How to survive spring break

Harriet Baskas Travel writer

The spring break season traditionally starts in early March and winds down sometime in late April. It’s the time of year when hundreds of thousands of college students pile into cars and hop onto planes headed for beaches, ski slopes and anyplace where there are sure to be lots of other off-duty students and plenty of opportunities to party.

I’m sure many of you have been there and done that. A few you may even be able to remember some fun details about your spring break adventures. And some of you lucky ducks may just now be finishing up that last term paper and heading out the door for a week in Cancun, Daytona Beach or another spring break hot spot.

Everyone has a right to relax and cut loose, of course, but things can get ugly when vacationing families, couples seeking romantic getaways and business travelers just trying to get work done unwittingly find themselves in hotels and on city streets with hordes of scantily-dressed, hooting, hollering and hooch-downing young people in full party mode.

So what can you do to survive the spring break travel season?

The best advice is to research your destination and plan ahead.

There are plenty of stories about folks who think they’ve booked a quiet room at a storybook beach hotel who discover that their vacation coincides with spring break. The tip off?  The wrestling team in the room next door hosting nightly tequila-guzzling contests.

The spring break crowd congregates in hot spots that are anything but secret.

So, during March and April, if peace and quiet is what you want, be sure to avoid the spots on the lists of Top Ten Spring Break Cities that get published in travel magazines, newspapers, and on student-oriented Web sites.

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In 2006, for example, Acapulco, Cancun, South Padre Island in Texas and Panama Beach City and Daytona Beach in Florida were high on the list. This year’s “in” spots are pretty much the same, although Daytona Beach is getting edged out by Miami’s South Beach and Fort Lauderdale is working hard to get off the list entirely.

According to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau Web site, the city that was once famous for being “where the boys are,” is now where “well-heeled Europeans, sophisticated Northerners and laid-back Mid-Westerners come to relax and vacation.”

That ho-hum description is fine with the folks in Panama City Beach, which bills itself as the nation’s No. 1 spring break destination. About seven years ago, this city on Florida’s northwest coast decided it would embrace the party season with open arms. Now 300,000 ready-to-party students swarm the city each year during the spring break season.

You may be surprised to learn that many families flock to Panama City Beach during spring break as well. And somehow everyone seems to get along. So I asked Bob Warren, president and CEO of the Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau, to share some tips on what travelers everywhere can do to get along during the spring break travel season.

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“When booking a hotel in a popular spring break destination,” he said, “be sure to look at the numbers.” Warren points out that if a hotel's site says you must be 18 or older to book a room, it’s likely that the hotel will be filled with college students during spring break. But if the minimum age is 25 or older, it’s a clue that the hotel probably caters to families and couples.  He also urges travelers to call a hotel directly or to contact travel agents, a local Chamber of Commerce or a Convention and Visitors Bureau and ask if a hotel is “spring break friendly.” “If you say you’re looking for a place where you can bring your seven-year-old, you’ll probably be pointed away from the party hotels.”

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