I decided this year it was finally time to see what the hype of Coachella was all about. The hype was real but I definitely learned through experience some tricks and tips for the future!

My friend Stephanie and I patiently waited for tickets to go on sale via the Coachella website. It made it easier to pre register separately and both of us to be on different computers and attempt to get tickets. Since I was away in Grenada weekend 1 we decided to go weekend 2 which does have its differences. The only tickets left were the 3 day pass (which you must get) with a shuttle pass included which was about $504. In the end it was extremely helpful to have a shuttle pass that picks you up from a list of hotels and takes you to and from Coachella each day. If you want to buy it later/day of like my other friend did it’s $75 for all 3 days.

We flew from JFK to LAX and rented a car and robe to Palm Desert. I highly recommended renting a car but the Coachella website does have an LAX pickup pass if you did not want to rent anything. The drive without traffic is about 2 hours aka it took us about 3 hours. I refuse to go to the west coast and not stop at In N out so that was exactly the first thing we did.

We stayed at Marriot Shadow Ridge Villas which highly exceeded my expectations. The resort was beautiful but ginormous. There were shuttles that constantly run and bring you to your rooms but if you had a car like we did you can just drive yourself. The views at this hotel were surreal; all you saw was mountains and palm trees which is absolutely not the type of views New York has.

During the day we hung out at the hotel pool since it was about 100 degrees each day and made our way to Coachella in the late afternoon. I highly recommend leaving your hotel/air bnb early so you can enjoy the festival and walk around to check out the cool things they have to offer.

I thought the lineup this year was pretty sick and I hands down day 3 was amazing. Cardi B, French Montana and Eminem killed it. I’ve always been obsessed with Eminem so it was nice to see he’s still got it. He brought out 50 cent and Dr. Dre which was a nice surprise he performed for almost 2 hours and I could have listened to him all night.

Weekend 1 vs weekend 2

While I’ve never been to weekend 1 I did some research on some differences and I’ll give you some insight Incase it’s on your mind also. Weekend 1 is definitely the more popular weekend when all the celebs go. While I did spot some people in the crowd and or saw on social media that some celebs were there weekend 2, majority go weekend 1. Sets can be slightly different— they may not bring out the same special guests. Overall you’ll have a fun time regardless of the weekend but if I were to go back I would try to go weekend 1 next time for a new experience.

Tips/Recommendations:
1. Get tickets when they go on sale or you will over pay on websites like stub hub
2. Book flights ASAP to either LAX or Palm Springs
3. If you’re a big group you may want to look into air bnb because hotels are not the cheapest in Palm Springs/ palm desert
4. Choose a hotel that’s on the shuttle list (or one that’s walking distance to a hotel on the list)— I think it made life easier
5. I would book a place with a pool because if you don’t want to go to the festival ALL day you can at least relax while it’s 100 degrees out
6. You are allowed to bring empty plastic water bottles to the festival to fill up
7. Download the app and favorite the performers you wanna see
8. Bring a Bandana to wear around your face because you will get sand in your face
9. Be mindful the weather during the day was about 100 degrees and then goes down to 60 at night
10. If you don’t mind carrying a bag I would bring a blanket or towel to sit on in between performances
11. All the vendors are credit card friendly
12. Wear comfortable shoes because you will do ALOT of walking from the shuttle drop off and at the festival itself from stage to stage
13. Mentally prepare yourself for long lines to food vendors and beer gardens for alcohol
14. Go early if you want to be close to the stage, but I will say towards the back the vibes are so fun— you won’t be squished and you can jam out with your friends
15. Have fun 😛

 

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