spring-break

 

Have any of you current (or former) college students experienced the worst Spring Break vacation ever? You know, the time when nothing seems to go as planned. No one wants to drive. People come up short on rental car money. You end up paying for the entire hotel stay because you reserved the rooms on your credit card. Although these are a few examples, there are many more unfortunate situations that can happen while on spring break.

 

Spring break vacation is a time when you travel to another city (mostly a beach town like Panama City or Miami) with a group of friends, ready to party all weekend long. You all have planned this trip for months and finally the time has come to pack up and ship out. Supposedly, everyone that’s attending has already saved up enough cash to take care of their expenses (i.e. food, gas, lodging, incidentals). But, of course, there’s always one or two irresponsible (or “janky”) friends who turn the vacation into a nightmare.

 

So, from a financial standpoint, how can a person survive the spring break blues?  Here are few tips to prepare yourself for the worse:

 

1. Save Up More Money Than You Need – If the trip for each person totals up to $500, always make sure you’ve saved up at least $100 to $300 more dollars. In case an emergency occur like the tires go flat, an accident, hotel rooms are no longer vacant, etc, a person should have some extra cash to cover these things. Plus, extra cash could help you bail out a friend who gets in a bit of trouble with the law while on the trip.

 

2. Ensure Your Travel Partners Are Responsible – Especially when inviting NEW people on the trip, you have to check their references. Ask their homies if this person has a tendency to act broke or be slick when paying for something. If this person has a bad “financial” reputation, then the best thing to do is tell them NO you can not go on the trip.

 

3. Collect Funds Before You Hit the Road – The worse thing that often happens is when a friend spend all of their money during the trip. And when it is time to pay up, they are broke. To prevent this from occurring, require that everyone pay ALL their money upfront. This should include money for the room, car/gas, and food (if you are residing in an extended stay-type facility or private rental property with a kitchenette).  If everyone pay up front, not having enough money will be the least of your worries.

 

4. Leave Airfare Reservations Up to Each Traveler – When making the decision to fly to your spring break destination, refrain from the BS by having friends make their own plan reservations. Unless you all use a travel agency to plan the trip, allow each traveler to pay for their own airfare. Sometimes when collecting monies for group reservations, it can be a hassle you don’t want to partake in. Also, who wants to be responsible for everyone’s money?!!

 

5. Appoint a Designated Chairman (or Leader) – This may cause a bit of drama but you’re friends will appreciate it in the end. The “leader” will be the point-of-contact that will handle the important aspects of the trip (i.e. confirm the hotel, rental car, restaurants, parties/clubs, etc).  Make sure this individual is RESPONSIBLE and TRUSTWORTHY.

 

If these tips are implemented into your upcoming travel plans, you and the homies should have a great time on spring break. Spring break is all about taking a break from studying and having fun. So, if the financial aspects of your week long vacation is squared away, the trip will be full of awesomeness and fond memories!

 

 

Photo courtesy of AL.com.