Trixie Motel

People go to Palm Springs to relax, to have fun, and to look cute while doing it. There’s nowhere better to do all three at once than at the Trixie Motel, a seven-room motel opened by drag queen Trixie Mattel and her partner David Silver.

Every element of the motel is a bold, colorful take on the midcentury modern vibe of Palm Springs. The vibrant pink exterior is anchored by a Barbie Dreamhouse-esque swimming pool with umbrellas and lounge chairs. 

Each of the motel’s seven rooms has its own theme: smaller queen rooms include a retro-futurist outer space room and a “Queen of Hearts” room, while guests looking for a bit more space might opt for a cowgirl suite or a flower power suite. The pièce de résistance  is the “Oh Honeymoon Suite,” decorated in a bee theme. Hexagonal orange wallpaper lines the room, an orange velvet bench sits at the foot of the king-sized bed (the frame of which is also upholstered in orange velvet), and the elegant bathroom is tiled in a honeycomb pattern of rose and terra cotta.

Trixie and David were fans of Palm Springs long before they opened their hotel, and its walkable location makes it a great base from which to explore the city. (The two had long talked about creating a Trixie-themed rental, but didn’t get serious until David came up with “Trixie Motel.” Sometimes all it takes is a perfect pun to really light a fire.) The motel’s renovation and operation is the subject of the show Trixie Motel.