WildernessEnthusiast wrote:
A few things i'm wondering and need advice on are:
- Would it be best to join a camp on our first year, as we've come such a long way it will be harder to get supplies than it would be if we were driving.
- Shall we rent an RV which would be easy to pick up from the USA, or pay for our tent to be shipped over from UK.
- Which airport would be best to fly into, Las Vegas?
- How would we go about buying a bike when we get to the USA? We don't want to fly into somewhere that doesn't have an easy access of shops?
You're going to get a lot of different answers, but it looks like AntiM covered some really important stuff.
Vegas is NOT Reno and furthermore. IT IS NOWHERE. NEAR. BURNING MAN. It's OK - we all have our geographic misconceptions. Fly into Reno.
Gear is the biggest issue for those traveling to the event. There are a number of ways to handle it - shipping your tent is going to be a pricey way to handle it, but I don't know what your camping needs are, either. You're also likely not going to want to ship it back, as it's going to be hard to clean it adequately before packing it up. You never know, though. Some people like that big cloud of dust they get when they pop stuff out of storage from the Playa. There are LOTS of places to get gear in Reno, but it's also going to be pretty badly picked through by the time you get here. I'm an airbnb host and what guests have done with us in the past is hook up with us when they make their reservation and ask if they can have things mailed to our house for storage until they arrive. A nice advantage of this is you avoid overseas shipping costs as well as having the benefit of your order being fulfilled from a hub rather than being at the mercy of what is locally available, which will be slim. For us, holding things for guests hasn't been a big deal, but I'm sure some hosts would act weird or try to charge extra like it's a service. You just have to ask before you make reservations. On that note, also, give yourself a day or two as a buffer before you actually go to the event and after you return. Before, you're going to be jittery, you're going to have a bunch of last minute pick-ups, and you're going to need to orient yourself a bit. Afterward, you are going to be TIRED. If you want to stash gear at someone's place, I recommend shopping with Sportman's Outlet. They're an excellent outfitting store, you won't get price-gouged as you might with stores like REI or Patagonia, and you won't have to worry about getting weird off-brand stuff like with Amazon.
AntiM nails it with RV's. Plan on spending A LOT if you can find one. Chances are, however, you won't find one. If you opt for a tent, I recommend you look into buying some cheap cots, too - I got mine for $15 or so and it's a real game changer. Backpacker Pillow is a must, too.
Bikes are available in Reno through Black Rock Bicycles, The Reno Bike Project, Washoe ARC, and at all manner of thrift stores.
I wouldn't force the camp thing - there are both benefits and drawbacks to it. If you find something while you're poking through here that really catches your interest and you all really hit it off, go for it, but don't think that you need a theme camp to go to Burning Man. Some of my favorite years I was just off in a corner and that forced me to go out and meet people. Other times, you find that it's wonderful to roll out of your tent (in my case) into a pre-existing social atmosphere. You just kind of have to play that one by ear.
