Palm Springs Windmill Tours: Interactive Self-Drive Experience
4.7
251 Ratings
Palm Springs
Embark on an interactive self-drive tour of the first commercial wind farm in Southern California. Explore marked destinations, learn about renewable energy, and get up close to real generating wind turbines.
Duration: 30 minutes
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Palm Springs Windmill Tours - The Palm Springs Windmill Self-Driving Tours is an interactive, educational and fun tour for friends and family. The tour is curated by Tom Spiglanin, Tour Manager, in which he will guide you along with an audio program and marked destination’s throughout the first commercial wind farm in the United States. The tour starts with a display yard of non-operating wind turbines of successes and failures, along with a stop to a real generating wind turbine where you can get up close and take pictures. The tour ends with a stop at the old Enron machines. There you can exit on 19th Avenue to Indian Canyon Road more knowledgeable about renewable energy! The tour takes approximately one hour depending on your pace. We ask that you respect others by not gathering at the marked destinations. Please allow cars ahead of you to finish their exploration before your turn.
What's Included
  • Itinerary-based accommodation
  • Exclusive Palm Springs Windmill Tour App
  • Engaging audio program
What's Not Included
  • Price includes 2 adults in one vehicle. Add’l $10 charge for each adult. Kids under 12 are free.
Additional Information

This guided tour requires your personal vehicle, leading you across Southern California’s first commercial wind farm with the aid of an audio guide and signposted locations. Your booking confirmation, application download link, and instructions will reach you via email. The journey begins at an exhibition yard showcasing non-functional wind turbines, both successful and failed experiments, and includes a stop at an operating turbine where photography is welcome. The tour concludes with a visit to the Indigo Power Plant and a decommissioned wind farm. From there, you can exit onto 19th Avenue, heading out onto Indian Canyon Road, enriched with new insights into renewable energy! The estimated tour duration is around an hour, depending on personal pace. We encourage respecting others by not congregating at the designated spots, and allowing cars ahead to complete their viewing before progressing. Each booking covers two adult participants.

  • Children must be accompanied by an adult
Location
Palm Springs Windmill Tours
62950 20th Ave
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.7
(251 Ratings)
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Coastal622361
Jun 30, 2024
Excellent customer service - It was so informative and the videos before and after were well done. My guide Emir (hope I got the spelling right) was very knowledgeable and helpful! You could tell he loves doing this. He made it fun! The lady in the gift shop was really nice as well. And the gulf cart ride was comfortable. 🙂
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Bigcane00
May 21, 2024
Pretty good tour - We flew into Palm Springs in May 2024 just to spend a weekend with friends from Los Angeles, who drove over to Palm Springs for the weekend. The windmill tour is a good activity if you're visiting. On this tour you use your own car and use their apps in order to get the narration. But you could just read the narration from the app as well. On the tour you had a chance to go through the different types of windmills that were used to the current ones. Before the tour the front desk person will set up some videos for you to see which are very helpful in understanding why windmills exist in that part of the country and some of the history behind all that. Now if you choose to go to Palm Springs in may please be aware that the temperature gets a little bit hot. I'm sure it gets hotter in June and July and August but just note that May is indeed hot. And since this is a windmill tour, please expect that it’s gonna be busy
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jeremym474
Apr 4, 2024
Fun informative tour. - Nice concise video intro before the tour then Tom took us in a golf cart. Had a step for anyone with mobility issues and gave a leisurely informative stop and go tour. Classy and knowledgeable and personable.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
848terrig
Mar 25, 2024
Loved it - Great tour. Even better host who greeted us. The informational video is fantastic. Would definitely take the tour again
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Kevin_k
Mar 5, 2024
Wind Farm - The greeter was awesome. He provided great information before we went into the wind farm. We were able to your at our own pace.
Review provided by Viator
Claudia
Mar 4, 2024
Windmill drive adventure - We really enjoyed the informative video before the driving tour. Our questions were answered by the attendant afterwards. The driving tour was through the wind field with up close view of the component parts of the windmills with App explanations. We felt we got our money’s worth.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Photodudeiii
May 1, 2024
Sure is Windy There! - Located north of Palm Springs, about a 15 minute drive from downtown, is the famous windfarms as seen in many movies, commercials and music videos. And this tour of one section lets you get up close to see these gigantic structures. I took the self-guided tour, which requires you to download an app to your smartphone (it’s free), which narrates the various points on the tour. Gives a good history of wind power in California, and the trials and tribulations that were faced in implementing this technology. Interesting. And yes, it is very windy there, so be prepared.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Royp
Jul 11, 2024
Interesting presentation - The presentation at the beginning was interesting, but the cost is way too high. I am a renewable energy supporter, but this was not worth the admission price
Review provided by Viator
Karen
Jun 3, 2024
Interesting but overpriced - We have passed the wind turbines for years on our way to and from Palm Springs. Today we decided to take the self guided tour. We watched an interesting short video. There are lots of pictures and posters in the main office showing the history of the wind turbines. We downloaded an app that had the guided tour, got back in the car and drove through the tour. There are old parts and pieces, blades and tower parts. And we drove very close to a working wind turbine. It was an interesting tour, just not worth $75 for 4 of us. Young children would be pretty bored.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Caflygrl
Apr 7, 2024
Pricey but some interesting info - We were a family of 2 seniors, 3 adults and 2 kids (10 and 11). We had just done Joshua Tree the day before (with an audio guide app) so I think we had high hopes for this - plus the reviews were really awesome! For most of us, the most interesting part was the "orientation" in the Welcome Center watching the movie and learning about wind, and other green energy, not just in CA but all around the world. The guy answering questions was super knowledgeable and we all found him very enjoyable. The actual tour was a bit dry. This tour an audio tour from their app, not a guided one. It was interesting to see the Blade Yard and how many iterations the windmills had to go through to get to the huge ones we have today. It was (obviously) super windy so I was the only one brave enough to get out and snap a few photos. I think if this tour had been something like $20/car I would have thought it was worthy of a stop if you've got time on your trip. However we paid $85 for the 7 of us making it one of the more expensive activities on our vacation.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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