Palm Springs Windmill Tours: Interactive Self-Drive Experience
4.7
247 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
(247 Ratings)
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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
Tourist625907
Feb 22, 2024
Tom, our guide was wonderful. Very thorough explanation about these marvelous machines. Don't just five yourself, you'll miss ou - Our guide, Tom, was excellent. Answered all the quirky questions. Having known absolutely nothing going in, it is a great short educational opportunity!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Janet_m
Feb 12, 2024
Stop & learn about Wind Turbines - We have driven by these gigantic structures for years. Read about them in the news. Exciting to learn more about them, their evolution & see them up close. Great information for an a novice to understand.
Review provided by Viator
Scottj853
Feb 5, 2024
Unique experience in Palm Springs! - Great way to spend a morning in Palm Springs before our departing flight. Informative pre-tour video, easy to follow tour with excellent app describing different features of the tour, and great opportunity for stunning and unique photos near the giant wind turbines. Exceeded expectations and highly recommend this tour, even in rainy weather! Scott Joy
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Daun0
Jan 18, 2024
Great way to learn and explore while in Palm springs - We found ourselves with a few hours before our flight and no place to be so took the time to do a self driving tour. Bought the groupon and it was well worth it. Learned alot.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Y7825geedwardb
Jan 9, 2024
Great Windmill Tour - It was great to learn and experience the windmills up close. Enjoyed the information prior to the tour and then the ability to get out and enjoy the history and timeline of the windmills and how that came to be. I did not realize it was 40 years since the first windmills were installed.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Denisev478
Dec 22, 2023
Excellent tour of the windmills. - An excellent and informative tour. We did the self guided tour in our own vehicle. The tour starts with a walk through the app, and explains the route. We watched a very good 13 minute video before setting out on the tour. Well worth the time and money. Takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes in total.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Ohtobeinsandiego
Dec 16, 2023
Ever Wonder How Those Big, White Wind Turbines Work? - This is a neat different kind of tour just north of Palm Springs. When driving through areas with huge wind turbins, did you ever wonder how they work, or what they look like up close? This is your chance to find out. They offer two tours, an audio app-guided driving tour, or a private golf-cart tour. To be honest, the audio tour was perfect and cheaper than the golf-cart tour. You can see some of the huge blades up close, as well as some earlier models that were originally used as the wind in this valley was harnessed for electricity production. Leslie was just great in getting us set up with the app and there is an informative video that kicks off the tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
M7396znjamesg
Dec 15, 2023
Behind the scenes of a windmill farm. - Myself and a friend took the VIP tour. Our guide was Tom. We really enjoyed the tour. Tom was friendly, engaging and informative. It was interesting to find out how this industry and technology has developed over the years. Tom had a lot of insights into a wide array of subjects. If you are a local history buff or an engineering/technology geek I think you'll find the tour worth your while. Tom was more than willing to spend as much time as was needed to answer all of our questions. He gave us a lot of background on the mechanical and engineering aspects of wind turbines and the advances that have been made over the last 40+ years. As part of the VIP package I received a copy of "Backstories of the Palm Springs Windmills." Our tour was scheduled to start at 12:00 p.m. Not wanting to be late we arrived more than an hour early to the "Visitor's Center," which is a trailer. We were able to sit in on a video that gave a history of the wind turbines in the Palm Springs area. The video started at 11:00 a.m. and was being viewed by a group of people who had an 11:00 a.m. tour. After the video was over we met Tom and spoke with him in his office for awhile and looked at a bunch of framed photographs, some of them very old, that showed the progression of windmill design over the years. There were also a handful of pictures of the structures that had accidentally suffered mechanical failures that left them collapsed on the ground. We then started our tour of the grounds a little earlier than our 12:00 p.m. scheduled start time. Tom was fine with that. I also wanted to thank Annette, who was my contact at Palm Springs Windmill Tours, who booked our tour. She was very gracious.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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