Top 5 Tips for Tomorrowland

Months before traveling to the festival my group and I decided to purchase the Global Journey package from Tomorrowland’s website. This included a hotel room of our choice, complimentary breakfast, travel to and from the festival and an official Tomorrowland gift bag. The Belgium Journey was also an added bonus to our package which included a tour of Brussels, a full day of social activities and access to the pre-party on the festival camping grounds for the People of Tomorrow. I highly recommend getting this package if its your first time at the festival and if your traveling from a great distance.

Boasting 16 different stages fully booked with Djs and incredible visual displays to compliment each area, Tomorrowland certainly lives up to its hype! Be sure to bring walking shoes you don’t mind getting dirty, both for comfort and to stand up to the rainy weather. The unpredictable weather and constant outfit changes between ponchos and tank tops had me exhausted by day three. It would be 85° one minute and the next second extremely windy and rainy. Just roll with the punches and have your poncho handy, there’s hardly any indoor areas to hide in so enjoy it.

Load Up your Bracelet:

If you didn’t already know, Tomorrowland is a completely cashless festival! The currency of Tomorrowland is called "Pearls" and you will need to upload the money to your bracelet before the festival.

The exchange rate for “Pearl” is:

€ 20 – 13 Pearls
€ 40 – 26 Pearls

The money you put on your festival bracelet is only valid per weekend and cannot be transferred between weekend 1 to weekend 2. If you run out of pearls you can always put more money on your bracelet at one of the many "Topup" booths.

Tip: Don’t use a card outside of the European bank system to purchase more pearls. Card transactions from a foreign bank take longer to process and problems are likely to occur. Always carry euros on you to pay for your Tomorrowland currency.

Plan in Advance:

Since we had purchased the Global Journey package, everyday at noon a shuttle would pick us up from the hotel and take us to the festival grounds. The shuttle only came once a day so if you missed it. good luck! Before entering the festival, we always had a security checkpoint to pass through first. Water bottles from outside the festival could be brought in as long as you had the cap off.

Tip: Always keep your caps hidden on you so you can use them for later, no one wants to walk around the festival with an open water bottle while dancing in the crowds. Another tip I figured out way to late in the game was switching out my water for vodka with my unopened water bottle. Could have saved myself a few pearls if I had planned ahead.

Just Hang Out:

Upon entering the festival, my friend and I would run to the small section of hammocks on the fairgrounds to claim our territory and sleep for a few hours before we started our day. This came in handy several times because the hammock areas were covered up and we got to sleep peacefully during the rainfall.

Tip: Invest in hammock property at the festival, totally worth the relaxation and shelter!

It might seem trivial to mention but I highly appreciated the bathrooms at Tomorrowland; they were kept in good condition and always stocked with toilet paper. These bathrooms were a step above the porta potties offered in the Coachella VIP section. (Hey Coachella, if you’re reading this you guys need to step up your bathroom game!) The Tomorrowland bathrooms also had a complimentary beauty bar where you could freshen up your hair, put on deodorant or just grab some sunblock for your face.

Bring your Best Walking Shoes:

It’s no surprise that music festivals involve lots of walking but the one downfall of Tomorrowland was the insanely long route back to our bus stop. It was a complete shock to us the first night when it took almost 70 minutes to get out of the fairgrounds and back to our means of transportation. To make the walk more bearable, every night a new group of Tomorrowland performers would follow the crowd of tired party goers and motivate them to keep walking. By night three we had finally mastered the insanely long route back to the bus stop and made it in a record time of only 40 minutes. Wahoo!

Tip: Maybe bring running shoes for this part of the festival? Or ask someone for a piggy back ride.

Make your own Adventure:

To sum up my time at the festival, I made sure to talk to as many people as possible, get to know other cultures, make new contacts and travel out of my comfort zone. There were so many inspiring people I met along the way and even a handful of solo female travelers who really piqued my interest and reignited my love of travel.

Protip: Don’t be afraid to leave the group you came with, always be open to new experiences and allow yourself to live in the moment. You never know what will happen, I sure didn’t and I regret nothing!