Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort-Kid Friendly Palm Springs Hotel Review

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Are you visiting Palm Springs with kids and looking for a hotel with the best pool in Palm Springs? We have visited the Palm Springs area with kids many times and tried several different hotels. One of the best Palm Springs pools for families is found at the Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort in Rancho Mirage.

Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort in Rancho Mirage is one of our favorite hotels in SoCal and one of the best kid friendly hotels near Palm Springs.  If you’re looking for the best Palm Springs hotel for families, this is it! Every summer, Omni hotels have deals (usually not directly advertised, you have to do some digging!) where the rooms are $149/night (weekends included) so we decided to take advantage of it. Just go to their site, select your travel dates and choose the stay and splash rate.

To compare, rooms are usually around $400/night, so this was a great deal and much cheaper than the other hotels in the area, which don’t have water parks.  We stayed Friday-Sunday and had a blast! If you’re looking for a family friendly Palm Springs hotel with an awesome pool area, this is definitely it! 

Which building is the best at Omni Rancho las Palmas?

If you’re looking to be close to the water park area, the closest building to the pool at Rancho las Palmas is building 10. Our room was in building 10, which in my opinion is the best building there is. We were a short walk to the lobby/restaurant for breakfast, but right outside our door was the entrance to the pool and water park.  There were several buildings in the back, and those people were taking a golf cart every time they wanted to get somewhere. I highly recommend asking for building 10, and specifically room 1019.  It was an awesome location! The room was your typical hotel room, nothing spectacular. But we barely spent any time in the room with all the activities, so it was fine for us.

There are over 400 rooms on 240 acres, so being close to the amenities is a must unless you want to walk far to the pool or wait for a golf cart each time you want to visit the water park. Omni Rancho las Palmas has the best pool area in Palm Springs so you will definitely want to be close!

Splashtopia Water Park

The hit of the hotel is of course the water park. This is the best hotel pool in Palm Springs! Keep in mind that to access it, you need a wrist band (and key to unlock the gate). During our entire stay, an employee was by the entrance checking to make sure everyone had their bands.  If you lose yours, it costs $50 to replace it. You get a different color band for each day of your stay.

The slide was a huge hit with Milana! Kids have to be 42 inches (she’s 43 inches so just made it!) to ride, no floatation devices (puddle jumpers, etc) are allowed, and no lap sitting. Those rules basically excluded 80% of the kids, so there were barely any lines! She loved going on the slides over and over again. At 4, she’s a better swimmer than me!

There was also a lazy river, which went around the entire water park area.

And of course, a pool which made her very happy!

The pool was open til 10pm, so we took advantage of some night swimming. It was still in the 90s after the sun went down, so it felt really nice!

On the far end of the water park is the beach area, popular for families with babies/toddlers.  There is a sand area and a zero entry pool that goes up to 2 feet. Perfect for little ones to splash around! And, the entire sand area is fully shaded, so your kids won’t be in direct sun all day.

Family Activities at Omni Rancho las Palmas

On the hotel grounds, there are several areas with kid activities.  For some reason, these aren’t advertised well but a mom at the pool tipped me off so I went looking for them. Be sure to check the lit of daily activities at Rancho Las Palmas to make the most of your stay! There is a small arcade:

And next door is a room with all kinds of arts and crafts and games.

And every day starting at 5pm, they had an area where you can make s’mores.  For $5, you get all the ingredients and sit around a fire pit making your creation. My little chocoholic loved this!

All over the hotel, they sell Dippin’ Dots. After seeing many kids with them, Milana of course had to have some.

Dining at Rancho las Palmas

For breakfast, we stayed at the hotel so that we can get to the pool faster. Not being an early riser, Milana would wake up around 10am every morning, which was already 3 hours later than the majority of the kids there so we were a little behind in getting to the pool. Blu ember restaurant has a breakfast buffet and kids under 5 are free, so it was the best choice for us.  We had lunch by the pool, since she didn’t want to leave. The food was actually really good and well priced.

Things to do outside of the resort

Omni Rancho las Palmas is located in the California desert, not far from many family friendly activities! There are several family friendly Palm Springs restaurants you can walk to right from the hotel, so I suggest you explore some local restaurants for dinner.

Head to Palm Springs for some downtown shopping or to check out their children’s museum. Want some nature? A day trip to Joshua Tree National Park is just 45 minutes away. Visiting Joshua Tree National Park with kids should definitely be on your list as there is a ton to do!

If you live in SoCal, this is a great place for a short weekend getaway. If you can get a good deal that is! I wouldn’t pay their regular prices since there are so many other places I’d rather go, but it was definitely worth it for $149 a night. If you’re looking for a family friendly hotel with the best pool in the Palm Springs area, this is it!