Palm Springs

Hollywood studios required contract actors to stay within roughly two hours of the studio, and Palm Springs sat just inside that radius, which is why it filled with weekend houses in the 1950s and 60s - and why architects including Richard Neutra, Albert Frey, William Krisel and John Lautner built here in volume, producing what is generally reckoned the densest surviving concentration of midcentury modern residential architecture anywhere. Modernism Week each February runs tours into houses normally closed. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway climbs from the desert floor at about 800 metres to 2,600 in the San Jacinto mountains in rotating cars that turn twice during the ascent, and the top is often twenty degrees cooler with snow in winter.

What you actually see

• Dense midcentury modern housing - Neutra, Frey, Krisel, Lautner.
• Modernism Week in February - tours into normally private houses.
• A rotating aerial tram - cars turning twice on the climb.
• Snow at the top in winter - while the valley is warm.

When to go

November to April; summer regularly exceeds forty degrees. A full day.

Honest expectations

Summer heat is genuinely dangerous for outdoor activity. Most modernist houses are private - Modernism Week is the exception. Tram tickets sell out and the top is cold. Coachella season in April fills the valley.

Nearby

Joshua Tree is north-east; the Salton Sea is south-east.