Pioneertown

You’ll come upon Mojave Desert Skin Shield Spa about a mile off Twentynine Palms Highway. And this desert spot lives up to our sanctuary-in-the-middle-of-the-nowhere expectations: zero cell service but plenty of peace, quiet, and quality treatments. Spa offerings include sound bath healing sessions, tao tea meditation, and their signature 100-minute facial healing session (a deep fascial massage accompanied by breathwork and meditation). We come here for a deeply relaxing, nurturing two hours and leave with a bagful of in-house blended skincare tinctures like their detoxifying pulling oil and the Ayurvedic eye rinse (sweet manna after too many hours behind the screen).

The area surrounding the Joshua Tree National Park is a rental-house goldmine. One of the best gems in the goldmine (to mix a metaphor) is Casa Mami. Each item—local ceramics, fragrant soaps, Marcel Wanders–designed sofas—within the chicly spartan home is a clear marker that the owners are very thoughtful about design. (And it’s all shoppable!) In the evening, stop by throwback bar Pappy & Harriet’s for a beer and seriously good live music before drifting home to stargaze from the porch.

It’s made up of a single dusty main road with less than a dozen buildings, but Pioneertown is actually an interesting shopping destination. Especially at the General Store, where vintage clothing (particularly boilersuits), incense, natural beauty products, and stuff that seems to be found only in the desert is available in abundance. The old-time postcards, bandannas, curated road trip books, and palo santo make for perfect keepsakes or gifts from this part of the Wild West.

We’re always ready for a night of casual hedonism at Pappy’s. A sprawling bar-meets-restaurant-meets-live-music-venue on the edge of Pioneertown, anything goes here. While you wait (and without a reservation, you will definitely wait), order a beer at the always-packed bar before settling down at your table to racks of ribs, baskets of fries, and another beer. Afterward, jostle for space on the dance floor, which is always packed full of locals in cowboy boots, Angelenos down for the night, bikers, and bachelorettes rocking out to live country music.