Off 1-10, 12 miles North of Palm Springs. Desert Hot Springs lacks the allure of nearby Palm Springs but its residents make a fuss about their extra hour of daylight (unlike Palm Springs, there’s no mountain to block the sunset), which makes possible an extra set of tennis or an extra few holes of golf – paramount local concerns.

Besides sport, and several spa resorts, the town has one place of special curiosity. Cabot’s Old Indian Pueblo Museum (www.cabotsmuseum.org), 67616 E. Desert View Avenue, was built (but never finished) single-handedly over 20 years by an early local settler. The ramshackle four-story building, packed with Hopi Indian handicrafts and desert oddments, can be fully comprehended on the guided tours.