Budget Breaks
Alternative ideas for spring break trips
Sunglasses: $10Road Map: $7
Travel Toothbrush: $4
The chance to spend a study-free week with friends: Priceless. Spring break should be your time to kick back, enjoy the outdoors, and leave all your worries (including those about your bank account) back in your dorm. To keep your vacation affordable, check out these ways to jet set without going broke.
Mind the Logistics
Accommodation and transportation are typically the biggest costs in any trip. To minimize your lodging bill, try renting someone's apartment or camping in lieu of blowing your bucks on a four-star hotel. If you've got your heart set on staying somewhere with modern amenities, you know, like electricity, consider staying in a youth hostel or booking rooms through a half-price clearing house such as Ratestogo.com. Let's Go and Lonely Planet travel guides provide up-to-date information on how to stay anywhere in the world relatively cheap.
To get there with money left, take advantage of student discounts. Studentuniverse.com and STATravel.com both offer a substantial discount to domestic and international destinations. For short trips that don't require airfare, watch for student specials from Greyhound and Amtrak or consider driving with a group and splitting the cost of gas. Booking in advance is almost always more advantageous than waiting until the last minute, so start planning now!
Consider the Alternatives
Want a really adventurous trip? Trade in cat naps on the beach for tutoring orphans in Nicaragua, planting trees in West Virginia, or cooking meals for AIDS patients in New York City. Designed to provide students with an alcohol-free, drug-free way to get outside the comfort zone, alternative break programs connect willing groups of student volunteers with nonprofit and community agencies that need help. Trips are low cost, high energy, and anything but ordinary. To learn more about alternative spring break options and opportunities, visit the national BreakAway.
Christina Couch is a freelance writer based in Richmond, Virginia. She is the author of Virginia's Complete College Resource (Palari Publishing, 2007). Her byline can also be found on Aol.com, Msn.com, Yahoo! Finance, and the Christian Science Monitor. She can be contacted at couchcs@gmail.com.
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