When the words “Spring Break” come to mind many people think of weeklong parties on the beach, extravagant cruises or trips to other various vacation hot spots around the world.
Since the downturn in the economy, however, many students had to cut back on their Spring Break expenses by staying home, working or going on local day trips to various parks, lakes or beaches.
Benny Castro, political science sophomore, is a student who spent his Spring Break locally due to the drop in the economy and the higher gas prices.
“I spent my Spring Break camping at Garner State Park,” Castro said. “My original plan was to go on a cruise to Cozumel, but after I came back to reality I decided on Big Bend National Park. Gas costs and time issues made that trip impossible, so I settled for Garner."
Garner State Park is located in Concan, TX, about two hours west of San Marcos. The park runs along the Frio River providing a convenient and scenic place for fishing and swimming. The park also has miles of hike and bike trails, a mini golf course and paddleboat and kayak rentals.
Castro said he chose to visit Garner State Park because it had everything he wanted and was cheap compared to many other campsites in the area.
“The cost was around $20 a night for two people’s admission and overnight camping fees,” Castro said. “Plus, I had never been there before, so it was a good opportunity to explore and find a good campsite to come back to that is near home.”
Laura Bomersbach, early education freshman, also spent her Spring Break locally.
Bomersbach believes that staying local is more reasonable than taking extravagant trips and that it gives more time for students to spend with family they don’t get to see.
“This Spring Break, I went home to San Antonio and hung out with my sisters,” Bomersbach said. “We didn’t do much, but it was nice being able to spend some time with them since I don’t get to see them very often any more.”
Bomersbach added that her family took a day trip to Corpus Christi at the end of the week because it was much closer than any other beach.
Corpus Christi is located on the Gulf of Mexico and consists of nine island beaches, as well as two city beaches. The city is also home to the U.S.S. Lexington, a naval aircraft carrier from World War II, the Texas State Aquarium and the largest remaining natural barrier in the world, the Padre Island National Seashore.
Kelli Condina, interior design freshman, also went home for Spring Break but said it wasn’t her first choice for a spring break destination.
“I went home to Georgetown, but only because I had to since the dorms were closed during the break,” Condina said. “Georgetown is about 30 minutes north of Austin, so I went to Austin a few days of the week, just to roam around and try to find interesting things to do.”
Condina felt the economy only affected her Spring Break because she didn’t have the money to go to the beach or somewhere out of state.
“I would have liked to go to the beach, but it’s kind of hard to do that when you don’t have any money to spend on things like that,” Condina said. “Besides, it’s not fun to go on a trip like that by yourself. A lot of my friends go to other schools besides Texas State, so most of them were still at school during our break.”
Other students took the chance to go out of state for their break.
Caroline Cook, Texas State junior, is one student who spent the first half of their break out of state in Denver, CO, but she believes the trip wasn’t worth the time or money she spent.
“I was excited we got to go to Denver for break, but it was really hard for me to get off work for that many days,” Cook said. “Sadly, our trip wasn’t even worth losing the hours and money. We didn’t get to go skiing, like we had planned, so most of our time was spent in our hotel or at bars. I would have rather stayed near Austin and gone to the rivers or to the SXSW music festival."
Spring Break trends are rapidly changing for most students, but that doesn’t mean fun isn’t an option. Most communities offer entertainment and fun things for families to do for a small price and more students are choosing to find fun things to do locally before they spend the time and money on big, expensive trips.
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