Indian Wells and the Tennis Masters Series

The primary highlight for our stay at Indian Wells was of course spending 10 days watching professional tennis at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden! The top women tennis pros open play at the Pacific Open and a few days later the top male tennis players start their matches. We spent many days from 9 AM to 9 PM at the beautiful facility! Watching tennis live is much better than watching the match on the TV. See for this year's upcoming information as well as past years history .

You could spend an entire day at the Living Desert! I especially like the place since it is not a zoo feeling but rather a feeling of seeing the animals in their environment. If you visit each year, there are always changes. See: For more information. If you visit the area around Christmas, the Christmas Light display is fantastic.

Check what is playing at the McCallum Theater, in nearby Palm Desert. Even if you don’t see a play or concert at the facility, it is worth dropping in and looking at the architecture of the building. For more information.

Staying at Indian Wells you are also close to the Salten Sea and Indio. Pack a picnic and enjoy the day at the park at the Salten Sea. There are also stands along the highway that sell dates. And of course, a stop at the casino can be part of your stay.

And someday, I am hoping the Outdoor Sculpture Park will reopen.

Indian Wells is much more quieter than Palm Springs. There are four major resorts (all top notch; all in one quadrant) that offer everything a hotel guest could want. Some facilities, such as the spas, are also open to the public. And I absolutely love the restaurants in the Renaissance Esmeralda, especially Charisma. See for the resorts’ information. There are a few other hotels (unlike the vast numbers of Palm Springs). There are also several timeshares including Indian Wells Condoshares where I own.

And of course when staying in Indian Wells you are within driving distance of Palm Springs!

Quick Tips:

Buy the local paper, The Desert Sun, to find local seasonal activities. The Friday edition of the local paper has restaurant reviews that are better than the info in the tourist brochures.

See General activities .

Best Way To Get Around:

I would recommend a car.

Best Things Nearby:
Indian Wells Tennis Gardens – home of the 2 week Pacific Life tennis tournament
LaQuinta, Palm Desert, and Palm Springs -- so plenty to do and see
Golf tournaments such as the Skins game held Thanksgiving weekend

Best Things About the Resort:
Beautiful spacious room with a balcony
Beautiful grounds
Washer and dryer areas spread throughout the complex

Resort Experience:
The Indian Wells Condo Shares timeshare is a beautiful condo that is perfect for your stay at Indian Wells. I exchanged originally into this resort and ending up buying a studio unit.

First thing I liked about this condo is the location. It is one of only two timeshares that are very close to the tennis tournament. It only takes minutes by car to drive. Normally distance would not be a big deal but the traffic for the tournament is huge, especially for the finals. What takes less than 2 minutes without traffic takes about 10 minutes from this condo. But that is much better than a 1½ hour drive from a condo in Palm Springs! In a pinch, you can even walk to the tournament from the condo. The other timeshare is a little closer but does not offer fixed weeks. The week I own at this condo coincides with the second week of the tennis tournament so I save lots of money each year! When I am not at the tennis tournament, the location is excellent for restaurants, shopping, tennis, golfing, etc.

There were many other things I liked about this condo that I will list (not necessarily in order).
The layout of the individual condo: ( For view of studio unit and other information). Even though I have a studio I do not feel cramped in that room. In fact the studio is much larger than some 1 Bedroom timeshare exchanges in the area! From the picture on the web, you can see that there are high ceilings, which increases the size and feel of your space. In addition the "room" is divided into a kitchen area, a dining room area, a living room area, and a bedroom area. The only difference between this studio room with the separate areas and a small condo with a bedroom, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen is the missing walls! Also the space is enlarged with the balcony. The balcony is great for eating and relaxing! What you don’t see in the picture is the large bathroom and large walk-in closet.

The layout of the condos within the complex: There are many condos within the complex but you don’t get a feeling of congestion. First, all condos are only two stories high with the first story being the 1 BR units and the second story being the studio units. Second, each building consists of a series of perpendicular "blocks", versus a rectangle building, so each unit has maximum privacy. (Seen in first picture). In addition, the complex is divided into many individual buildings and each building is separated from the next building. Finally, there are several individual divisions separated by lots of green space and individual houses. Our condo is located in a cove area by itself surrounded by mountains! See for picture of exterior and other information.

Beautiful grounds and views: Whether you are on your balcony or sitting by one of the three swimming pools or walking on the grounds, you are struck by the beauty of the place. There is plenty of green space with flowers planted all around. In addition, the mountains are breath taking.

Misc: The two above web sites, trying to sell you on the condo, use words such as charming, relaxing, privacy, etc. I definitely found the condo to be a charming place to relax and watch the mountains without worrying about a lot of noise from neighbors! The one web site lists the place for $500 a week, which is very cheap for that area. There are no tennis courts on site but the local park is close by and we never found any problem getting to play tennis on one of the eight or so courts.

Note: for a chart of temperatures . Yes it gets hot in the summer (but there are some advantages in the summer such as less crowded and cheaper to play golf!)

• Unit Type: Studio
• Activities: Poor
• Amenities: Good
• Unit Satisfaction: Excellent
• Family Friendliness: Very Good
• Service: Good

During the week at Indian Wells, our dinners ranged in price. Sometimes our dinner consisted of sandwiches. Since we didn’t want to miss any of the action, this was a good alternative for several of the days. I would make the sandwiches in the morning and pack them in our small foldable coolers. Sometimes we ate in between matches on the grassy center area or sometimes, we ate in our seat as we watched the tennis! But of course, those dinners were not as exciting as going out for dinner!

We also had several moderate dinners from one of the many vendors at the tennis facility. The tennis garden had a wealth of cuisines to choose from including pizza, Mexican, sandwiches, etc. For each dinner, you waited in line at the appropriate tent and then brought your selection to a table in the huge courtroom. As you ate, you either could watch tennis on the big screen, watch people, talk with your tablemates, or listen to the live entertainment.

We also had a moderately priced dinner at the Mexican restaurant, Don Diegos. This restaurant is within a mile of the tennis facility and always serves good fajitas. I usually order a chicken en mole, which has lots of chocolate sauce. Apparently not too many people share my passion for chocolate on the main course since they no longer served it this time. But as soon as I recovered from my disappointment of no chocolate, I was able to pick out a good fajita. Of course we also had to have one of their famous margaritas! Dinner for two (tax and tip included) was $52.

Another restaurant we selected was Oceans in nearby Cathedral City. A person may skip this restaurant since at first glance the decor is not very glamorous. But the food is delicious and I would prefer good food and so-so decor than so-so food. Their specialty is seafood and I have found their food to be very good each time I have dined there. It is too bad the atmosphere is not much to brag about (like eating in a small cafeteria). Dinner for two (tax and tip included) was $75.

We also had one dinner at the La Quinta Cliff House, which I love. You definitely need reservations for this restaurant and the parking lot fills up at times. Of course parking is not a problem if you use valet parking. Part of the good time at this restaurant is your walk into the place. The landscaping is fantastic with lots of greenery. And of course, cliffs since the restaurant is built aside a cliff. In fact, you walk up a flight of stairs to the main entrance. The service is impeccable and the food is delicious. The atmosphere inside is also wonderful with lots of aquariums, tables not too close for discomfort, and a reasonable noise level considering how large the restaurant is. Dinner for two (tax and tip included) was $108.

This tournament is one of the top tennis tournaments just below the grand slams. It includes both men and women players. See for this years (2003) information as well as past years history .

I have been watching this tournament for years, including starting in the old site at the Indian Wells Hyatt Hotel before it moved to the beautiful Indian Wells Tennis Garden. You can view a map of the site but you won’t get the real view of how large the grounds are without visiting the location yourself. Not only are there two large stadiums besides the primary venue, there are over 20 courts for matches as well as for practice. I always find it interesting that sometimes the crowds to watch Agassi PRACTICE are larger than some matches of the tournament. There is plenty of lawn space for relaxing, a food court area (where a huge screen plays the feature matches), and of course the shopping tents. See for Map of the site .

Originally I had a season ticket for Prime loge seats, but when the tournament moved, I upgraded to the Stadium seats (just behind courtside). The tickets are a little expensive but absolutely GREAT seats. And many times, especially for night matches, we were able to move down so we were closer. We watched a few of the matches in the first row including the men’s doubles finals in 2001! A hint about the sun: if you want to be behind the players, the south side are the best seats since you get out of the sun the quickest (but you look into the sun at the beginning) and the North side, where we had seats, are great for sun tanning until about 3pm! Between West and East, if you get a chance for West seats, grab them! See for seating chart.

There are so many reasons why I love going to this tournament.
I am close to the action (why pay good money for seats that are so far away that the players look like ants!).
We have also seen great memorable matches such as the 2001 Agassi –Sampras final, though I felt the best men’s match that year was the quarters where Sampras defeated Rafter.
In 2000, there were so many great women doubles matches that sometimes there were more people packed into the secondary courts than the primary stadium. Not only did we see Davenport and Morariu defeat Kournikova and Zvereva, we managed to get seats when other great teams were playing including Hingis and Pierce, Capriati and Seles, and Raymond and Stubbs.
There are so many great qualifiers to watch.
We have also seen several people who were on their swan song (such as Rafter and Edberg).
We have seen many up and coming players such as Hantuchova, Smashnova, and Henin.

I just love watching great tennis at this tournament!

Since my condo did not have exercise facilities, I wanted to seek out a facility where I could work out. I found Gold’s Gym to be wonderful.

You can either pay for a day pass ($10) or a weekly pass ($35). I opted for the weekly pass and went there almost every day. Most times, I never had to wait to use any piece of equipment even though I went there at prime time.

What I liked so much about this facility such as
Over 10 high quality treadmills – not one was out of order and you could run or walk as long as you liked since there were no 30-minute limits that most health clubs have.
Over 10 elliptical machines – the machines were smooth to use
Over 10 recumbent bikes – also of high quality
More individual Nautilus equipment than I had ever seen in one facility – the stations that were in high demand had multiple occurrences!
In addition, there were different stations for several variations of the same muscle group (such as the leg curl where you could decide to use the machine where you are lying on your stomach or the machine where you are standing up)
A separate room for women only where the small free weights were very plentiful (not having enough small free weights is my number one complaint about most health clubs but certainly wasn’t the case here)
Lots of spaces so you didn’t feel you were "squeezed" next to your neighbor exerciser

Other nice qualities about the club were:
Clean and large locker rooms
TV’s to watch as exercising
Exercise classes
Friendly personnel
Personal Trainers available

See for more information .