12 Coachella Camping Mistakes I Was Shocked to See This Year — and What I’d Do Instead as a Lifelong Camper

Festival season has officially kicked off with hundreds of thousands of people flocking to the desert for Coachella 2025. While festivalgoers are already prepping for the next big event, Stagecoach, I’m still not quite over Weekend 1 of Coachella—particularly the car camping mishap. Like everyone who wasn’t in Indio, Calif., for the event, I watched the chaos unfold from home as a flurry of footage showed what went down at the campgrounds. 

TikTok was awash with viral POV (point of view) videos from 12-hour traffic jams and stories of being denied access to drinking water and bathrooms during the long wait to enter the Coachella campgrounds. Attendees who paid at least $600 for tickets and another $150-plus to camp called it a Fyre Festival-esque travel nightmare. The organizers have apologized for the events, but there’s a lesson for campers here, too. 

As someone who lived full-time in vans and tents for three years, including long stints in the desert, I know a thing or two about the importance of being prepared when camping. Ahead of peak camping season, I’ve laid out the biggest Coachella car camping mistakes and the easy hacks to improve your overall experience, whether it’s traveling with your own private shower setup or taking extra measures to ensure you get a full night’s sleep. Consider these Amazon camping gear hacks for your next trip—some cost as little as $8 and could change everything.

Mistake: Car camping without a backup bathroom plan 

Solution: Dibbatu Disposable Urine Bags

Let’s just start with the nitty gritty. No matter what, access to a bathroom is a basic human necessity—and yet, it’s one that festival-goers did not have access to for hours ahead of Coachella. Before pitching a tent at a music festival, in the backcountry, or at a campground that may have a broken toilet, you need a backup plan. Mine—buckle up, it’s not glamorous—is a disposable urine bag. Get yourself a 12-pack for $8, and you won’t have to seek emergency relief in an empty soda cup or some innocent person’s privacy bushes.

Mistake: Being unprepared for hot temperatures 

Solution: Gaiatop Mini Portable Fan

It’s not unusual for daytime temperatures to exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit during Coachella. One car camper on TikTok said, “Every morning when I wake up in the truck, the sun comes through and I literally can’t even help [that] my eyes just start crying. I just start crying the second I wake up” because it’s so “unbelievably hot.” Keep your tent from getting stuffy on sweltering days with a portable fan. This $16 option charges by USB cable and lasts eight to 10 hours before running out of battery, according to reviewers. It also has flexible legs so you can set it up anywhere and point it exactly where you want it.

Mistake: Forgetting that temperatures drop at night

Solution: Kelty Catena 30 Sleeping Bag

Here’s the thing about deserts: While they can be excruciatingly hot during the day, nights can be truly frigid. Be prepared for wild temperature swings with a quality sleeping bag like this one from Kelty—an affordable synthetic down option “for any casual or first-time camper,” Travel + Leisure testers said. It’s rated for temps as low as 30 degrees Fahrenheit and can be unzipped and used as a blanket, or zipped together with another Kelty Catena to make a two-person bag.

Mistake: Leaving your campsite unsecured

Solution: Safego Portable Safe

Though campground theft at Coachella is rare, even though thousands of campers attend each year, you’ll want to keep your valuables secure in your car when you step away. When camping at festivals (or anywhere, actually), I recommend sticking small valuables in this mini portable lockbox and attaching it to your steering wheel or another fixed object inside your vehicle.

Mistake: Running out of battery power to charge devices

Solution: Jackery Solar Generator 240 v2 and 40W Mini Solar Panel

Festivalgoers warn on TikTok that the charging hubs at Coachella get packed by the last day, when everyone’s power banks finally run out of juice. There are no charging hubs where I normally camp, so I go absolutely nowhere without my Jackery generator and solar panel. It’s not as cumbersome as one might think: the mini panel weighs just 2.6 pounds and folds up to about 12 by 10 inches. The generator can charge an iPhone 12 times, and with all the sunshine hitting the solar panel out in the desert, you should have a bottomless supply of power all weekend.

Mistake: Waiting in long lines for showers

Solution: Kipida 5-gallon Solar Shower Bag

The TikTok user @mayifancyyou offered a glimpse into the shower situation at Coachella. Waiting in line for the free showers for an hour and a half? No, thanks. Waiting in line even longer for a $10 “Super Duper” shower? Absolutely not. Spending $15 on a 5-gallon bag with a hose is much more my style. I can prop this portable shower on the hood of my car for hand washing or hang it for a semi-warm shower anytime I want—no waiting in line required. Some Coachella attendees used a privacy tent at their campsite to take showers in, too.

Mistake: Losing your tent to a gust of wind 

Solution: Fstop Labs Screw-style Tent Stakes 8-pack

Wind can literally upend a camping trip. A single gust can catch the nylon walls of your tent and send your hard-earned setup soaring. But Coachella doesn’t even allow metal tent stakes, so your next best option is the plastic kind that screws into the ground, which happen to be just as secure and easier to use than the kind you pound with a mallet.

Mistake: Not bringing enough snacks

Solution: Yeti Tundra 35 Cooler

Buying takeout for every meal when you’re traveling really adds up, especially at places like Coachella (in fact, a common woe for Weekend 1 attendees was limited access to food while waiting in the long campground queues). Instead, invest in a cooler that actually stays cool and get excited about cut fruit and campsite cooking. Yeti is widely considered to be the best cooler brand out there, and its Tundra is the top-rated on Amazon for ice retention. For the best results, drain the water from it before adding more ice, and be sure to keep it out of the sun.

Mistake: Letting the sun turn your car into a sauna

Solution: EcoNour Reflective Windshield Sunshade

A windshield sunshade is the most overlooked, underrated summer camping must-have in my book. Whether you’re sleeping in the car or just using it to store items like food and electronics, you want to keep the interior from becoming an oven. This Amazon reviewer-favorite sunshade with over 75,000 five-star ratings supposedly blocks 99 percent of heat. People who live in really hot climates—like, high temperatures in the range of 124 degrees Fahrenheit—said it works wonders.

Mistake: Spending $10 on a cup of black coffee

Solution: Stanley Adventure All-in-one Boil + Brew 32-oz French Press

TikToker @amanderz7 has a question for Coachella campers: “Why are people buying $20 coffees and matches?” She continued, “That’s what’s going to make it a terrible experience—relying on the festival for food, water, bathrooms, all that.” The next time you need a pick-me-up, grab a pre-stocked cold brew from the cooler or brew yourself a cup of coffee at the campsite with a French press. This Stanley mug that boils and brews is the easiest, quickest solution to campsite coffee I’ve found. Pro tip for iced coffee lovers: brew in the morning and put it in the cooler for an afternoon refresher.

Mistake: Trying to sleep without earplugs 

Solution: Loop Ear Plugs

It can be hard to get quality sleep—or any sleep—in a packed campground, especially one at a music festival. A pair of earplugs could really save you from being tired and grumpy the next day. Loop makes them extra comfy and with top-notch noise reduction without muffling too much. You can even wear them inside the festival to bring the loudness down a few notches. 

Mistake: Running out of water 

Solution: Umetass Collapsible 5-gallon Water Container 2-pack

Camping in the heat means it’s extra important to stay hydrated, but the fewer trips you have to make to the water filling station, the better. I wondered whether the collapsible five-gallon jug I use would be feasible for car camping at places like Coachella. Turns out, the festival has no rules against filling large containers, and Reddit commenters confirmed it’s not against campground etiquette—nobody cares. So, pack only what you need for the car ride and keep this enormous jug folded up in the back until you’re ready to fill up for the weekend. Consider also bringing a friend to the water station because each of these jugs weighs over 40 pounds when full.

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