Tucked steps from the main thoroughfare of downtown Palm Springs and all its vintage wares and bustling brunch spots, a sublime sanctuary hides in plain sight under the watchful gaze of the San Jacinto Mountains.
Terra Palm Springs is one of the city’s newest additions to the thriving local hotel scene. While most boltholes distinguish themselves through signature midcentury architecture or pulsing pool party scenes, Terra focuses entirely on radical wellness.
Terra, which opened in January 2025, is infused with an airy Boho-meets-Bali aesthetic led by Soli Cayetano, the hotel’s creative director and co-founder, and Diana Ossa, its co-founder, architect, and lead designer. Their strong sense of modern desert luxury sharply contrasts with the property’s former life as a gay men’s clothing-optional resort that closed down a few years ago.
Today, the centerpiece is an oval-shaped pool lined with leafy birds of paradise, potted plants, clay-red chaises, and breezy cabana-style day beds. A large hot tub is adjacent, surrounded by organic materials, including stone, concrete, wood, and terracotta, as are the hotel’s 13 rooms.
That low number curates an intimate feel. The rooms are soothing spaces filled with natural finishes like wood, stone, and tilework. Nightstands are topped with Loftie clocks that offer guided meditation, ambient soundscapes, and a two-phase alarm to complement natural waking rhythms. The decor is equally serene—think rattan benches, accent walls, and light wood furnishings.
The bathrooms have rainfall showers (soaking tubs in some instances), and Le Labo toiletries and a well-curated mini bar area come stocked with everything from superfood bites to kombucha and wellness goodies like sheet masks, body scrubs, and shower steamers.
The suites are particularly alluring. Firepit Suites have an outdoor hearth and lounge area, and Movement Suites have fitness patios and weights. But my personal pick is the Outdoor Spa Suite, a sun-soaked space with a private outdoor 72-inch concrete soaking tub nestled amid greenery on a large patio with loungers, a couch, and a heat lamp for chilly nights.
In-room add-ons are available to support regenerative sleep, including a HigherDOSE PEMF Go Mat or a HigherDOSE red light therapy face mask. While those rentals incur a fee, most other wellness perks come included, seemingly woven into every inch of the hotel itself.
All guests receive unlimited access to a soothing Himalayan salt sauna, a cold plunge tub, and a meditative rain room set to a soundtrack of rhythmic thunderstorm sounds. It’s the kind of place that invites you to slip on a swimsuit and swim, soak, sauna, rinse, and repeat while the noise of the outside world momentarily drifts away.
Rather surprisingly, there is no expansive spa facility like you’d expect in a larger resort—just one treatment room. Services are heavily influenced by 5,000-year-old Ayurvedic wisdom, and warm therapeutic oils and medicinal herbs are utilized for custom massages, body exfoliation, lymphatic detox, poultice rituals, and Reiki.
Regarding F&B, there’s no on-site restaurant, though the hotel partners with the local eatery Workshop, led by James Beard Award-winning Chef Michael Beckman. The restaurant stocks a grab-and-go fridge full of sandwiches, light snacks, and juice cleanses to enjoy by the pool or in a courtyard filled with plush seating under twinkling string lights.
The outdoor bar area, with a convenient pass-through window, also serves mocktails and cocktails packed with nourishing ingredients. (We liked the Inner Glow, which stirs up aged rum, marine collagen, Irish cream, coffee liqueur, and bitters to promote skin elasticity and radiance.)
The bar edges a small interior that does double duty as a diminutive hotel lobby where hibiscus tea is poured upon arrival and as a breakfast nook for a morning buffet lined with yogurt and granola, toast and nut butter, avocado, hard-boiled eggs, and fruit.
It’s hard to peel yourself away from such quiet luxury. Still, complimentary bicycle and tennis racquet rentals are available, and if you visit on the weekend, free yoga flows, restorative sound baths, and area hikes are offered.
While spas and Palm Springs might seem synonymous, a boutique spot centered solely around total holistic wellness is actually quite novel within the city limits. And if you take advantage of all Terra has within its breezeblock-topped walls, it’s a promise of pure bliss.
Top Takeaways
Location: Palm Springs, California
Rating: Four-star
The vibe: An airy hideaway merging bohemian glam with a chilled-out, blissful Bali feel.
Amenities: Bar, pool, sauna, rain room, cold plunge, Jacuzzi, spa treatment room
Our favorite thing about the hotel: Staying here is like entering a soothing cocoon of wellness, where every amenity is designed to restore and revitalize, and most don’t incur an extra fee.
What’s nearby? Downtown Palm Springs is mere steps away with its top-tier shopping, excellent restaurants, museums, parks, and incredible hiking, all within a short walk of the hotel.
Any personal neighborhood recs? Don’t miss a meal at Workshop, the restaurant that partners with the hotel, or the neighboring Jake’s, which in addition to upscale California-inspired fare, serves the thickest, most decadent cake slices you might ever try (the coconut is my personal favorite). To counter the carbs, a hike in Tahquitz Canyon or Indian Canyons is magnificent.
Rooms: 13
Pricing: Rates start at $400/night.
Closest airport: Palm Springs International Airport (PSP)
