The Wake

It’s happened to almost all of us. It’s the week before spring and you’re faced with spending next week in your parents’ basement or bumming around a dead campus. Odds are money is running low, you didn’t have time to come up with a plan, or your idiot friend decided now would be a good time to tell you that he forgot to call and confirm your spot on the plane.

At this point the only logical answer seems to be to throw in the towel, crank the thermostat to 90 degrees and rent The Real Cancun. Don’t do it. Heat doesn’t come cheap these days and that rental will permanently set you back about 100 cool points. Break the piggy bank, call the buddies and fuel up the ‘93 Escort. Still lost? Here are some last minute spring break suggestions.

Oh Canada!

When heading south of the border doesn’t work out, turn in the other direction. Yeah it’s cold, but who gives? It would have been cold here. What’s more adventurous than heading upward on the map without a plan? The Canadian dollar is weak compared to ours, so your currency may travel a little further. Besides, you don’t have to waste hours working out or giving yourself skin cancer in a tanning bed to fit the part on this trip. Not to mention you can save some face for promising that you would move a country to the north if ‘Dubya’ were reelected. At least now you can say you visited. A note to the young’uns: Legal drinking age is either 18 or 19, depending on the province. Check the laws before you take off (http://www.ccsa.ca/index.asp?page=209).

Vegas baby!

There’s nothing new about this idea, but if you’re strapped for cash and are into watching other people ruin their lives, this can work. If you’re willing to lie down your head someplace off the strip or in downtown, nicer hotels can be surprisingly cheap. According to Brad La Nasa, Senior Travel Advisor at STA Travel, Las Vegas has become a more popular spring break destination thanks in part to the exposure given to it by MTV, which caused prices to rise. (MTV ruin something? Nah.) However, he says that midweek packages including flight and hotel can still be had for $250 to $300. Bringing a van full of people and jamming them into one hotel room would be cheap and interesting as well. Either way: if you can fight the urge to gamble away your student loans, this trip is monetarily realistic.

Too good to be true!

They give away flights to Mexico for basically nothing? Yes. But of course there’s a catch. Head to the MLT, or a similar booth, in the Humphrey Terminal at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport and ask if there are stand-by seats on any of the planes that haven’t been filled. Many of the planes that fly out of this terminal are charter jets specifically headed to a traditional spring break destination. If this works out, you may only have to pay the tax for the plane ticket, which would be less than $100. If spring break in Acapulco didn’t seem appealing before, it might now. However there are no guarantees with this option, including a return flight, so proceed at your own risk.

Roll the dice!

You and your friends want to go somewhere, but can’t agree on where. Make it easy on yourselves and let luck rule. Buy a four-sided die or if you’re a true cheapskate, make one out of paper. Before you leave the house assign a direction to each number and give it a roll (example: rolling a one means heading south on Interstate 35). Now decide how long you are willing to travel. From that point on, roll the die a mile before every major highway intersection. Roll a one or a two and keep going. Roll a three and turn left while a four sends you to the right. When time expires, stay in the next city you encounter. You may want to set a minimum population for your destination beforehand. Repeat process the next day if desired.