If you like 1950s and '60s home design, Palm Springs  is the apple of your eye. The early Hollywood stars who made their homes here could afford to pay the stars of midcentury modern architecture—Albert Frey, Richard Neutra, William F. Cody—to design their houses.

Start the tour at Swiss-born Albert Frey’s most famous Palm Springs design, the soaring, wedge-shaped Tramway Gas Station on the edge of town. The structure, nearly torn down in the name of revitalization, is now home to the Palm Springs Visitors Center . This is also where you can pick up Palm Springs: Brief History and Architectural Guide.