The Best West Coast Festivals and How to Get There

 
It’s not every year that two of the greatest indie acts come back from an artistic break to wow the crowds again. This year Radiohead surprised the world by delivering one of 2016’s most beautiful soundtracks after a five-year hiatus, while LCD Soundsystem decided to get back to what they do best after officially breaking up in 2011.

Easy to see why thousands will be flooding to San Francisco and L.A. The question is, do they know what the best and cheapest way to get there is?

Besides these two indie heavyweights, the lineups at Outside Lands and FYF gather the best of the current music spectrum: Kendrick Lamar, arguably the most popular rapper on the planet at the moment, Hot Chip, French electro wizards Air, Sufjan Stevens and, in case your ears start itching for some poppier tunes, Lana del Rey and Lionel Richie will also bring the best of their repertoire.

The Cheapest Way to Get There

 
Everybody loves tooting their own horn but this time, we promise, we’re not just making things up to feed our egos. The cheapest way to get to Outlands and FYF this year is by bus.

When comparing the official price per mile averages on domestic travel, traveling by bus takes the crown with a $0.14 per mile average. By comparison, traveling by car, even if it’s your beloved camper van, will set you back a whopping $0.55 per mile.

Other forms of transportation will also cost more while also releasing tons, literally, of GHGs, including this generation’s public enemy number one: CO2 (sorry, political candidates). Find out more about all this, including the average price per mile to both San Francisco and Los Angeles in our infographic:

So, there you have it. Getting to San Francisco by bus on Friday August 5th will cost you a mere $0.10 per mile, while getting to L.A. on August 26th will be even cheaper at $0.08 per mile (individual values rounded for brevity’s sake).

Besides all this, there are bus companies that occasionally offer crazy discounts, such as the often publicized one-dollar rates by megabus.

Methodology:

We compared the ticket prices of three of the biggest bus operators and the miles needed to get to each destination. We then calculated an average price per mile per destination.