244 rooms cantilevered 650 feet above the Coachella Valley on the Santa Rosa foothills — the highest viewpoint of any luxury hotel in the desert, with State Fare and the 25,000-square-foot Ritz-Carlton Spa.
"The view does most of the work — 650 feet above the Coachella Valley, looking out across the entire desert basin to the San Jacintos. Pair that with the Ritz operating standard, three pools at three different altitudes, and the only properly executed five-star spa in the desert, and the room rate justifies itself."
The Ritz-Carlton, Rancho Mirage occupies an 18-acre hillside parcel on the Santa Rosa Mountains' eastern flank, 650 feet above the Coachella Valley floor and accessed by a single switchback drive off Frank Sinatra Drive. The site originally opened in 1988 as the Ritz-Carlton Mirage; it closed in 2002 for a complete tear-down rebuild and reopened in May 2014 as the current property — a low-rise, contemporary, locally-stoned design that hugs the contours of the foothills rather than asserting against them. Marriott took over the brand stewardship through the Starwood acquisition in 2016 but the property has retained the original Ritz-Carlton operating model intact.
The 244 keys are arranged across four low buildings that step down the hillside; every room has a private balcony or terrace and almost every room has a Coachella Valley view (the higher floors look across the entire valley to the San Jacintos and Mount San Jacinto's 10,800-foot summit). Standard rooms run 530 square feet — the most generous in the desert at the five-star tier. Suites range from Junior to the 2,500-square-foot Presidential, which occupies the corner of the top floor with a wraparound terrace and a private outdoor fire pit. The renovation kept the materials desert-appropriate: travertine floors, oxidised iron, walnut, and oversized glass on the valley side.
State Fare Bar & Kitchen is the all-day venue, repositioned in 2018 as a more casual contemporary American room with a notable wine list and a bar that draws Rancho Mirage residents in for dinner; the Ritz Bar handles cocktails on the cantilevered terrace. The 25,000-square-foot Spa is the property's second proposition: 16 treatment rooms, a co-ed mineral pool, a hammam, separate men's and women's lounges with their own plunge pools, and a fitness centre arranged around a vertical climbing wall. The spa is independently the strongest in the Coachella Valley and one of the strongest in California.
The three outdoor pools are the third proposition: a quiet adults-only pool on the upper terrace (no children, no music), the family pool on the middle terrace (with the Splash kids' programme in season), and the entertainment pool on the lower terrace (with the bar service and the band on Friday and Saturday evenings). Hiking trails leave directly from the property into the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument; the Ritz Kids programme runs full-day age-graded activities in school holidays. The combination of view, view-led architecture, the spa, and the operating standard make this the strongest five-star in the Coachella Valley and one of the strongest desert resorts in the western United States.
For Coachella Valley anniversaries the Ritz-Carlton is the obvious choice. Book a Mountain View Suite on the upper floors for the milestone version, dine at State Fare both nights, take a long couples treatment in the hammam-equipped spa, and use the adults-only pool on the upper terrace as the slow-day infrastructure. The combination of the view, the operating standard, and the spa works at any anniversary intensity from a 5th-anniversary weekend to a 25th-anniversary milestone trip.
For desert honeymoons the move is a Mountain View Suite or Junior Suite (private balcony, west-facing for sunset over the San Jacintos), the spa for couples treatments, and the adults-only upper pool for the daytime read. Hiking trails leave directly from the property for the early-morning version. The Presidential Suite is the once-in-a-lifetime version with the wraparound terrace; State Fare's chef's table handles a private dinner.
For family Coachella Valley stays the property handles every age cleanly. Connecting rooms book without negotiation, the Ritz Kids programme runs full-day in school holidays (junior naturalist hikes, mineral painting, swimming pool games), the family pool on the middle terrace has a separate kids' shallow zone, and the parents have the adults-only pool on the upper terrace as escape. State Fare handles a children's menu without making it feel like a children's restaurant.
68900 Frank Sinatra Drive
Rancho Mirage, CA 92270
United States
Palm Springs International Airport (PSP) 20 minutes; downtown Palm Springs 25 minutes; El Paseo (Palm Desert) shopping 8 minutes
244 rooms (incl. 30 suites)
Mountain View Rooms from $399/night
Coachella Valley View Rooms from $599/night
Junior Suites from $1,200/night
Presidential Suite from $7,500/night
Check-in: 4:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Original property opened 1988; complete rebuild reopened May 2014
State Fare Bar & Kitchen
The Ritz Bar (cantilevered terrace)
25,000 sq ft Ritz-Carlton Spa with hammam
Three outdoor pools (adults-only / family / entertainment)
Direct trail access into Santa Rosa / San Jacinto National Monument
Ritz Kids programme
650 feet above the Coachella Valley
From $399/night. Suites and Coachella Valley View rooms book three months ahead for Coachella weekends (April), Modernism Week (February), and Christmas–New Year. The summer rate (June–August) typically runs at half the winter rate.
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