Coachella 2009: The race to book camping and other accommodations

Whether you’d like to see certain acts (the Cure? Groove Armada? Paul McCartney?) or go for the whole festive enchilada, if you’re planning on going to the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, April 17-19, 2009, you’d best plan your lodging now. The longer you wait to reserve a campsite or accommodation, the more you’ll pay and the farther away you’ll have to stay.

For a quick hop to the stages, camping spots are available onsite for $55, plus a $5.35 booking fee, per person, for the weekend. Book through the Coachella site.

Not so sure about lugging camping gear to your weekend party? Consider a camping package: For $300 and up for two people, or $500 and up for four, you get a tent to use and each person gets an onsite-camping ticket, sleeping bag, fleece blanket and pillow.

For something likely to get you more shut-eye, check out the off-site camping or accommodations options. For hotels, a search on a booking site likely will show you that the cheaper motels and hotels closest to the festival (e.g., in Indio and surrounds) are already sold out. A search for Indio turns up little (though, right now, I do see a room at La Quinta Old Town Villas for $165 per night, pretax, through Orbitz).

You’ll find vacancies in Palm Desert (about 13 miles from Coachella) and Palm Springs (28 miles away). If you find something doable, don’t spend too much time shopping around — the cheapest spots will disappear in the blink of an eye.

Planning for camping in the region may take some strategizing. Some grounds, like the Outdoor Resorts Motorcoach Resort (for RVs) in Indio, filled up a few weeks ago. You might want to try a public-lands location, like Salton Sea State Recreation Park, 24 miles from Indio, or Joshua Tree National Park, a roughly 45-minute drive away.

The latter’s first-come, first-served Cottonwood Campground has hosted lots of Coachella campers in previous years, according to Joe Zarki, chief of interpretation and public information officer at Joshua Tree. However, he suggests that would-be campers get there as early as possible (on a weekday before the festival) to have a chance at a site.

“The festival tends to overlap one of the busiest travel times in the park,” said Zarki, referring to the typically wildflower-abloom month of April. Plus, he said, the festival this year immediately precedes National Park Week (April 18-26).

Past festival-goers: Any accommodations tips for the masses? Share in the Comments below.

- Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Photo: Coachella 2008. Credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 30, 2009 at 1:18 pm by Susan Derby and is filed under Arts & Culture, California, Deals, Festival, News, Tips & Advice, Palm Springs, Spring. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.