An Oasis of Fun in the Sun
Written: May 17 '04 (Updated May 26 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great Pool Area, Good Service, Many Amenities and Activities
Cons: Noisy rooms, some with small beds, some things expensive
The Bottom Line: If you luck out and get a room in a quiet area, this is an excellent resort. One of the better Palm Springs area resorts.
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| heckonwheels's Full Review: Renaissance Esmeralda Resort |
We love going to Scottsdale and Phoenix. The many first-class resorts there are bargains when the heat goes up and the great swimming pools are a good way to soak up that excess heat. There are many world-class restaurants and attractions to keep you occupied. I highly recommend a trip to the Valley of the Sun when you get a chance.
Unfortunately, with these ever increasing gas prices, Scottsdale and Phoenix are getting to be very expensive to drive to. What’s a desert resort loving family to do? Look closer to home, that’s what.
Living in Southern California, our closest desert resort area is Palm Springs and the area surrounding it. When we want a weekend away for less, this is where we’ll look. During the hot season…basically May to October…you can find some really good deals here.
Lately, we’ve been taking advantage of the low season rates at the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort located in Indian Wells, an upscale community about 15 miles east of Palm Springs.
The Renaissance Esmeralda is a true resort. That is, everything you need to enjoy a vacation can be found on the property. Here, that includes a golf course, five restaurants (plus room service), pools, spa, exercise room, salon, cocktail lounges, travel agent, concierge, and more.
It is a huge hotel at seven floors and over 500 rooms. Each room has a 27” cable TV, ironing board & iron, minibar, coffee maker, hairdryer, high speed internet access, phone, and bathrobes. You can choose from a room with a king size bed or two full size beds. We were able to get this type of room for $85 a night during the low season. Normal rates run from around $120 to $245.
There is a large, free parking lot out front with more parking available in the back of the hotel. Valet parking is also available at the door.
So, now that you know the details, what’s the experience like? Here are the key factors:
ROOM: Spacious enough. The bathroom is roomy and has the normal tub/shower combination that you’ll find anywhere. There is a walk-through closet situated between the bedroom and the bathroom with the ironing board, iron, and bathrobes inside. The beds were very comfortable and, the rooms we’ve received, had a great view over the golf course. The knocks I’ll give here, and it’s enough to remove a star, is that the hallway noise intrudes into the room easily. Kids running down the hall, loud people who’ve had too much to drink, housekeeping carts rolling by, all are noises we’ve had to deal with at night in every room we’ve had here. This is a newer hotel and you’d think an upscale property like the Renaissance could have put in some sort of noise-dampening material into the walls and doors or at least impose some sort of noise curfew after bedtime. Also, I’d like larger beds when traveling with my son. Two queens would be better than two doubles.
POOL: Outstanding. Fabulous. Everything you could want, short of an actual water park. There are two large pools here. The biggest one sports a sandy beach area. The smaller (still big) one winds around a waterfall coming off of a trellis. The waterfall also doubles as a cold plunge and two hot spas complete the picture. The pool area is very large…if I remember correctly, I believe it’s three acres…and many chairs, lounges, tables, and umbrellas are available. Every time we’ve been here the hotel was filled to capacity but we didn’t have any problem finding a place to sit by the pool.
Smack dab in the middle of the pool area is a covered bar area serving nice, but expensive, drinks and lunch-type fare such as hot dogs, hamburgers, and sandwiches. A grill was also set up near the entrance of the pool area during the busiest 3-4 hours serving hot dogs and hamburgers. There was also a guy playing steel drums on the side of the large pool, providing musical entertainment to the guests.
The employees around the pool area were generally good. We had a couple of slow waiters and a couple of real good waiters. The non-serving pool staff was very helpful and would always be available to move an umbrella, find a table, or even inflate our inner-tubes.
We could easily (and did) spend an entire day at the pool, taking in the sun and cooling off in the clear water as we drifted back and forth in our tubes.
RESTAURANTS: There are two upscale restaurants, Las Estrellas and Sirocco, that we haven’t tried yet. They’re only open for dinner and we usually like to get out and try the many great restaurants available in the stretch of Highway 111 from Indian Wells to Palm Desert. We did have a dinner at Charisma, adjacent to the pool area. The dinner was decent with a good steak, some serviceable pasta, and a burger for our son. Good food, about par with most decent hotel restaurants but nothing spectacular. It was a bit on the expensive side, about $18 for the steak, $14 for the pasta and a ten dollar burger.
The least expensive option is the Café Biscotti that is a Starbucks-type coffee bar serving a limited selection of sandwiches, salads, and pastries – along with some very good coffee - off of the lobby. There are also numerous reasonably priced snacks at the large gift shop next door to Café Biscotti.
In general, you don’t have to leave the resort to eat well but if you do, you’ll likely find superior food for the same price or less.
EXERCISE ROOM: Very good. There are about a dozen cardio machines such as bikes, steppers, and treadmills. One neat thing about them is that each cardio machine has it’s own TV monitor (grab a set of complementary headphones at the entrance) where you can watch any of the channels on the cable system here. It makes that time just fly by. The row of cardio equipment also looks over a pretty little lake on the golf course. There is a full complement of weight-training machines as well featuring lat-pulls, bench presses, leg curls, leg pressing, and so on. A large rack of dumbbells is available for free-weight training. The only thing I missed here was free-weights using barbells and there was no class led exercises such as aerobics. There are separate locker rooms for men and women featuring showers, toilets, and a sauna. The room was very clean and the equipment very well maintained. Probably the best hotel gym I’ve every worked out in…plus it is free for all hotel guests.
STAFF: Apart from a couple of slow waiters in the pool area, the staff here was wonderful. Someone would ALWAYS open the door for you. Housekeeping was there in an instant if you needed something. The pool area staff couldn’t do enough to help you. The restaurant Maitre’d and servers were excellent. The concierge calls two days before arrival to introduce themselves and invite you to come to them for anything. Of course, they work for tips, but with a staff like this you don’t mind at all.
OTHER AMENITIES: I haven’t had a chance to golf here but you’re allowed to walk/hike/jog through the golf course and I can tell you it’s immaculately maintained. The green belt it provides around the hotel adds to the beauty of the surroundings. There is a full service spa here, and although I’ve tried to get my wife to take advantage of it, we haven’t used it yet. The spa is completely separated from the pool area but you can have an outdoor massage at a cabana adjacent to the pool. The spa has it’s own pool too. There is a full service hair salon, a large gift shop with a big selection of resort clothing and accessories, a huge atrium lobby (with waterfall), and a travel agent that can arrange tours for you. Even though the concierge offered her services, I didn’t have a need for them but the phone call was appreciated.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: The lack of soundproofing. I would also like to see them have larger beds for the rooms with two beds. An upscale property like this can splurge on queen size beds instead of doubles. Many of the items and services on the premises were expensive such as drinks in the bars, spa services, and salon services. A cocktail at the pool (where you are not allowed to bring your own) can cost $7.50. A massage at the spa would cost around $15-$20 more than a day spa at home. But I understand that a full-service resort comes at a price.
OVERALL: I’d stay at the Renaissance Esmeralda again but if I found an equally good bargain at some of the other resorts in the area, I’ll probably give them a try too. It’s a very nice – but not quite perfect – resort that’s close to Southern California.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
heckonwheels
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Location: Los Angeles, CA USA
Reviews written: 77
Trusted by: 14 members
About Me:
Southern California native who travels around the country a lot.
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