I Stayed in Vrbo’s Award-Winning Desert Geodome — And It Was a Design Dream
I’ve long romanticized the idea of a desert getaway — the kind of trip where mornings begin with mountain sunrises, and nights end under a sky full of stars. So when I came across a geodesic dome vacation rental tucked into the hills of Palm Desert, California, I immediately wanted in. Browsing the listing photos alone made my architecture-loving heart skip a beat.
As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one who was impressed by this beautiful place: The property, called Perch, was just named one of Vrbo’s 2026 Top Vacation Rentals of the Year. The brand’s annual roundup of standout homes with rave reviews, memorable design, and major wow factor includes castles, beach estates, and historic homes, but Perch was the one I couldn’t stop thinking about.
From the outside, Perch was even more striking than it looked in photos. The luxury dome sits right against the rocky hillside, surrounded by mountains and open sky. I found myself lingering outside for a minute before going in, just taking it all in.
Inside, it felt much cozier than I expected. The main dome is warm and modern, with natural textures and an open layout that lets the architecture speak for itself. At the center sits a fully stocked kitchen with all the dishware and essentials you’d need for a long weekend, alongside the main living and dining areas where everyone naturally gathered. Surrounding that central space, the bedrooms are arranged in a circular layout that makes the whole home feel connected and surprisingly intimate. A lofted nook above quickly became one of my favorite spots for reading, sipping coffee, or briefly pretending I lived there full-time.
But the best part of staying in a geodome isn’t just how it looks — it’s how connected you feel to everything outside.
Our first morning there, I woke up at 6 a.m. — not something I normally volunteer to do on vacation — to watch the sunrise over the mountains. It was worth every sleepy second. The sky turned soft peach, then melon, then gold, spilling light across the desert in a way that felt almost too pretty to be real.
Four of the five bedrooms have epic sunrise views, but one suite quickly became everyone’s go-to favorite: a detached mini dome casita made for stargazing. There’s a plush bed, a curved ceiling overhead, and a direct view of the night sky from your pillow waiting inside. Falling asleep under the stars, then waking up to a soft pink glow over the mountains, felt like one of those travel moments you truly hope lives up to the photos — and somehow it did.
I came with my husband plus a mix of close friends and family, and that’s where Perch really won me over. It’s thoughtfully designed for togetherness, but never in a cramped, everyone-on-top-of-each-other sort of way. We spent our afternoons rotating between the pool and lounge areas, cocktails in hand, choosing seats based entirely on where the sun was hitting best. Someone was always in a hammock and negotiating for five more minutes there.
At night, the property takes on a whole new personality. We grilled dinner outside, ate beneath the stars, and lingered around the fire pit longer than planned every night of our visit. The desert had a way of making everyone stay up later and talk a little deeper. Making lasting memories was easy.
What stayed with me most was how well Perch balances two things that don’t always coexist in a rental: togetherness and quiet. It’s easy to picture it as the setting for a family trip, birthday weekend, or long-overdue friends’ getaway, but it also has pockets that feel surprisingly romantic — especially the casita dome and the sunrise-facing suites.
And if a luxury geodome in the desert isn’t quite your speed, that’s part of the appeal of Vrbo’s 2026 Top Vacation Rentals of the Year list. There’s a little bit of everything: historic Southern homes, ski lodges, beachfront escapes, lakeside estates, and plenty of stays with serious design appeal. Whether you’re more Gothic carriage house in Charleston or mountain hideaway in Montana, there’s probably something on the list with your name on it.
Still, I understood immediately why Perch made the cut. It’s not just a beautiful place to stay — it also gives you the kind of experience that would be hard to re-create anywhere else.
Three nights later, I left with desert dust on my comfy shoes, roughly 400 sunrise photos on my phone, and the sneaking suspicion that future rentals that catch my eye will have a lot to live up to.
Because once you’ve called a luxury geodome home — even briefly — I must say, it’s hard to go back to ordinary stays.