BNP Paribas Open: While You’re There

March 5th, 2015 by Do It Tennis

Photo: bnpparibasopen.com

Living in Southern California we get the pleasure of having a great tournament practically in our backyard. The BNP Paribas Open is hosted every year in the charming desert town of Indian wells, and this year is celebrating its 40th anniversary. If you’ve never experienced the magic, I highly suggest you see for yourself. The venue itself is simply amazing. The Indian Wells Tennis Garden is huge. It has the second largest tennis stadium in the world. In fact, there are actually two stadiums— one that holds about 16,000 people and has 44 stadium suites which, for a high price, can keep you out of the heat. The second stadium holds about half that. In addition to the two stadiums, there are 29 more tennis courts around the event grounds, some of which have bleachers. Cool Opportunity— Another fun thing about the BNP Paribas Open is that you can see many of the professional tennis players up close, and even get to watch them practice. Most of the practice courts have seating on the sidelines so you can get pretty close to the players while they practice. If you play tennis yourself, remember that watching the pros’ techniques, and seeing what tennis gear and equipment they use, can give useful tips and insights for your own game. Some of the players will even get moved to bigger courts and stadiums if there is a large audience. Neat amenities –

Heat plays a big factor in the tournament every year. Luckily, you don’t have to pack 20 water bottles per day since they have Brita Water fountain stations all around the facilities.

Also, they have a large shade structure setup; but keep in mind it usually fills up quickly in between matches and around lunch time.

You can cool off in the beer garden and enjoy some amazing food. There are over 22 food venues and best of all, they’re likely to fit most everyone’s budget.

Last but not least, of course since you will be using your smartphones a lot to take photos and post to social media, luckily they also have plenty of cell phone charging stations.

Watching the tennis tournament isn’t the only thing you can do while you are in Indian Wells. Here are some other things you can do to make your awesome trip even better—

Shopping at the El Paseo Shopping District.

Take all kinds of tours. There are bike tours, dining tours and even Celebrity tours!

Visit the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.

Palm Springs Art Museum.

The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens.

Tips for your trip— Plenty of us here at DIT have been to the BNP Paribas Open so we have come up with some tips from our experiences for how to best survive (the heat) at the tournament.

Pack a small fan with a sprayer to cool yourself off from time to time.

Pack and apply sunscreen very often if you don’t want to get roasted. The sun is very harsh and there is little shade in the stadium during some of the matches.

Wear moisture wicking and breathable clothes. Since the heat makes you sweat a lot you should definitely wear some moisture wicking clothes. (Good news here, the Do It Tennis t-shirt is moisture wicking!)

Bring a refillable water bottle. Luckily there are Brita filtered water fountains in multiple areas of the venue.

Pro tip: Get to know where all the water stations are because there can be a long line at times.

Bring a light jacket. It cools down quickly in the evening, so a light jacket that can fold up into your bag would be ideal.

Bring electrolytes. You’ll want to replace the liquid and electrolytes you lose if you want to stay there all day.

Bring cash. Pretty self-explanatory - be prepared with cash for parking and food, as well.

Hopefully you have found this helpful, and maybe even picked up some new things that excite you for the upcoming 2015 BNP Paribas Open. Remember to play along in our Do It Tennis T-Shirt Selfie photo-contest.