The Eagles famously sang: Welcome to the Hotel California. And every year, more and more Brits take up the Golden State on that offer and enjoy the west coast sunshine and entertainment.

Most head for Los Angeles or San Francisco, but there’s far more to the place than movie stars, sentimental songs and two big cities.

Frisco is not the only place in America’s second largest state where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.

Take Palm Springs. Unless you are a golf or tennis fanatic you might not be too familiar with this little gem in the desert

By Californian standards, Palm Springs, with a full-time population of about 40,000, is only a speck on the map.

But it’s a little town with a big reputation for fun.

Take those cable cars… We all know about those cute little veterans on Frisco’s nursery slopes. But they can’t hold a candle to Palm Springs’ mountain cableway.

Because in the space of 15 minutes this one will whisk you 10,000ft from the flat desert floor, where the sun will fry your brain in high summer, to the craggy peaks of the San Joaquinta mountains, where even in spring you step off into 3ft of snow.

So on a typical day you can spend your morning playing 18 holes of golf at one of the 100-plus courses the area boasts, then swap your nine iron for a set of skis.

…And wandering along the sunlit snow trails among magnificent conifers with cheeky squirrels pelting you with pine cones was a nice contrast to the dry daytime heat of downtown Palm Springs.

…We found the desert actually teems with life. There was an abundance of flowers and an oasis surrounded by date palms.

It was extraordinary to find a place where, every few feet, different types of cactii cling to life.

For birdwatchers, the evening sky was full of eagles, hawks and even tiny hummingbirds on their annual migration

…BACK to the entertainment… After field-testing a few pina colada bars, I was invited to try a bit of horse riding at the beautiful Smoke tree Ranch.

…The final place my Palm Springs guides wanted me to see was the Joshua Tree national park. It’s about an hour’s drive from Palm and well worth a visit.

I was chauffered out there in a Humvee – one of those ginormous macho 4×4 jeeps that started life as a Delta Force battlewagon.

It was while staying in the area that U2 cut their iconic album The Joshua Tree and, if you like the great outdoors, and I do, you’ll love it here.

The park covers thousands of acres of wilderness. The trees themselves are a prehistoric throwback, not so much a tree but a kind of cactus on a very grand scale.

Then it was back to town and a chance to take stock… Palm Springs is a fascinating and fun place to visit…

I can’t see it being a destination for families. If you want to take children to the US, Florida will always be the big draw and New York, LA and San Francisco will always cream off the bulk of travellers.

But Palm Springs is a good niche venue if you are a more discerning visitor. With its superb boutique hotels, like the excellent Viceroy, it would be a great place for a honeymoon. [Tom's note: Too bad they didn't mention us as we have had many honeymooners at our hotel, even honeymooners from England.]

There is a lot to do and see, even if you just like people-watching. There are also lots of exciting restaurants and bars.

The shopping is fantastic, too. With sterling strong against the US dollar you’ll get big bargains on designer label clothes and shoes. The town has several big malls or, if you rent a car or take a local bus, you can go an hour towards LA where supermalls dwarf even the best the UK has to offer. The people are friendly and the crime rate is low, so it’s safe to walk around the centre late at night.

One word of warning, though. In high summer, between July and September, temperatures top 120F and going outside is an ordeal for most people. [Tom's note: Wrong, average summer temperature is only 108F. And if you stay at The Terra Cotta Inn, we are the only hotel in all Palm Springs that has invested in a state of the art poolside high pressure misting cooling system, so we are very popular in the summer averaging about a 90% summertime occupancy rate.]

There are a host of good hotels, with three-star accommodation from £60-£100 per person per night, and, for a glimpse of film star-style accommodation, even the four-star Viceroy Palm Springs will cost as little as £120 per night, depending on the time of year.

The best times to visit are in spring and autumn, when the weather is an average 80F.