little far and a little "alternative", if you get my meaning.

You could spend 5 days here if you want to just rest and relax. You can venture from here and do a little shopping as you've mentioned you want to do. About 35 minutes away are those outlet shops I told you about. Check the links on the WestFest site and you can find some tourist information. The La Quinta Resort is just the thing if you want to laze about.

Back to LA

I would definitely keep the car. There is no way to get around LA without one. The public transit is not good and taxis are rare and expensive. Everything in LA is very spread out. With a car you can go to Six Flags, Disneyland, Universal Studios, Venice Beach, Beverly Hills, etc. It's all rather far flung. As for hotels, I don't know much about them in LA but I'm not sure I'd stay downtown. It's all business and after dark, it changes and not in a good way.

After you're done here in the desert, head back to LA and spend the last several days there and return your car to airport.

As for deals, I suggest looking on sites like Priceline.com, Expedia.com, and hotwire.com. There are often good deals on rental cars. I know this is going to be expensive for you but you do want to enjoy it and not have to suffer too much.

That's all I can think of for now. If I think of more I'll e-mail you.

I'm sure others can pitch in with advice. Again, it's absolutely brilliant that you're coming!

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