# Help in which resort to stay at around Palm Desert or Palm Springs area



## Ryes (Sep 14, 2019)

I’ve stayed at the Marriott Palm desert springs 1 and 2, and the Westin Desert Willow. 

I liked the Willow’s on property restaurant, slightly more upscale feel, it’s pools, and the option to go to it’s quiet pool if I felt like it, but I liked the size of the rooms at Desert Springs and the accompanying full hotel facilities nearby. All of the rooms were updated and clean which is important to me. 

I haven’t stayed at the Westin Mission Hills or at the Marriott Shadow Ridge. How do they compare to the above 2 resorts?


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## SteelerGal (Sep 14, 2019)

Ryes said:


> I’ve stayed at the Marriott Palm desert springs 1 and 2, and the Westin Desert Willow.
> 
> I liked the Willow’s on property restaurant, slightly more upscale feel, it’s pools, and the option to go to it’s quiet pool if I felt like it, but I liked the size of the rooms at Desert Springs and the accompanying full hotel facilities nearby. All of the rooms were updated and clean which is important to me.
> 
> I haven’t stayed at the Westin Mission Hills or at the Marriott Shadow Ridge. How do they compare to the above 2 resorts?


Shadow Ridge is a family resort.  WMH is connected to the Westin Hotel so more adult focused.


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## davidvel (Sep 14, 2019)

As noted Shadow Ridge is a more low-key casual resort. Only a small mid-level restaurant/grill, and pool bars for food. A lot of people at the BBQs, lots of kids, and hanging at the pools. If you preferred upscale, this is not the resort for you.


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## GetawaysRus (Sep 14, 2019)

We travel as 2 adults, no kids.

Of the Marriott resorts, we prefer DSV 1 and DSV2 to both Shadow Ridge Villages and Enclaves.  Rooms are smaller in Shadow Ridge, and the Enclaves feels packed in with buildings closer together.

Haven't stayed at Desert Willow to date.

We don't consider the on property restaurants a big deal.  There are tons of places to eat if you have a car (too many, in fact.  Not good for my wife's figure...).


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## SteelerGal (Sep 14, 2019)

There’s also Embarc.


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## BJRSanDiego (Sep 15, 2019)

Ryes said:


> I’ve stayed at the Marriott Palm desert springs 1 and 2, and the Westin Desert Willow.
> 
> I liked the Willow’s on property restaurant, slightly more upscale feel, it’s pools, and the option to go to it’s quiet pool if I felt like it, but I liked the size of the rooms at Desert Springs and the accompanying full hotel facilities nearby. All of the rooms were updated and clean which is important to me.
> 
> I haven’t stayed at the Westin Mission Hills or at the Marriott Shadow Ridge. How do they compare to the above 2 resorts?


I own at DSV1 and DSV2.  I love them both.   

But when I'm making a manual exchange reservation, I will happily accept Shadow Ridge. 

I suspect the the two Weston's (Mission Hills and Rancho Mirage (?) are both very nice.  So, maybe it is a 49/51 split decision.  Either one will be nice.  

I sometimes get a kick out of people trying to find the BEST of something.  What is the BEST car, what is the BEST place to live, etc.  I think that if you find something very nice that it doesn't matter if it is the VERY VERY VERY BEST.


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## PcflEZFlng (Sep 15, 2019)

BJRSanDiego said:


> I sometimes get a kick out of people trying to find the BEST of something.  What is the BEST car, what is the BEST place to live, etc.  I think that if you find something very nice that it doesn't matter if it is the VERY VERY VERY BEST.



I agree. There's no "BEST" for everyone. It all depends on what you're after for your own personal experience. For me, for right now, I like a nice, quiet, oasis-like experience. In other words, I don't want to stay in a place where my only pool option is to be in Marco Polo Land. As it happens, we own at Westin Mission Hills, which is nice. When we're there, I go to the quiet pool at the adjacent hotel. However, we usually go to Westin Desert Willow, and I love the quiet pool there. Restaurants at both places are just okay, and not at all comparable to restaurants off-property.

We've also stayed at Embarc a number of times, which never seems crowded when we're there and has a nice, relaxing vibe. We loved DSV1 when we stayed there in July, where the villas are huge and we had an unbeatable ground-floor view of the golf course and mountains, and I was able to hang out at the hotel spa.

We've never been to Shadow Ridge, but with WMH, WDW, Embarc and DVS1 as options that we already enjoy, probably won't seek it out.


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## Deb from NC (Sep 15, 2019)

We’ve stayed at Shadow Ridge twice and really enjoyed it.  There’s a quiet pool there that we loved, but the other pools weren’t that crowded when we were there...both times in February if I remember correctly. We had great golf course views.
I like the villas better than the enclaves...they seem larger to me.  We don’t usually eat at resort restaurants, so it didn’t bother us that there weren’t numerous restaurants on site.  
I would happily go back anytime!


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## PcflEZFlng (Sep 15, 2019)

Deb from NC said:


> We’ve stayed at Shadow Ridge twice and really enjoyed it.  There’s a quiet pool there...


Cool. That's good to know about Shadow Ridge. That would make it yet another option for us if the opportunity came up!


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## PcflEZFlng (Sep 15, 2019)

Your experience may also vary significantly by season (and not just because of the weather). It used to be that summer was a relatively quiet time in the desert (and it's still considered low season), but in more recent years we have found that to be less and less the case. The resorts have figured out how to get their rooms filled in the summer, especially with families.

When we were at DSV1 in July, the place was packed, as was WDW in August. At DSV1, it was so crowded that they took down the signs for the quiet pools (they told me they do that every summer), and there were kids everywhere. That made the hotel spa option an absolute must for me to ever go back there. It made all the difference for what I was looking for.


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## 10spro (Sep 30, 2019)

Seasons do make a difference in the desert. Shoulder season Mar/Apr and Sep/Oct can be very windy. Locations farther North and closer to I-10 may have stronger winds with more blowing sand. We did stay at Westin Missions Hills, the room was fine, but I was surprised at the amount of sand and dirt that came in under the door, and I don't mean just by the door, it was into the kitchen area as well, also outside on all the walking areas and the car had a new layer of dirt on it. It may not be an issue for others but I hate the wind and the noise and how messy it is.


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## Ryes (Sep 30, 2019)

Thanks for the great info everyone!


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## EZ-ED (Oct 12, 2019)

We like the Marriott resorts in Palm Desert and would stay at any except for the Enclaves. We have also stayed at the Westin Mission Hills and after the one stay have avoided it every since. Tile floor on the second floor make it way to noisy for us (in a first floor suite).


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## vlapinta (Nov 2, 2019)

We stayed in DSV1 2 years ago and loved it. We had a 2 bedroom corner unit on a high floor. We loved being able to use the Marriott hotel pool, which is much nicer than the DSV pools. We were 4 adults. We also loved being able to walk over, or take the shuttle to the hotel at night. There was always something to see at the hotel.


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