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First, Northern California hosted the nation’s first music festivals where partiers could buy and smoke weed onsite. Then, West Hollywood claimed America’s weed social consumption crown when Lowell Cafe opened its doors last month, becoming the first licensed pot cafe in the US where patrons could legally buy and blaze weed. Now, the Southern California desert will see two new 420-friendly hotels within the next year: Coachill Inn Resort in Desert Hot Springs and The Grape House in Palm Springs.
Coachella, in particular, has finally welcomed legal weed. Although the world-famous Coachella Music Festival is owned by billionaire party pooper and pot prohibitionist Phillip Anschutz, the tourism town is pushing for social equity in the cannabis industry, and local pot shops haven’t been afraid to exploit legal loopholes to stay open long after the festivals have closed down.
The Coachill Inn Resort will be a 154-room spa, resort, hotel, amphitheatre, and restaurant attached to the 160-acre Coachillin Canna-Business Park, a massive eco-friendly cultivation complex that may become the nation’s largest weed farm once it’s completed. The resort itself pegs itself as a cannabis-laden retreat, as well as a party hub for folks attending the Coachella area’s various music festivals. According to the Hollywood Reporter, rooms are expected to run anywhere from $150 to $2,500 a night, depending on the level of rock-star treatment guests are looking for.
“The idea is that it’s not a hotel — it’s a health and wellness resort to go to for years down the road,” said long-time hotelier and co-owner of Coachill, Roger Bloss, to the Hollywood Reporter. ”Federal legalization is going to happen in my lifetime, well before my 30-year mortgage is over.”
Gallery — 420-Friendly Looks for Coachella:
Just a short trip north of Coachella, The Grape House in Palm Springs will offer patrons a more laid-back, high-end weed resort experience. With a smoking lounge specially crafted by an unnamed, posh French retail designer, lodgings styled by award-winning architect Dan Brunn, and a restaurant where the menu is being hand-selected by the Michelin-starred Kristopher Esqueda, The Grape House promises to elevate the cannabis vacation experience to heights never before reached in the US.
“The architecture for this warm, yet brisk cannabis destination will be inspired by the mystique nature of the California desert,” Brunn told the Hollywood Reporter. “We wanted to rethink what has already been defined in the initial rush into this booming market. Guests will encounter design that reimagines the line between interior and exterior, and a space that plays with the tension of light and shadow. The palette of materials, such as white terrazzo, natural oak, and a spiral staircase of brushed bronze tie in the ephemeral space, all the while natural light basks the tall space.”
The Coachill Inn Resort is expected to open sometime in December 2020, just in time to ring in the New Year holidaze. The Grape House should debut sometime shortly after Coachill’s opening.
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