Last week I was in sunny California on a shopping trip with Simon Shopping Destinations - the largest collection of shopping destinations in the U.S. with more than 100 Simon Malls, Premium Outlets and The Mills properties - to check out three of their shopping centres in LA and Palm Springs (I know, pinch me!). In LA we stayed at the wonderful Kimpton Everly in Hollywood for two nights and we visited The Outlets at Orange and Ontario Mills. We then moved on to check into the Hilton in Palm Springs and we visited the Desert Hills Premium Outlets which I must admit were the ones I was most excited about! In terms of places we ate whilst we were there - Soho house in Hollywood was uh-mazing and we went to at the Ace hotel restaurant Kings Highway Diner, as well as Las Casuelas - a delicious Mexican which I would also 100% recommend in Palm Springs. Oh also shout out to Parker Palm Springs which is an amazing hotel with super snazzy decor and an excellent restaurant that we had breakie at one morning - would love to stay there in the future!
First up was the Outlets at Orange and I must say, an excellent start to the trip! The Outlets at Orange is the premier outlet shopping centre in the Orange County, with more than 120 outlet and value stores including Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH, Neiman Marcus Last Call and Nordstrom Rack. It's located only minutes away from Disneyland Resort and other popular area attractions, and in addition to shopping, the open-air centre also offers fun and entertainment with over 25 restaurants & cafes, as well as an indoor Vans SkatePark, Lucky Strike Bowling and a huge cinema too! We arrived just as it was opening which was great as it wasn't too busy and a nice chilled shopping environment. Top stores on my hit list included included Saks off 5th, Neiman Marcus last call and Nordstrom Rack and I found so many amazing bargains along the way! I ended up buying a pair of Vince satin flats for less than $60 and they should have been over $200 so an amazing deal!
Next up - Ontario Mills, California’s largest outlet and value retail shopping destination with more than 200 stores including Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH, Nordstrom Rack, H&M, Sephora, a Nike Factory Store and the biggest Uniqlo everrr which I was especially excited about. As well as shops, Ontario Mills also has a cinema, many dining options and a lounge area to leave any luggage and generally rest and recharge too. So, Uniqlo was the first shop I went into and i'm not going to lie, I spent about an hour in there! As I said it's absolutely huge and has such a good selection too. I ended up buying an oversized men's blazer, wool midi skirt and the most amazing trousers too! I had a good old mooch and found some amazing deals in Coach and Saks too, and also spent an age in Sephora! I picked up my fave eyeliner in there - the Kat Von D tattoo liner :)
Our final stop was Desert Hills Premium Outlets - home to the largest collection of luxury outlets in California. It's just over an hour drive from Los Angeles and 20 minutes west of Palm Springs, and features 180 designer stores including Burberry, Mulberry, Gucci, Chloe, Prada, Saint Laurent and Tom Ford to name a few. I was in my element here and headed straight to Mulberry first where the discounts were so good! I was super close to buying a bag however decided I didn't really need a new designer bag but actually was in the market for some knee boots. I found the most amazing pair of Derek Lam black leather boots in Barney's outlet store down from $1250 to $250!! Obvs I had to snap them up and i've already worn them like three times! Obsessed. I'd defo recommend checking these outlets out if you're in the market for a new designer purchase at a good price.
To finish off our trip, on the final day in Palm Springs we got to take an amazing desert tour with red jeep tours courtesy of Visit Palm Springs bureau of tourism to the Indian canyons and it was SO GOOD!
As the original, largest, and most respected outdoor adventure and eco-tour company in the California desert, Desert Adventures offers a vast array of tour and activity choices and I would defo recommend them if you're ever visiting Palm Springs and want to explore. Our tour guide Dee was so knowledgeable and gave us a full commentary as we were riding round, and she was more than happy to stop where necessary for us to take pics! Whether you seek rugged adventure, camaraderie and team building, history and culture, nature, spectacular desert events or panoramic vistas and amazing scenery, Desert Adventures has a tour, activity, or event for you.
I had such an amazing time visiting the Simon Destinations (I mean dream trip or what?!) and they have properties all over America (like Woodbury Common Premium Outlets just outside of NYC which i've also been to and is amazing ) so would love to visit some more in the future too! Thank you so much to Simon Shopping Destinations and Four Communications for an amazing trip :)
Rachael
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*Press trip