Terra Palm Springs

Terra Palm Springs opened in January 2025 at 888 North Indian Canyon Drive, in downtown Palm Springs. It has 13 rooms and bills itself as the city's first boutique wellness hotel. The building was previously a clothing-optional resort for gay men that closed a few years earlier.

The place

The hotel stands on Indian Canyon Drive, in downtown Palm Springs, with the San Jacinto Mountains as a backdrop.

The concept

Diana Ossa is the architect and designer, and Soli Cayetano is creative director. Rooms use concrete, stone, wood and terracotta, with a mid-century frame underneath. Several have private patios, plunge pools or fire pits, and the spa suites add soaking tubs.

Each room can be set up with a wellness routine: infrared PEMF mats from HigherDose, red light sessions, guided meditations. Workout and yoga equipment comes from Vuori.

Shared facilities are a pool and hot tub, a Himalayan salt sauna open around the clock, a cold plunge and a rain room that plays the sound of a thunderstorm. Weekend group fitness classes, sound baths and meditation are free for guests, and quarterly retreats with visiting practitioners are planned.

Treatments are Ayurvedic. A dosha assessment comes first, then options such as Abhyanga massage, Marma point therapy and Shirodhara, the warm oil poured across the forehead. The longest is the 120-minute Terra Signature Journey, which combines a herbal exfoliation, a massage and marma work.

Dining & wellness

Executive chef Michael Beckman runs a nutrition-led kitchen built on local produce, and breakfast is a health breakfast. Juice cleanses and wellness tonics are part of the programme, and a tea selection follows treatments.

The bar is run by Eduardo Nava Mendoza, who makes seasonal cocktails and non-alcoholic wellness drinks.