Emerald Desert RV Resort Review- Palm Desert

We rolled into the resort and check-in was good, staff were friendly and welcoming and plenty of room for us to unload/load the bikes at check in parking. They mentioned work was being done to the side of the resort we originally booked, so they gave us a free upgrade. We jumped back into the truck and made our way to our RV site #116, got parked, settled, and then the train went by. OMG, the sound was deafening. The train from then on ran about every 30 minutes day and night. The freeway ran parallel to the train, and the freeway noise was endless, and I got little to no sleep our first night. Bill, on the other hand, sleeps through everything and was not as bothered by traffic, etc. I can deal with mild traffic that becomes like white noise after a while, but this was BOOM in your face, and the RV shook each time the train passed.

Lots of room at checkin/registration to park and load/unload toys

The sprinklers in our site randomly came on at 6 pm and soaked our lawn chairs, rendering them useless until the next day when we could dry them under the sun, not that I could enjoy sitting outside with the thunderous racket beside us. We went to the office the next morning to request moving over to the original side of the resort we had booked previously, and they granted our request now that the work on that side was mostly completed.

Train beside our site Poor site drainage Resort Map and train line

Packing up and moving a 39 ft rig is not a quick undertaking, so we lost the better part of a day due to having to move and get reset up and settled in our new spot, but we were definitely grateful to move. The train was still audible on the West side of the resort where we moved to but much more tolerable. The buildings between the train line and sites act as a bit of a buffer on this side of the resort.

Now settled, we had time to explore our new digs. The resort was beautiful, well-maintained landscaping. Palms and flowers everywhere. There were two pools and hot tubs, one adults only and one for families. We spent a day at the family pool and hot tub and pretty much had the place to ourselves, surprisingly considering how many RV'ers were there. The pool was inviting and clean, and had chairs and loungers as well a table area for sitting/ eating. We had awesome weather the entire stay and everyday the sunrise and sunsets were spectacular.

 The resort on Saturdays offers an afternoon BBQ for $15 per person. That gets you a burger, drink, and bag of chips. The burgers were okay, but for $15 US dollars, we'd rather spend a few $ more and enjoy a better meal out on the town.

I enjoyed the daily visits to our site by the numerous varieties of cute birds each morning and managed to capture some great shots, satisfying my joy of bird nerding.

The resort was close to amenities, which was nice. We made a few day trips out to various parks, hiking spots, breweries, restaurants, etc.

We met some nice folks during our stay. Byron and Sherri, a lovely couple whose home was a few hours away, and recommended we visit the wineries in Temecula, which was an awesome day trip to Doffo Winery, thanks for the recommendation, we had a fab time there! Gail and Derek, fellow Canadians from Alberta, who invited us for a lovely evening over to their site for drinks and delicious appies and puppy cuddles with their fur babies. Thank you for the wonderful evening of food and great conversation. We hope to connect with all of you again. We really enjoy this part of RV'ing, getting to meet great folks and make new friends during our travels.

We had our first American Thanksgiving while we were here, and the park filled up with families and groups enjoying time together. It never got really noisy, and people abided by the quiet hours.

We loved the site we stayed in (Site #97), a big grassy corner lot. Unfortunately, a few various dog owners seem to really like our site too, and stopped by to use our campsite as their dog toilet. The night we returned from Venice Beach, one man was literally standing letting his dog go right beside our trailer steps... like seriously?? Guess I'm just not a big fan of walking through urine and remnants of poop stuck on the grass with my exposed feet in flip-flops! Given the frequency of how many people were doing this the resort could use some no pee/poop signage perhaps reminding of the "5 bark parks" provided for pets use and not to use camp sites as dog toilets. My comment is not meant to lump all dog owners into this statement, as I also noticed many who were considerate and responsible too.

Resort Wi-Fi, unfortunately, was really poor. We could not maintain a connection, and the resort provides an upgrade for a cost with SkyWeb. That too was awful and could not stay connected. We ended up using our data plans pretty much the entire duration of our stay.

We stayed two weeks, and in spite of a bumpy start and a few annoyances, we did enjoy our stay. There are mixed feelings about staying again. The resort is gorgeous; however, I do think the train/freeway noise as well as the lack of Wi-Fi are the deal breakers for us. I would definitely recommend a stay at least once, as the noise or Wi-Fi may not be a bother to others. It is a very beautiful resort that offers really great staff, decent size sites/ w full hook ups, tons of free overflow parking, a clubhouse, laundry, bathrooms, showers, adult pool/hot tub and family pool/hot tub, gym, mailroom, pickleball courts, putting green, 5 bark parks, RV storage, RV cleaning for a cost, and they have cabin rentals.

Happy Travels,

Bill & Cat