The Modern Tour

My daughter and I are eager to return for lesson 2! I’m from CA and visit PS periodically and know that visiting will be much more interesting in the future after having learned so much about the Palm Springs modern. Knowledgeable, fun, easygoing but organized – that’s Michael. Julie

Trevor knows about as much as you could hope to know about modernism and architecture in Palm Springs. His tour is in depth, filled with anecdotes and stories that bring the architects and their buildings to life. I absolutely recommend it.

Michael’s tour is both great entertainment and deeply informative. The van ride is luxurious and comfortable. I only wish we could see more houses! I thoroughly enjoyed myself and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves art, style, design and local history.

Michael knows his stuff and literally wrote the book on it! We thoroughly enjoyed our tour and it was just the right amount of time to see all the historic and architectural homes in the Palm Springs area. Whether you are a local like we are or the tourist we highly recommend this!

I thoroughly enjoyed this tour. Michael is a gracious host with vast knowledge of Palm Springs history. The tour was fun and inspiring. We were lucky enough to get on the tour early in our trip, and we would definitely do it again. It was well worth the money.

Well worth the money. Michael clearly knows his stuff and his tour gave us a great look at Palm Springs and into a few awesome homes. He’s got a great personality and a ton of knowledge about the area. I bought his book at the end of the tour and can’t wait to devour every page.

While Michael’s tour is more expensive than most, it is well worth it. We are very happy we spent the extra money. It is personalized by someone that really knows the history and knows verified fact from fiction from rumor.
He is easy going and gets you inside some of the houses. That is Hugh. Not just driving by and seeing the exterior. My wife and I really enjoyed the tour and Michael.
We wish it could have gone on all day. Check out one of his books and you’ll get an idea of the quality of the tour. He throws in a lot of Palm Springs facts and celebrity facts when appropriate. If your on the fence about what tour to take, I don’t think you’ll regret taking this tour. We really enjoyed it and would take it again and probably will take it again when we return to Palm Springs.

Michael’s Palm Springs architectural tour was top notch. He has outstanding knowledge of the area, the people, the history and the homes. And, exceptional access to some special properties. My only regret is that I wished I’d taken Michael’s tour earlier in my vacation, as he provided such a comprehensive overview of all things Palm Springs that I ran out of time to enjoy them all. But, I’ll be back and will happily take another Modern Tour again!

In fairness, this was not our first choice for an architectural tour of Palm Springs. We had read favourable reviews of another operator, and had tried (unsuccessfully) to get in contact with him between booking our trip to Palm Springs and arriving. A last-​minute web search revealed Michael Stern’s tour, and he was able to accommodate us on one of the days we were in town. I’m sure the other operator’s tour is great too, but this tour with Michael was outstanding. Michael is the co-​author of a book on Julius Schulman’s photography of Palm Springs architecture, which I coincidentally had been keeping in my Amazon wish list for some time; as it turns out, he was able to provide me with a personalised copy on the day, so bear that in mind if you plan on taking the tour. Our focus was the architecture, but I’m sure if you were interested in the Hollywood aspect of things, Michael is well and truly across that also. The opportunity to go inside several of the homes was just amazing, particularly when, due to timing constraints, we were missing out on Modernism Week (when home visits are offered to the public) by a matter of days. And if you’re a Beatles fan like me, Michael may have a really special treat in store for you, so be sure to mention it. There were only the two of us on our tour, so it felt very much like a local showing you around — which is what it was. The tour is more expensive than others, but frankly, I would have paid the price of admission just to sit in a coffee shop and talk to Michael about modern architecture — he’s that knowledgeable, and a great guy as well.