Sunnylands Center & Gardens

Sunnylands is where midcentury Palm Springs glamour meets world history. For four decades, publisher and diplomat Walter Annenberg and his wife Leonore hosted presidents, royalty and Hollywood stars at their winter estate in Rancho Mirage, about twenty minutes down-valley from Palm Springs. The house, designed by A. Quincy Jones with interiors by William Haines and Ted Graber, is a 25,000-square-foot masterpiece of desert modernism with a pink pyramid roof, and it continues as a retreat for leaders today — it hosted the 2013 summit between Presidents Obama and Xi. Most visitors start at the Sunnylands Center & Gardens, which is free to enter and park at: a modern visitor center with exhibits and a film on the estate's history, a café, and nine acres of gardens planted with tens of thousands of desert plants arranged like a living abstract painting, with walking paths, a labyrinth and mountain views. A self-guided audio walk through the gardens plays on your phone. To see the house itself you need a ticket for the 90-minute Historic House Tour, which takes small groups through the grand atrium, the Room of Memories with letters and photographs from presidents and the British royal family, and the guest rooms where the likes of Ronald and Nancy Reagan stayed. Tickets cost about $58 per person, release in monthly blocks at 9am Pacific on the 15th of the preceding month, and sell out quickly in peak season; a few same-day tickets are sold at the center first come, first served. Guests must be at least 10. Other ticketed experiences include the Historic Walk around the estate, birding tours and tree walks, and a free guided bird walk runs Thursday mornings from November to May.

The estate covers some 200 acres, with its own private golf course, lakes and the house at its center. The Annenbergs entertained a long line of U.S. presidents here, beginning with Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald and Nancy Reagan were regular guests at the famous New Year's Eve parties. Inside, the house remains largely as the Annenbergs left it, filled with their collection of decorative arts and reproductions of the Impressionist masterpieces they donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photography is not permitted inside the house, so the tour is a rare chance to simply look and listen.

The Center & Gardens alone are well worth the drive, even without a house tour. The garden design, by landscape architect James Burnett, uses massed desert plants in sweeping drifts to echo the abstract art the Annenbergs loved, and it is at its best in spring when many of the plants bloom. Free events fill the calendar in season — yoga and tai chi in the gardens, film screenings, Days of the Dead celebrations — and the café is a pleasant lunch stop. Picnics are allowed, but large coolers, grills and alcohol are not.

Plan around the calendar. The Center & Gardens are open Wednesday through Sunday from 8:30am to 4pm and close completely each summer from early June to mid-September, as well as on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. House tour tickets are limited to seven per transaction and tours may be suspended for weather or when the estate hosts a retreat. Bring water, a hat and sunscreen for the gardens, which offer little shade at midday. Combine with lunch on El Paseo in nearby Palm Desert or an afternoon at the Living Desert.