🌴 Downtown Palm Springs & Palm Canyon Drive With Kids: What Families Should Actually Do
Downtown Palm Springs is one of those places where you do not necessarily need a packed itinerary to have a great family outing.
Palm Canyon Drive is the heart of downtown, lined with restaurants, shops, public art, colorful architecture, and plenty of places to stop for a treat. It is also one of the easiest areas of Palm Springs to explore on foot, which makes it especially convenient when you are visiting with children.
But rather than simply telling you to "walk around downtown," we wanted to put together a more useful guide: where to stop, what kids can look for, when to visit, and what is actually happening downtown right now.
Here is how we would spend a family afternoon or evening in Downtown Palm Springs.
⭐ Start With the Palm Springs Walk of the Stars
Before you even choose a destination, look down.
Throughout downtown, you'll find the Walk of the Stars Palm Springs, with Golden Palm Stars embedded into the sidewalks honoring people who have contributed to the Palm Springs community and its history.
For kids, you don't necessarily need to explain who every person is. Turn it into a simple scavenger hunt instead.
See who can find the most stars. Have each child choose their favorite name. Let older kids search unfamiliar names on your phone and figure out what they were known for.
It turns an ordinary walk down Palm Canyon Drive into something the kids can actively participate in.
🌴 Take a Break at Downtown Park
A few blocks of walking can feel like a marathon when you're traveling with little ones.
Downtown Park is directly across from the Palm Springs Art Museum and just steps from Palm Canyon Drive. It gives families a convenient place to slow down, find some shade, sit together, and give younger kids a break from walking.
This is also where you'll find one of downtown's most recognizable photo opportunities: Forever Marilyn.
Even if your children have absolutely no idea who Marilyn Monroe was, the enormous sculpture is hard to miss and makes for a fun Palm Springs family photo.
🎨 Add the Palm Springs Art Museum
If you're already downtown, this is one of the easiest attractions to add to your day.
Palm Springs Art Museum is located at 101 Museum Drive, just off Palm Canyon Drive.
And here's the part families should know: children under 18 are always admitted free.
Rather than asking children to quietly follow you through every gallery, give them a mission. Ask them to find the strangest sculpture, their favorite painting, something with five colors, or the piece they would take home if they could choose anything.
There is also a particularly good opportunity for families on Thursdays. The museum offers free admission for everyone from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., and its current Free Thursday Night programming includes family-friendly Artwork Bingo.
That makes Thursday our favorite day to plan this entire downtown itinerary.
🏛️ Older Kids? Walk to the Architecture and Design Center
If your children or teens are into architecture, interiors, fashion, drawing, or design, there's another museum stop right on Palm Canyon Drive.
The Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center is located at 300 S. Palm Canyon Drive.
As of August 2026, its current exhibition is Alternative Palm Springs: Other Desert Architectures, which runs through January 4, 2027. Children under 18 are admitted free, and Thursday admission is free for everyone from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Your general admission to the Palm Springs Art Museum also provides access to the Architecture and Design Center, so families interested in both can make a day of it.
🌵 Teach Them a Little About Where They're Visiting
Palm Springs is much more than palm trees, pools, and pretty hotels.
If your children are old enough to appreciate history, the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum is another downtown stop worth considering.
The museum shares the history and culture of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and other Cahuilla peoples through exhibits incorporating artifacts, video, animation, maps, and other interpretive displays.
For visiting families in particular, it can give children important context about the land and community they're spending their vacation exploring.
🍦 Let the Kids Pick a Treat
One of our favorite approaches to downtown with kids is very simple: give them something to look forward to.
Explore for a while and then let everyone choose a dessert.
Ice cream, milkshakes, candy, pastries, or another sweet treat can become the "destination" at the end of your walk.
You don't need to rush from attraction to attraction. Part of the fun of Palm Canyon Drive is simply wandering into a shop that looks interesting, taking pictures, people watching, and stopping when something catches your child's attention.
🌙 If You Can Choose One Night, Make It Thursday
This is the most important tip in this guide.
Every Thursday evening, Palm Canyon Drive hosts Palm Springs VillageFest, when several downtown blocks close to vehicle traffic and become a pedestrian street fair.
You'll find artists, artisans, entertainers, food, snacks, sweets, flowers, produce, jewelry, and other vendors throughout the event. Many Palm Canyon Drive businesses also stay open later on VillageFest nights.
And unlike telling you to "check the calendar," here are the actual upcoming dates:
Thursday, August 27: 7:00–10:00 p.m.
Thursday, September 3: 7:00–10:00 p.m.
Thursday, September 10: 7:00–10:00 p.m.
Thursday, September 17: 7:00–10:00 p.m.
Thursday, September 24: 7:00–10:00 p.m.
Beginning in October, VillageFest switches to its cooler-season schedule of 6:00–10:00 p.m.
💗 Our Favorite Thursday Family Itinerary
If we were planning the afternoon for a StarKids family, we'd keep it simple.
Start at the Palm Springs Art Museum around 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. Take advantage of Free Thursday Night and let the kids try Artwork Bingo. Around 6:00 p.m., head outside to Downtown Park, see Forever Marilyn, and walk toward Palm Canyon Drive.
Grab dinner or a treat before VillageFest begins at 7:00 p.m. Then spend the evening strolling the closed-off street, looking at art, watching performers, browsing the vendors, and letting the kids choose one special snack.
That's several hours of entertainment without spending the entire day driving from one attraction to another. The museum and VillageFest are both free on Thursday evening, too.
☀️ A Very Important Summer Note
Downtown Palm Springs is walkable, but August in Palm Springs is still August in Palm Springs.
We wouldn't plan a long Palm Canyon Drive walk with young children in the middle of a hot afternoon.
During warmer months, an evening visit makes much more sense. That's another reason Thursday works so well: you can begin indoors at the museum and move outside as the sun gets lower.
Bring water, sunscreen, comfortable shoes, and a stroller for younger children even if they insist they don't need one.
Future you may be very grateful you brought it.
💕 Make Downtown an Adventure With Your StarKids Sitter
Downtown Palm Springs can also be a fun outing for children spending the day or evening with their StarKids sitter.