Palm Springs, California is a desert oasis for true sports fans. The area’s golf courses are legendary – there are well over a hundred - and host top events like the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Tennis, meanwhile, holds one of its most important annual tournaments, the BNP Paribas Open (formerly the Pacific Life Open), in Palm Springs; there are popular baseball and boxing options throughout the region as well – all year long, thanks to the crisp, dry weather and omnipresent sun.

So what does the cool sports player or watcher do if they don’t want to stay in an overpriced hotel catering to a crowd that’s often older than one’s parents? Well, now they can stay at The Ace Hotel. The Ace in Palm Springs is brought to you by the same people who innovated the “budget boutique” genre with Ace properties in New York, Portland, and their hometown of Seattle (they’re also the same team behind the ubiquitous Rudy’s Barbershop chain, the longtime mainstay for coiffing hipsters on the cheap, who provide the amenities, naturally). The Palm Springs edition is actually called the “Ace Hotel and Swim Club,” due to its epic pool scene, which dominates the setting – try a “booze sno cone” during the weekly Sunday afternoon poolside DJ sets for a chilled-out buzz (Zia McCabe of the Dandy Warhols was a recent celebrity spinner on the wheels of steel). There’s also a spa to unwind in and get a massage after a hot day on the links or the court, a  gourmet diner that specializes in simple but tasty organic grub, and ironic-retro vintage furniture galore. A former Howard Johnson’s remixed for urbane urban tastes, the Ace stays true to Palm Springs’ favored mid-century style; however, it exudes enough cheap, funky chic to provide a hole in one for today’s tastemaking traveler with an eye on athletics.