Traveling From the East Coast

[Sarah143]

Hi Everyone: I'm 35 years old & planning to make my first trip to Burning Man in 2017!! I live in Philly, USA. I wanted to know if anyone who has traveled from the East Coast had any advice. Such as: Where to fly into, how to rent an RV, how can you join a camp, etc. Also, i heard it's hard to get tickets...any tips? I've recently started a spiritual journey and i'm looking forward to experiencing Burning Man!! (/|\)

[BBadger]

Try searching for "East coast" on the forum. There is a lot of info. Radical self-reliance and all that.

I will say this: if you want an RV, you should to consider flying into some city farther than the adjacent cities (Reno, San Francisco, etc.) and obtaining and driving the RV from there. It'll take more time, but RVs in nearby cities are generally booked early and not available around that time. Also don't be a dick and return the RV dusty and shitty, or you'll ruin it for other burners.

[Drawingablank]

Welcome to Eplaya.

As mentioned above there are a few existing threads about this as well as about joini9ng a camp.

The later you book your RV the further away you will need to pick it up. At this point you may have trouble finding one within a few hundred miles of the burn.

[Elderberry]

Hey there, welcome to eplaya!

[trilobyte]

Hello and welcome! Feel free to circle on back to the greeter's station if you'd like to post a bit more of an introduction, but I'm giving this a nudge over to the Bikes & Transportation board, since that's a better fit for discussions about transportation logistics. You'll find more info about tickets here, and the board should hopefully have loads of information that will help you plan your adventure.

[Ann_Vader]

There is a pretty big burner community in Philly. PEX does a lot of parties, you have the Space Pirates and someone from one of those groups or their friends does a container truck out of Philly to the playa. Then you fly, burner bus, maybe burner bus to Walmart for food, and pick up your stuff on the playa at the container.

RVs these guys can tell you about.

[Leap]

Consider going to the PEX event this Saturday on the Battleship New Jersey.

Also, the Philly community sends containers to the playa every year. You can ship some of your heavier items out there. For your first burn, you might want to get a tent and keep it simple.

[Straightveg]

East coaster checking in! I went for the first time in 2012, finally going back for my second burn this year. I flew in to Reno and rented a box truck from the folks at the Budget on Gentry Way (burner friendly business, positive experience with them, would recommend) and just camped in the back. It was cheaper and easier than trying to find an RV, and I didn't have to be panicky about tracking dust everywhere. Back in the day (around 2012+) there was a big and quite helpful thread about box truck camping that seems to have gone down the memory hole now that I'm looking for it. For something somewhat similar, check out the advice over in this thread. I didn't join a camp my first year (woo, solo camping!) so no advice there other than know that you don't *need* to camp with others unless you want to. If you do decide to look for a camp check out this post and this site. Tickets are hard. You've already missed the presale, the (expensive!) easy way to get tickets. Low income ticket applications open soon, then there's the main sale, STEP, and the OMG sale later. If you haven't visited http://tickets.burningman.org/ recently, or http://ticketsupport.burningman.org/ or signed up for the Jackrabbit Speaks Newsletter here yet, do it now. As for the spiritual journey, there are camps out there for that. I'd hazard a guess that the theme for this year (Radical Ritual) is especially conducive to personally meaningful spiritual experiences in the dust. Also read the first timers guide and the survival guide, and keep lurking the forums. Don't mind the trolls.
Good luck, and I hope to see you in the dust.