Sun City Palm Desert

I’ve always loved coming out to Palm Desert. I have a number of relatives who live in Sun City and it’s a nice upscale retirement community… Golfers and golf carts, friendly people with dogs, and after 7 p.m. it’s wonderfully quiet.
I’m usually in town visiting during holidays and love to frequent the great seasonal restaurants and shopping venues. It may sound odd, but I also enjoy watching the local news affiliates; nothing particularly bad happens and the reports are usually feel good stories or events that happen right down the street. It’s a mini vacation every time I’m in town.

Nothing spells paradise like visiting my grandparents for the weekend. You can tell they love it here when everyone they knows asks to visit.
The views of the mountains are to die for and the quietness of no children is amazing. The landscape is impeccable and always kept tidy. The gate keepers are also very friendly and help you out in a bind — like when your grandmother mistakingly puts your out-​of-​state fathers name as a registered guest as opposed to you visit after visit. «Hey g-​Ma, it’s Steve not Michael!»
All in all, I love visiting. I think I need to take up golf.

When we were looking for a place to retire, my husband and I visited Sun City Palm Desert and were very impressed. it’s truly beautiful and has so much to offer. I would have preferred to move there (from the L.A. area) in order to stay near friends and family but yet feel that we were living the resort life away from L.A.‘s traffic and smog.
But the prices were a bit steep for a Sun City so ultimately we opted for Arizona instead. We fell in love with Sun City Grand in Surprise, which is similar in size and was built in about the same timeframe as Sun City Palm Desert. But we finally chose to buy in a Sun City that was newer, not built out, so we could buy our first ever brand new home. We live in Sun City Anthem Merrill Ranch which is quite small at the moment and will never have as many homes or options as Sun City Palm Desert. But we’ve been happy here and I think that from the perspective of a Sun City resident, I can say, in response to a previous poster, that each of these communities has a lot of wonderful people as well as its share of angry, rude, perpetually unhappy old people. It goes with the territory. Some people have a great deal of difficulty adjusting to retirement. One thing we have heard here from those relocating or snowbirding from the Midwest is that the more affluent people they know have headed straight for Sun City Palm Desert and the rest of us have opted for more affordable housing. That said, if I found myself alone someday, I’d move to Sun City Palm Desert in a minute both to be closer to loved ones in L.A. and to enjoy the full range of amenities that Sun City Palm Desert alone has to offer.

When I visited I found that there were many different club houses with many activities and many swimming pools, but it was hard to park at them. There was too little parking and this was a weekday, although one could park, one would have to walk a long way to get to the club houses. It would make sense to have a golf cart to get around. I am not sure if golf carts got good parking. The handicapped spaces were all full up. If you don’t mind walking a lot, it would not be problem, but for the mobility impaired it would be awful.
The Blvd café did not have very good food and the prices were too high. The place is like a huge golf course, I could smell the chemicals from the giant greens. I know the fees charged to each home owner are fairly high here compared to other sun cities. Not very many people were swimming many pools did not have too much crowding. There is an indoor walking or running track that would be good for hot weather, but very few people were working out at the gyms.
If you really love golf and are in great shape this is your dream place, but the surrounding area of stores near by lacked charm. There is a kind of strip mall with chain stores. It was just not a pretty area over all very barren, and a bit depressing, not cute and charming like Palm Springs. There is a very big library with many books (if one is not using e readers like Kindle) and they show movies very often and also have live entertaining and plays. There were many people playing card games. They have a dance studio and give dancing lessons and also have large formal dances. There is a sewing lab and a ceramics lab. (Note: it is not pottery, as they have no wheels for throwing pots, I think they should get some wheels. However, Sun City in Roseville does not have any ceramics at all, so they get brownie points for at least some type of work with clay.) You really have to see it to believe how large it is. You can visit by checking in the gate and showing your ID. Everyone I met was pleasant. I would like to compare it with Sun City in Phoenix which is even bigger, but I have not been there yet.

I LOVE Sun City but sometimes the residents are so unhappy. At times they are impatient, rude, and just plain nasty. I have a lot of family members that live there and I visit at least three times a week or more. Just because you live there doesn’t make the place yours and it certainly doesn’t give you the right to be unkind to others. And please don’t use the excuse of just being plain old. I know a lot of elderly people that are some of the nicest people in the world! Life is way too short for this kind of nonsense so I say «Grow up and enjoy your retirement!»

My retired parents live in Sun City and as an experienced Realtor, this is THE place to retire and live. I would love to live here, what is not to like? When I see the words active adults, I now know what it means. Everyone I saw at the gym were hitting the pool and the gym hard. Sun City not only offers 3 pools, a gym, but you name the activity and it is there for you to learn and participate and have a life. I bet you the majority of the retirees are more active than those of us that are not retired. What a fantastic place.

I love visiting my grandparents here. so relaxing! And I found «Claudia Simmons Massage» here, which was so amazing (and affordable!). makes this the ultimate resort destination for me. Who knew old people had it to good? Good thing you don’t have to be old to enjoy this place. :)

Yes, I know I’m not old enough to live here… but with family here, it’s such an amazing place to visit. This would be the place to be when you retire! This is no ordinary «older people» community. everyone is so active… constantly swimming, golfing, out and about. it’s crazy!

This is the place to live in Palm Desert. Gated entry, palms, ponds, fountains, ducks. A great outdoor swimming pool and a large in door one. Quiet streets where you can drive around in your golf cart. They even have a Bocce court. What more could you want? My mom likes it there.