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Let Family Travel Forum help you find great resorts with Kid's Clubs, water slides, golf courses and more in the heart of California's desert country.

Westin Mission Hills Resort & Spa
71333 Dinah Shore Drive
Rancho Mirage, California 92270
760/328-5955, 888/625-5144
$$$
The 360-acre Westin Mission Hills Resort and Spa is located out in the desert, near Palm Springs (a longer drive from downtown San Diego.) It offers three swimming pools and a really fun 60-foot waterslide, two golf courses and lighted outdoor tennis courts. All kid-oriented rooms are equipped with a Sony Play Station, HBO and the Disney Channel as well as high speed Internet access. The Westin Kids Club Discovery Room for ages 4-12, available $40 per session (four hours), features crafts, basketball, nature walks and counselor-led golf and tennis lessons. Adults can also enjoy all these sports, plus bike riding and use of the up-to-date fitness center and spa. In the low-season (summer), the Family Plan includes rooms sleeping up to two adults and two children, free dining for kids under 12 from the children's menus and free tennis each afternoon.

Hyatt Grand Champions Resort & Spa
44-600 Indian Wells Lane
Indian Wells, California 92210
760/341-1000, 800/554-9288
$$$$

At the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains on a neatly landscaped 34-acre spread near Palm Desert, the contemporary Hyatt is a popular location for conventions and weddings. The large scale meeting and entertainment facilities, plus the variety of lodging, including double rooms, individual garden view villas (20 of them newly renovated in 2005) and Regency Club levels (where guests pay a premium for complimentary continental breakfast, hors d'oeuvres and snacks in a private lounge) also make it suited to family reunions. Facilities include a landscaped pool garden with seven free-form pools, a 60-foot spiral water slide, toddler-size wading pool, and a huge splash fountain. There are several shops and restaurants, a fitness center, Indian Wells' two championship golf courses and 12 tennis courts. The Aqua Serena and Medical and Skin Spas offer a new focus on health issues. The well-run Camp Hyatt children's program (kids 3-12 only) operates daily from 9am-4pm, focusing on the local environment and culture of the Coachella Valley. Movie evenings are held on weekend nights. Private, in-room babysitting by local, long-standing caregivers is also available. Rates are steep in the high season, but Hyatt's family plan, allowing parents to book an adjoining room for kids at half the prevailing rate, is in effect year-round and there are many different special deals in summer.