Coachella: A First Timer’s Ultimate Guide in Coachella, Life, Spring, Style, Summer, Travel on 04/19/17 Happy Wednesday, chicas! I hope everyone’s week is off to a great start- And that you’re settled in somewhere cozy basking in those post-work feels, because this is going to be a long one! This weekend I had the great pleasure of flying out to one of my all time favorite vacation spots to hang out with a great group of friends and go to Coachella for the first time ever!! I have been beyond dyiiiing to go for as long as I can remember. My sister goes to school out in Southern California, and it’s always been our dream to go together; my boyfriend has gone with his buddies for the past couple years, so it was just a matter of it being the right time to go. For Coachella 2017, we essentially started prepping and planning the June before, so this was really a long time coming. There is a TON to cover in this post, from the logistical planning of doing Coachella (trust me, there’s a ton of heavy lifting involved here), to what to wear, to all the things I wish someone had told me beforehand. I will start by saying that all in all, I had some expectations of the weekend that were definitely not met, but there also were so much unexpected amazingness. In a way, you can only prepare so much; I think the best way to do the festival is to just go with the flow and let what happens happens. You might not get to see every show on your list, you might spend a little bit more money at the beer garden than planned, and you might not get to meet up with that one friend you were really hoping to find because cell coverage sucks. It is at the end of the day, as perfect as it may look like on Instagram, still a music festival! Overcrowded, way too hot, a real killer on the feet. That said, don’t get me wrong. This place is helllllla fun. Logistics JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content. Like I mentioned, not being from California can kinda make getting to Coachella a logistical, and expensive, nightmare. The festival takes place in Indigo, CA, the closest airport being the small, regional Palm Springs airport. This is the airport I always fly into when I come out to stay with my boyfriend’s family at their place in Palm Desert; flights are pricey but direct. Over Christmastime, at least. During peak times like Coachella, you can expect flight fare to be pretty insane. I couldn’t even find any available direct flights. You could totally get lucky depending on when you book your flights. The good news is you can also always fly out to LAX, Ontario, or John Wayne Airport. They are all no longer than two hours away from the venue. I suggest renting a car with friends, or scheduling a driver to actually get there/your hotel. I wouldn’t bank on Uber as your only means of transportation just because it’s a little unreliable with the massive amounts of people coming through the area. Also, you best be knowing that those Uber surge charges are going to be through the roof! So overall, I would highly recommend renting a car or scheduling a driver for the duration of your trip. Split the cost with friends and it shouldn’t be too bad! The only thing you need to get taken care of farther in advance than your flight is your hotel and ticket! The first round of tickets goes on sale around early June the year before. So yep, that means Coachella tickets will be going on sale again for next year in just a few months. Hotels and air b & b’s also get booked out pretty far in advance so I would recommend booking as early as possible! I was fortunate enough to get a pretty decent price for my flight and flew into John Wayne, which is around 20 min away from my sister at school. I had a 7:30 am flight and was able to have a full fun day with my sister in her hood before the two of us plus two of her friends all cruised down to the desert. My sister Kate and I got some bomb acai bowls and then hit the mall for a liiiittle last min shopping. Of course we ended up finding all of the things we didn’t know we needed. If you’re ever in the area, Blue Bowl in Orange is the best!! You can make your own a la Chipotle style; choose or mix a base of pitaya or acai, or even add cooked oats or chia seed pudding! Then deck it the heck out. Anyway, you can camp on the Coachella grounds, and doing so means you don’t need to book a hotel/air b & b, and you don’t need to book means of transportation from where you’re staying and to the venue/back again. We stayed at my boyfriend’s family’s place about 30 min away. We had a driver pick us up in a van and drop us off, and then come pick us up at a pre-planned time to take us home. You need to walk about 15ish min from where the shows are to get to the van/shuttle drop-off. Shuttles comes periodically and you can get one with your general admission ticket. You can get on/off at any stop, and they span pretty far out into the area. Only thing is that then it means it might be pretty late when you’re getting home each night! In full honesty, my favorite part of the weekend was staying at the house, having people over and having parties by the pool, and ending the night by the firepit with friends, excited all to do it again in the morning. We were getting like four hours a sleep each night, but it was so much fun. We had a really great crew. We left around 4 pm each day for the venue, which felt like the perfect amount of time, allowed us to see a ton of shows, and gave us time to hang by the pool, listen to music, and hang! Coachella Fashion My first and foremost need for three days of festival outfits was that I was freakin’ comfortable!! I saw so many people walking around in heeled shoes and jeans, and it like stressed me out. You are in the desert! It is 96 degrees out!! You are also getting a ton of sun exposure, so yeah, it’s damn hot. I wanted to go for a boho feel with my looks, didn’t want to spend a ton of money, and wanted to get stuff I would wear again. Everything I got was either super stretchy or flowy. I could dance, didn’t feel overly constrained, and didn’t get too overheated. I also cannot more highly recommend bringing a small backpack!! I just find it so much easier to keep track of your things, plus you can actually hold more than a phone and wallet. I could put my sunglasses in them at night (LOL who are we kidding, we all know I wore them regardless of being indoors or it being nighttime) as well as hold a mini deodorant, dry shampoo, snack bars, sunscreen. Make sure you check their official policy beforehand, because security is intense. One thing I was really glad I knew before hand is that it gets soo cold at night! Once the sun goes down the temps can drop to the mid 60’s. I had a a long, thick sweater all three nights and it was perfect for walking in between shows or sitting in the beer garden. Wearing a hat is another huge must! It shades your face from the sun, gives you that added bit of protection (it goes without saying that ya gotta be reapplying sunscreen all day), and really helps cool you off. Plus, it’s the perfect place to rock them! I didn’t wear one on the last day and reaaally regretted it, I was so much more uncomfortable while it was still sunny out! Plus, I always ended up taking that off at night and putting them in my backpack, so you get to show off a no-hat look as well ha. JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content. This little wooden hut in one of the beer gardens had theeee best grapefruit mules. Don’t even wanna know how many of them I drank. These sunnies were THE greatest find ever. I really really wanted to get a pair of the Ray Ban ones, but I couldn’t justify pulling the trigger when I already had so many great pairs to wear for the festival and I knew that there was a possibility of something happening to them at the festival… I ended up finding these pink ones as well as a gold frame and black lens pair that were perfect!! I don’t recommend bringing pricey shades to Coachella either; I know so many people who lost or broke theirs! Posin’ at one of our fave group hang out spots at the festival! At Coachella, unlike other music festivals, you can’t just walk around holding a drink. You have to wait in line for an ID check stand, then get your wristband checked every time you enter a beer garden. These drinking areas are actually really big, and are a super fun place to hang! There are places to sit or chill on the grass, there are food stands, bathrooms, and lots of bars. Our favorite place was this little wooden hut with a fake fire place inside. They sold alcoholic snowcones and the booombest grapefruit mules! They were so refreshing in the heat, and just sooo yummy. It was also a lot easier to meet up with people here; there were free wifi hotspots, and it wasn’t as crowded. Only downside is you actually really need to be 21 to get in, don’t even bother trying with a fake ID if you’re underage. The last day they were even checking my teeth to confirm I was using a real ID and that it actually was me. This was kinda unfortunate because my sister won’t be 21 until the end of the year. Because it was the only place you could drink, we would often be there for extended periods of time, and it meant we couldn’t hang out! So definitely a bummer there, but overall I wasn’t too bothered by not being able to grab a beer to bring to a show. I was so so in love with this stretchy, striped olive green dress! It was super comfy in the desert heat, and I will definitely be wearing it all the time over the summer. These shoes were also the greatest buy ever! I’ll admit they are a little dusty at the moment, but I think they’ll look perfect after a little spray. My feet didn’t hurt the entire time I wore them, no blisters, no aching. They have little hole all over them so my feet were kept cool, too. They also are slip ons, which I love! On day 3, I went all out with the accessories. I wore this super boho wrap maxi skirt with a slit, it was so fun to dance with, a little purple crop top, a bodychain, and these gorgeous beaded bracelets. The little pink ones on the left I actually picked up for a few dollars at a Michael’s near my sister. The stack on the right is handmade by the guys at Stay Loke, two buds who studied abroad in Kosovo and Brazil, where they started collecting charms, ropes, leathers, and other materials to make their own accessories. Their first bracelets were handmade from Tibetan Mala prayer beads, meant to be entirely unique, fashionable for guys or girls. They have since expanded their source of materials into a variety of Jasper, Garnet, and even Lavarock, collected from flea markets and other vendors all over the world. All throughout high school, you wouldn’t find me dead without a bracelet stack, and I knew that I wanted a colorful and interesting set of beads for the festival. I love that they all are made up of different textures, different shades of colors; you can wear one alone for a little pop or pile them up for a more dramatic boho look. Coachella Food Vendors For the past few years, websites like Buzzfeed always post about the Coachella food and showcase all of this awesome looking stuff. Maybe because of that, and my assumption that we would be in for a treat being so close to LA, but I had super high expectations for the food. I didn’t do a ton of research, and just assumed everything would be good. WRONG. Don’t let the pictures fool ya, because most of the food I ordered was beyond overpriced and actually pretty terrible. In hindsight, I saw some cool looking donut ice cream sandwiches, colorful churros, and sprinkle covered waffles on sticks that probably would have been great options. Of course, these stands really weren’t well marked, so I didn’t even know that some of this stuff was even available. I ordered this secret menu option for a Vietnamese food stand in one of the beer gardens. Francis and I got an order of veggie and pork crispy rolls which were delicious, and when we heard a nutter butter dessert sandwich was their “secret” option, we decided we just had to try that as well… Overall, it was ok; more just a fun thing to try. We also got pad thai that had zero flavor, and lobster mac and cheese that was essentially Velveeta cheese topped with what looked like shredded imitation crab. Big thumbs down. In hindsight I would definitely wait and check Instagram to see what’s out there and what actually looks worth it. No one should pay $20 for gross sketchy lobster mac!! Stick with the simple stuff and try not to get too excited by the more “exotic” options, like I did. Seriously, I was talking about getting that damn pad thai from day 1. My friends all said they have some dope pizza!! Everything Else I Wish I Had Known Just wear sneakers. Otherwise you will have very dirty and sore feet, and you’re shoes will be trashed. My sister rocked gladiators every day and said her feet had never been in so much pain, even days after. I decided to wear sandals on the last day and instantly regretted it. It was just super gross having my toes come into contact with every single thing we walked through… I personally don’t think it’s worth it, but I definitely am in the minority with this option haha, everyone was rocking around with crazy uncomfortable looking shoes. There’s an actual reason you always see pictures of people wearing bandanas. Especially when you’re heading in and out of the venue, there is a tooooon of dust. Just because you don’t see it or feel any wind doesn’t mean it’s not there. You’re constantly breathing it in, and at night the area is prone to dust storms, which makes it even worse. People wear bandanas over their nose and mouth just to breathe!! The third day I didn’t have one and my entire group couldn’t breathe out their noses for two days… We also all had the worst cough ever, mine is still bad even days later. So make sure you definitely have one with you. Like I mentioned earlier, bring an extra layer for the night shows! Always try and carry a couple water bottles around with you. For the first time ever I probably was more than matching my drinks with water, and it not only prevented my hangovers but it’s the best way to stay safe and hydrated in the heat. Don’t waste your entire first day running around trying to meet up with other groups of friends only to learn that it’s really really hard. Bring some snacks with you, energy bars, some nuts etc. Sometimes it’s really easy to forget to eat! Take preventive bathroom breaks. You never know when you won’t be able to find a port-o-potty right when you need one! Buddy system it. I saw so many drunk lost girls roaming around crying on the phone with their friends and it made me sad. At least if you get lost at least you’ll be with a bud. Get your travel arrangements in order for Monday/Tuesday/Whenever you head out in advance. Nothing more stressful than waking up the day after Coachella and realizing you forgot to check in for your flight, that you can’t get a ride to the airport, etc. Anticipate how expensive the weekend will be. After booking flights, transportation, hotel, drinks and food, and the ticket itself… It adds up a ridiculous amount. It would definitely be an interesting challenge trying to do this festival on a budget, just because there is limited flexibility. Don’t sweat the little stuff, stay safe, and just have fun!! As always, thanks for reading! I hope I provided you guys with some interesting insight or helpful tips to anyone who might be going for the first time next year. This was definitely a bucket list trip for me; there are some things that just can’t be expressed in writing and I will end by saying that the essence of Coachella is definitely one of them. It is everything you expect it to be, everything that you see on social media, in the photos of celebrities… and at the same time, it is something completely different, something you can only understand if you experience it firsthand. That said, I highly recommend it to everyone if you can make it happen at least once in your life!
Karina says May 18, 2017 at 2:46 am Hi Meghan, I just discovered your blog and read a couple of your posts, and I really like how you combine travel and fashion and that you gove advice on activities, places to eat etc. as well! I loved this review of Coachella as well! I was thinking about going next year and it was super helpful. 🙂
Meghan Wainwright says May 18, 2017 at 2:51 pm Thanks so much, Karina! Glad this guide was of help to you 🙂 You’ll have to let me know if you end up going next year!!