COLUMN: Dreaming of a budget-friendly vacation
Letting the UV rays soak into my winter-whitened skin, listening to the sound of waves crashing nearby, lying in the sand, trying once again to surf, riding my bike up the boardwalk, going to clubs and having an all-around good time are some of the thoughts already occupying my mind.
Spring Break is still more than a month away but some people have already started to plan ahead and talk about it. So have I. Probably because I already want to escape the cold and be near the ocean again.
Maybe we’ll to go to the Mexican Riviera on a cruise. Maybe Disneyland, Vegas or possibly just up to the Northwestern coast — not warm. These are all of the ideas that my friends have started coming up with so far.
These daydreams can become a reality once again, now that spring break is slowly getting closer, but maybe not as easily as I’d like them to. These fantastic images of beach days without homework all too quickly turn into the reality of trying to plan it all.
The logistical side of an adventure to this scale suddenly disheartens me. Trying to figure out exactly how this is all going to happen can be a bit overwhelming and too often is the cause of an uneventful and underwhelming Spring Break vacation.
Trying to figure out who wants to go, where, food, lodging, approximate costs, transportation and the various other kinks that could present themselves along the way is a bigger task than I’d personally like to undertake. But, in my opinion, the most helpful bit of all in these planning stages are the freebies.
It’s all about who you know and their hookups. Last year a group of my friends and I went to Huntington Beach and were able to realize everything we wanted to do for an incredibly good price. I think in the end we paid a grand total of about $75 each. The costs included: gas. And that was it.
“How did we get away with that?” you might ask. Hookups. We connected with a relative of my friend who fed us and gave us a place to sleep. She lived one block away from the beach, and we took our bikes and long boards.
We spent the whole week hanging out in the sun on the beach during the day, riding up and down the boardwalk and hitting the hot tub at night. The only expensive part of the trip was the one day we decided to go to Los Angeles, because we had to buy our own lunch.
Not everyone may end up with a host like ours, but having hookups are an essential part of a college student’s vacation. Whether it’s staying at a friend’s house, borrowing a time share, using someone’s reward points or even couch surfing, it is a huge money saver and makes the trip even more worthwhile. Not to mention, it opens the scope of possibilities.
As I dream about the fun and excitement Spring Break might hold, I take a quick look at a calendar, and I am brought back to the reality that I’ve really jumped the gun on this one. There are still five weeks until these dreams come true. But I guess it isn’t all that bad, it will give me plenty of time to work on the logistics and check my sources for any freebies.
For now, as I muster up the strength and wherewithal to tackle the next month or so of classes before we are free for a weeklong adventure, I will be looking forward to the idealistic plans we are setting up, and I’ll be using those thoughts for fuel to keep going.
– dhsteiner26@gmail.com