Palm Desert Shopping

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The El Paseo Shopping District has a wide variety of shops, art galleries, beauty centers, plastic surgery places, and other places to spend your money. Most of them are aimed at those with money; and names like Tiffany's, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Place Vendome abound.

What to buy: Clothing, Jewelry, Spa, Beauty Items, etc

What to pay: Lots; this is not Walmart.

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Over 300 world-class shops, clothing boutiques, art galleries, jewelers, restaurants and much, more...all lined along a beautifully maintained picture-postcard floral and statue-filled mile! Known as the Rodeo Drive of the Desert, El Paseo boasts a wide spectrum of stores from Sak's 5th Avenue to individually owned boutiques.

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For those on a budget looking for bargains, there's no better place than the community college flea market. The market has a farmer's market, handicrafts, and local junk, some of which, who knows?, could be from local wealthy estates. We didn't take time for this, but wish we had.

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The Coachella Valley has a number of date farms that grow dates for local sale and export across the nation. Shields Date Gardens has been packing and selling dates since 1924. At the store, virtually everything from date sugar to date shakes are sold. There are actually a variety of date to sample and purchase. The store also has a video explaining date agriculture. It's a great place to take the family. During our visit, our cashier was an elderly woman who had spent many years in Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Oman. She spoke good Arabic, and was cynical about the Iraq War from its start.

What to buy: We buy the minced dates to put on our breakfast cereal, and of course a number of packages of packed dates. But there are gift boxes, and a whole host of date related condiments and other food products. The store also has on-line sales (see address below).

What to pay: The prices here are about as good as it gets in the USA.

This is a shopping area of about 300 shops on El Paseo between Montery and Portola. These are mostly upscale shops that you would see on Madison Avenue in NYC or Rodeo Drive in LA. Even if you don't buy it's great to look. Not everthing is expensive.

What to buy: Women's, men's clothes, art, antiques, jewelry, bath shops, restaurants and much more.

What to pay: Shops are moderate to expensive.

El Paseo is not just one shop, it is a full street of very high end stores. Just off of Hwy 111, El Paseo curves an arc with limited on street parking but pretty good parking lots behind the stored.

What to buy: Anything you might imaging can probably be found but mostly there are clothing, accessories, jewlery and art.

What to pay: Expect the prices to be high.