After many years with the Coachella festival on my bucket list, I FINALLY made it this year! Last year, I had finally had it and opted to purchase one ticket (with a Shuttle Pass) for each weekend. Once this year rolled around and the festival was back in business, I started to make plans!
Transportation
Although I was told that you should try on-site car camping at least once, at this stage in my life, I had zero interest in car/tent camping. So, I opted to do some research on RV rentals and we rented this bad boy from RVEzy.com:
Let me just remind you of the obvious benefits of this situation versus Car Camping:
- Full Bathroom with hot water. We had friends who waited in like 2 hours to shower at the venue one day.
- Air Conditioning. The desert days are HOT, and being able to wake up without sweating and chill if we wanted to come back and take a break was pretty amazing.
- Protection from Wind. I did not realize what a BEAST the wind is there! Our RV was rocking one evening. That same evening our car camping friends’ easy ups and tents tried making a run for it.
Accommodations
I did lots of research on places to stay. AirBnB had several, but upon diving deeper, they didn’t have actual hook ups and were just for dry camping. That all changed when I came across Shadow Hills RV Park. While it was a pretty penny for the weekend, it was well worth it.
They have a full staff there just for Coachella and it was a super clean and nice RV park. They have several options to rent their Airstreams, sleep in teepees, and other camping options. The front office even provided trash bags and recycling bags for us to use. From Thursday on, they have a rockin’ pool party with a GREAT DJ! We were parked pretty close to the pool so we were never without great music from mid morning to early evening. Additionally, they had a food truck on site that was open until 2am every night. And the best part, they are the ONLY RV park that is an official Coachella shuttle stop. So, we would walk right out our door and there would be an “Any Line” Shuttle waiting to take us to the festival.
Essentials to Bring
What to take to the festival is another topic I did LOADS of research on and let me tell you it was WORTH it. I came home after three full days of 25,000 daily steps without sunburns or dehydration! Click on the products below to see what I recommend:
- Sunscreen. I sprayed myself with a 70 spf every day, wore chapstick with spf and brought a travel size 30 spf bottle in my bag every day. I even sprayed my hair part every day, because that will burn too! The amount of sun you get daily is intense.
- Hydration. This is so important. Hydration in 90-100 degree weather is no joke. I drank a liter of water with one of the LiquidIV packs per day and I felt great! I also packed them in my purse.
I did see hydration back packs on several lists and would probably bring one next time . You can’t bring liquid in, but there are many water stations to fill up at, however they would be packed and we would find ourselves filling up the small water bottles we purchased many times during the days. The average Hydration packs can hold 2 to 3 liters.
- Walkable Shoes. 25,000 steps a day according to my Apple Watch, and that is not made for heels . And I love heels, but I knew there was no way that I would comfortably survive three days.
The shoes I opted to wear are clickable on the left (and every pair I purchased from Nordstrom is less on Amazon!).
More advice:
Open toed shoes are not ideal (I survived with dirty feet).
Your shoes WILL get dusty and gross, you can protect your white shoes by using THIS STUFF.
BRING BANDAIDS, you never know if you’re going to need them!
- Portable Fan. Besides this is adorable, has bear ears and doubles as a flashlight, it is perfectly portable for those moments when you need to cool down!
- Ear Protection. A must for me. I have poor hearing and although I LOVE music, I have to be really careful about protecting what hearing I have left. Life savers.
- Sunglasses & Hats. This is obvious because those faces will burn!
- Light Jacket or Outerwear. The nights are cold and I’m now the proud owner of a Coachella purchased blanket to warm up and shield from the insane wind.
- Crossbody or Belt Bags aka Fanny Packs. One thing that I read about was that things do get stolen.. Bags, cell phones, etc. It is ideal to be hands free, but even more ideal to be able to keep your things close to you!
- Phone Battery Case. There are several charging stations around, but who wants to do that? I purchased this one for my iPhone and I never got low on battery.
Last Tips
You can rent a locker on the Coachella website for the entirety of the event. I did this but didn’t use it until the last day. It would’ve been essential to bring a blanket or jacket for the evenings, because it does get very cold once the sun goes down or it gets windy AF! And order one early, as they do sell out before the event.
I mentioned earlier that I purchased tickets for both weekends, but only attended Weekend 1. I joined several Coachella Free Market Facebook communities and was able to sell my ticket privately to someone local WHILE in town for Weekend 1. I also ended up selling my Shuttle Pass with an easy transaction to Ticket Rescue. They offer money for tickets to all sorts of events and their automated bot on Facebook can give you an offer instantly.
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