La Quinta Resort’s Summer of the Century Is Officially On
Picture a Saturday night in the Coachella Valley. The sky has made its full transition from tangerine to deep indigo. The Santa Rosa Mountains are doing that thing where they look almost too cinematic to be real and at PLUNGE, La Quinta Resort & Club‘s adults-only pool, the Centennial Social Club is in full effect. Anniversary cocktails are circulating and guests who arrived for a long weekend are already rethinking their Monday plans. This is what a 100th birthday looks like when the honoree has long known how to throw a party.
La Quinta Resort & Club first opened in 1926 with 20 casitas and the kind of quiet conviction that the desert tends to either swallow or reward. In this case, it was rewarded and, over the next century, the property grew into one of California’s most storied luxury escapes, drawing Old Hollywood royalty, design obsessives and anyone who understood that the best version of a vacation involves very little rushing. This summer, the resort marks that milestone with the Summer of the Century, a 100-day celebration that takes everything La Quinta Resort already does well and turns it up accordingly. The programming is new, the energy is elevated and the invitation is entirely open.
A Foundation That Still Looks Extraordinary
What hasn’t changed at La Quinta is, in many ways, the whole point. The resort was built in a Spanish Colonial Revival style and has never apologized for it. The resort is filled with red clay rooftops, whitewashed stucco, arched corridors that open onto mountain views and fountain-centered courtyards that reward the kind of slow, aimless wandering that’s hard to justify anywhere else. These bones from the original property were designed with a specific visual confidence, and they’ve outlasted every trend that’s moved through the hospitality industry since. A visit here feels less like a hotel stay and more like occupying the most beautifully considered address in Southern California.
The casitas have always been the quiet argument for why La Quinta is different. What began as 20 intimate retreats has grown into hundreds of private accommodations, each one designed around the idea that you should be able to shut the door, look out at the mountains and feel genuinely removed from wherever you came from. Walled patios and natural light at all the right angles create the specific version of luxury that encourages you to stay in your casita all day and call it a decision, not a loss.
The Centennial Social Club at PLUNGE
La Quinta Resort operates 42 climate-controlled pools, a number that sounds like a flex until you’re here and realize it simply means there is always the right pool for the right moment. PLUNGE is the adults-only anchor of that aquatic footprint, and on weekend evenings this summer, it transforms into something worth driving to the desert for.
The Centennial Social Club at PLUNGE is the flagship weekend-night activation of the Summer of the Century. Centennial anniversary cocktails circulate through a crowd that came to unwind and stayed to connect. The vibe is social without being loud about it, feeling energized but unhurried, which is a balance that is harder to achieve than it sounds. This poolside evening just may earn its own album in your camera roll and a standing reservation on your calendar.
Dining Across Three Restaurants Worth the Reservation
The centennial dining program across La Quinta’s restaurants is doing the kind of work that makes you reconsider your standard approach to resort food. At Twenty6, named for the founding year with the confidence of a place that knows its own history, the California-inspired menu has expanded to include centennial additions that manage to feel both nostalgic and current: a famous peanut butter pie that has no business being as good as it is, a Waldorf salad that earns its own moment and Chicken à la King that somehow pulls off retro without a trace of irony. Take the outdoor patio if you can get it. The view of the Santa Rosa Mountains over dinner is not something to skip.
Adobe Grill brings the Centennial Signature Pollo Centenario de La Mirage and an anniversary margarita built on tequila and flavors that taste specifically like the desert at its best. This margarita is the kind of drink that reveals itself slowly enough that you’re already halfway through your second before you’ve fully processed the first. And at Morgan’s in the desert, the register shifts entirely: oysters Rockefeller, Filet Oscar and Baba au Rhum anchor a fine dining experience elevated further by a limited-edition centennial label from Napa’s Grgich Hills Estate, bottled exclusively for the resort. The wine alone is reason enough to make the reservation.
Spa La Quinta: Where 100 Minutes Earns Its Name
Spa La Quinta has spent years establishing itself as one of the premier wellness destinations in Southern California. The centennial gives the team a reason to outdo their own standard, and the results are worth the advance booking. The 100-Minute Centennial Journey, the signature treatment of the summer, is a customized massage paired with a clarifying facial, paced with the kind of intentionality that feels genuinely different from a standard spa menu. It closes with a citrus blossom candle for guests to take home, a considered detail that makes the experience linger past checkout.
The Centennial Garden Bath draws on the resort’s desert landscape for a soaking ritual designed to feel as grounding as it is indulgent. These are not filler experiences added to round out a campaign. They are the kind of treatments that recalibrate what you expect from every spa visit that follows. Tell your group chat where you’ll be, because you will not be checking your phone.
The Plaza Boutiques: Shopping With an Actual Backdrop
With the structural advantage of existing within the same Spanish Colonial architecture that defines the whole property, including arched entries, terracotta underfoot and the occasional waft of flowering courtyard details drifting through at exactly the right moment, the Plaza boutiques are stunning. Inside, discover resort-ready clothing, lifestyle goods and gifts worth actually giving, curated and specific. But it is the setting that separates this from any other retail experience in the Coachella Valley. It rewards perusing, which is high praise in an era when browsing has largely been optimized out of existence.
The Summer You Actually Take
One hundred years is a long time to sustain anything well, and La Quinta Resort & Club has done it by understanding something that most luxury brands are still working toward: that the best version of a vacation is measured in pace, not programming. Long afternoons with no agenda. Evenings that don’t feel like they’re ending too soon. Mornings with no particular obligation.
The Summer of the Century is built on exactly that understanding. The centennial offers are new, the Centennial Social Club activation is the best excuse to be at PLUNGE on a Saturday night and the casitas and the mountains are exactly as they should be. The only question is which weekend you’re booking.
Ever since she was a child, Ashley Ryan knew she wanted to write. After working on her high school newspaper and college magazine, she graduated with a degree in journalism and anthropology, eager to tell the stories of people and places in Orange County and around the world. Her prolific career as a writer, editor and photographer has led her to write about travel, culture, art, home design and so much more. When not working on her latest piece, she enjoys visiting new places, going to concerts, hiking, doing yoga on the beach, reading, cheering on her favorite sports teams and spending time with beloved friends and family.
