Car shipping in Palm Springs

The Coachella Valley is a string of resort cities along I-10 and Highway 111: Palm Springs and Cathedral City, then Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert and Indian Wells, then La Quinta and Indio. Most of the cars we're asked to move here belong to part-year residents. That means Angelenos with a weekend place, Bay Area households who winter in the desert, Seattle and Portland retirees escaping the gray months, and full-time retirees who've made the valley home. A lot of them live behind country club gates.

For a carrier, the valley is an easy stop on I-10, about two hours east of downtown Los Angeles. The end of the trip is where it gets harder: guard gates, festival traffic, and some of the hottest summer afternoons in the state.

We arrange door-to-door service from one end of the valley to the other. Each area has its own access quirks:

The busiest moves start inside California. Cars come out from Los Angeles and Orange County for the season or a permanent move. Bay Area cars come down I-5 and across to I-10. Pacific Northwest owners send cars the whole length of I-5 rather than spend two long days driving it. Coming the other way, the valley is a common starting point for longer moves. California to Arizona connects it to Phoenix and Scottsdale, where some residents keep a second desert home. California to Texas and California to Florida serve retirees and relocating families heading east on I-10.

A smaller group of winter residents comes from western Canada on Vancouver to California. For seasonal moves in either direction, our snowbird car shipping page covers booking both legs together.

Most of the work on a Coachella Valley delivery happens in the last mile, and nearly all of it is about access, timing and heat:

• Ask your club's gate first. Country clubs in Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells and La Quinta have staffed gates and their own rules for large trucks. Some give a carrier a pass for a delivery window, some route trucks to a service gate, and some ask you to meet outside. Find out before we dispatch.
• Keep clear of festival weekends. Coachella runs two consecutive weekends in April, with Stagecoach the weekend after, at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. Roads around Indio, La Quinta and Coachella jam for days around each weekend. Dates are announced each year, so plan east-valley deliveries for the week before or after.
• Expect wind on the way in. The San Gorgonio Pass on I-10 near Banning and Whitewater is one of the windiest stretches of interstate in Southern California. High-wind warnings can slow or briefly hold a loaded carrier before it reaches the valley.
• Summer deliveries start early. From June through September, afternoon highs regularly run past 110°F. Ask for a morning window, and if you're shipping an EV, see our EV shipping advice on charge levels in the heat.
• Mid-century streets are narrow. Many older Palm Springs neighborhoods have no sidewalks and tight streets, so the driver unloads at the nearest wide intersection.

The valley fills from about January through April. Arrivals ship mostly October through December. February brings Modernism Week to Palm Springs, March brings the big professional tennis tournament in Indian Wells, and April has the festivals. As May's heat builds, part-year residents head home, and northbound and westbound trucks fill quickly. Book the spring pickup before the festival rush, ideally when you book the fall delivery.

Summer is the quiet season, and it suits a permanent move if you can take delivery early in the day. The valley's many collector and mid-century cars, from vintage convertibles to restored classics, are often better off enclosed, especially when they'd otherwise ride through summer heat or spring wind.

Palm Springs International is the obvious choice and is unusually close to town. If your route isn't there, Ontario is an easy hour away on I-10: