October 31, 2008

US & CANADA | US | CALIFORNIA | PALM SPRINGS

California’s New Desert Oasis

By Mark Jolly

The brains behind America’s most famous destination spa is back.

view map

Closeted away in the backcountry of San Diego, amid the 600,000 acres of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park — the largest desert State Park in America — is Borrego Springs. Just a 90-minute drive from Palm Springs, the tiny, unincorporated town feels like another world entirely: there are no chain stores, only 2,800 residents, and the nearest stoplight is 50 miles away. Come November 1, however, this oasis of calm will be punctuated by the opening of Borrego Ranch Resort & Spa.

Developer Gregory Perlman has already pumped $50 million in to the resort (which includes an 18-hole Tom Fazio signature golf course), but in the process has managed to shutter one of the town’s two grocery stores and accidentally destroy a two-mile swath of protected parkland (a tortuous tale involving an employee gone wild). For some locals, though, Perlman’s gravest sin was to change the name of the resort, known for the past half-century as Casa del Zorro. But then Borrego Ranch is less a makeover than it is a total reinvention of a Californian classic.

The scale and spirit of the reborn resort at least embody a chilled-out desert oasis: 44 poolside rooms and 19 casitas (with their own private pools and wood-burning fireplaces) occupy 42 secluded acres. The GM (former COO of legendary Tuscon new-age spa, Miraval), has institutionalized an anything-goes service philosophy called “So-B-It” based on the guest’s “personal quest for the ideal vacation.” In normal English that means they’ll arrange pretty much anything you fancy, depending on your mood — from “iron yoga” to salsa dancing in the courtyard, and dining on a blanket in a rose garden under the stars.