I traveled 6,000 miles to attend my first Coachella at age 42. Here are 11 things that surprised me most.

• I'm 42 years old and I came from London to attend my first Coachella.
• I was surprisingly disappointed by the headliners' glitchy, late, or just OK performances.

When I was thinking of ways to spend my 40th birthday in style, I couldn't think of a better place to do so than at Coachella Music & Arts Festival.

I live in the UK, and the California festival hit my radar in 2012 after it expanded to two consecutive weekends and brought in some big-name headliners that piqued my interest. Coachella was canceled in 2021 and I had my daughter in 2022, so I finally made it this year at the age of 42 with my brother in tow.

My first Coachella might not have been everything, I expected it to be but I definitely plan to return. Here's what surprised me the most.

It took even longer to travel to the festival grounds than I imagined it would

Having visited Los Angeles previously, I was prepared for the 11-hour flight from London's Heathrow to LAX, which was relatively stress-free.

After an enjoyable overnight stay in Los Angeles, we returned to LAX to catch the Coachella shuttle to Palm Springs. The shuttle service runs between Los Angeles LAX airport, Coachella campsite, and resorts within Palm Springs.

We opted to stay in downtown Palm Springs and travel daily to the festival. Our shuttle service was supposed to leave LAX at noon on Friday, April 14, but it was delayed so we didn't actually get on the road for at least another hour.

I also hadn't anticipated the 110-mile journey from LA to Palm Springs, which is usually 1 hour and 45 minutes according to Google Maps, to take 3 ½ hours. After arriving in Palm Springs, we had another 15-minute walk in the blistering heat with our luggage to reach our hotel.

From our hotel, we had to walk 10 minutes to the shuttle stop and then 10 more minutes from the shuttle drop-off to the festival site. We finally arrived at Coachella around 7.30 pm, completely missing Idris Elba's set but catching the end of Blink-182's memorable performance.

Taking rideshares to the festival isn't actually worth it

We took the shuttle on day one, but after going to pre-parties on days two and three, we opted to take an Uber to the festival.

I thought this would be convenient, but I quickly learned rideshares are the worst way to travel to Coachella grounds. There was tons of traffic and the rideshare drop-off point was a 20- to 25-minute walk from the festive site down a long dusty and uneven track.

I was surprised to be able to travel by pedicab — and the high price tag for doing so threw me off

When we arrived on Saturday, we were greeted by a row of pedicabs, pedal-operated vehicles serving as taxis. I was told it would cost $15 per person to bring us to the festival entrance.

Each vehicle could carry six people, but that felt like some serious dollars for a short ride. Against my better judgment, we decided to walk.

When we arrived on Sunday, we were a little bit wearier – three days of partying in a row at our age was a lot, so we decided to ride a pedicab. We paid our $15 each but instead of being dropped off at the festival site we were left along the route at another pedicab stop.

If we wanted to go any further, we would have to jump on a second pedicab and pay another $15 per person. We decided to walk the rest of the way and discovered there was even a third (and final) pedicab stop further down that route that we'd also have had to use and pay yet another $15 each to reach the festival site.

Pedicab rides to the festival entrance would have cost a total of $90 between us.

I knew the food and drinks would be expensive but I still was not prepared

Since Coachella is a highly coveted event I knew eating and drinking there would be costly. I expected to pay higher prices but I nearly fell off my bar stool when I bought two beers in the Heineken tent for $32 plus a tip.

To put this into perspective, I live in London – one of the most expensive cities in the world. In London, those two beers would cost $18.

I laughed when we paid $28 for two slices of cold pizza. I even saw lemonades on sale for $15 a pop.

Coachella has secret bars, and it took me a while to find and get into one of them

Coachella steps it up a notch when it comes to themed bars and it's unlike anything I'd ever experienced.

I had heard through the grapevine that there were hidden speakeasies located within the festival site. The first challenge was finding one. The second was finding the password to enter.

We stumbled across one on Saturday but were refused entry because we needed the password. After asking around, we learned the password and got in. Next thing we knew, we were stood in a phone box awaiting entry into a pop-up of New York City's award-winning cocktail bar Please Don't Tell and we toasted our success with $18 cocktails.

We didn't end up finding the hidden Sonny's by Attaboy, a slushie bar with an '80s Miami Vice theme, though.

I felt a bit disappointed by some of the headliners' lackluster, late, or glitchy performances

I expected Coachella to be an intersection of fashion, music, and art — and it was — but I still felt slightly let down by the headliners I was able to see.

I'm not a massive fan of Bad Bunny, but the headliner really knew how to put on a show. Unfortunately, he suffered technical difficulties during his crossover performance with Post Malone, and the sound cut in and out.

I've seen Calvin Harris perform live several times and I'm a fan, but I found myself disappointed by his Coachella performance. For starters, the "Feel So Close" DJ arrived about 30 minutes late to the stage.

Then, he spent nearly all of the late-night set alone on stage. At first, the crowd seemed to be having a great time partying alongside many of his hit tracks like "We Found Love" and "Giant." But his performance began to drag after an hour and soon it was 1 a.m. By that point, I was sure he wouldn't bring out a guest artist and I was thinking about the shuttle we had to line up for.

But as we headed to the exit, the Scottish DJ broke the festival's 1 a.m. curfew to bring English singer Ellie Goulding on stage to perform their latest single, "Miracle." I wish she'd been brought out earlier and he hadn't already played mixes of their previous collaborations like "I Need Your Love" and "Outside" without her.

Lastly, the less we say about Frank Ocean's performance on Sunday, the better. The low-energy performance started about an hour late and left many festivalgoers disappointed.

Artists who weren't headlining actually impressed me the most

I never thought Blondie would be my favorite performance of Coachella weekend one. Debbie Harry is nearly 80, and she still commands the stage like a total rock star. She even welcomed the legendary Nile Rodgers on stage to jam out on the guitar for the songs "Rapture" and "Backfired."

Labrinth's set surprised me when previous Coachella headliner Billie Eilish joined him on stage to give a showstopping performance of their track "Never Felt So Alone." Welsh DJ Jamie Jones also put on a stunning performance on the iconic Sahara stage.

Some of the art exhibitions were actually great places to shelter from the simmering heat

I was very impressed by the festival's art installations. My favorite was the Spectra — an iconic kaleidoscopic art installation that provided us with stunning views over the festival and also gave us much-needed shelter from the sun.

The best stage at the festival was Do LaB

I wasn't even aware this stage existed before coming to Coachella, but I was pleasantly surprised. The smaller, experimental stage specializes in dance and electronic music and had an array of artists performing, with many surprise guests.

In previous years, it's hosted the likes of Diplo and Skrillex. I found the atmosphere at this stage to be very chill and laid-back.

Plus dancing at Do LaB felt like being inside an art installation thanks to its interactive stage design and brightly colored roof that looked especially impressive when lit up.

The pre-parties and the after-parties were the best part of the festival

Before traveling to Coachella, I looked into the parties surrounding the festival because I'd heard they were the best part of the weekend. I managed to score invites to a few, including Nylon House and Desert Gold.

We also spent part of Saturday at Soho Desert House, and it didn't disappoint. Unlimited food and drinks were included in the $200 ticket price and we got to see some guest DJ performances. On Sunday, we went to Sturdy's brunch with Patron el Alto tastings.

Still, with all of the travel and the main Coachella festival, it was hard to find time for all the parties without completely exhausting ourselves. Next time, I'll consider just enjoying the parties and skipping the live music part of the festival.

I found out 'Coachella cough' does really exist

Festivalgoers use "Coachella cough" to describe the flu-like symptoms that can result from spending a weekend in a crowded desert with high winds, dust storms, dirt, and secondhand smoke,

Unfortunately, I experienced "Coachella cough" myself a few days after the festival. I felt fine on my Monday flight home, but the symptoms started to creep in by Wednesday morning and knocked me out for the rest of the week