This past week I experienced my very first college Spring Break trip. I hopped on a plane with about one hundred other students from West Virginia University and traveled more than 2,000 miles to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Although I did enjoy the warm sunshine, gorgeous beaches, and endlessly frozen margs; I kept finding myself wishing I had chosen an alternative way of planning my trip.
The vacation was booked through a popular company that many college kids use. Basically, you’re paying for a non-stop party for eight days straight with a huge group of people you aren’t actually friends with. Being in a big group can become very stressful, especially when not everyone can agree on what they want to do or where they want to eat dinner. I felt that this took away a lot of the time I wanted to spend exploring the destination or trying new foods.
Booking through a Spring Break company also meant that we paid for a meal plan with our package. It was nice not having to pay upfront for all the meals, but our food options were very limited. We only had four to five options on each meal plan menu, and since I’m a vegetarian this became a big issue for me.
Another thing is the exhaustion. How people drink all day in the scorching hot sun and then still go out and party at night is beyond me. Why pay all this money for a trip if you’re not even going to remember half of it? Trying to keep up was draining, and I always felt myself feeling like I just wanted to crawl into bed by 9 P.M. I took a few days just to relax and really take in the culture, which were my favorite days.
Lastly, when people know you’re a Spring Breaker you’re basically treated like a peasant. We were easily identified by certain wristbands we were required to wear. The locals and workers get so fed up with the drunken disrespectfulness and they just think we’re all the same. We had so many restrictions just because we were part of a Spring Break group, and that was another thing that took away from getting the full experience.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still thankful I got to experience my first trip to Mexico with some of my best friends, but I definitely learned a valuable lesson. If you like to do your own thing and not be a part of large, wild groups of college kids then book your own Spring Break trip with just a couple of your closest friends. You’ll have so much more freedom and get a lot more out of your Spring Break vacation.