With a Little Planning, Spring Break Can Be Cheap and Memorable

Spring break can be spent lying on your mother's couch watching movies, or, with a little planning, it can be one of the most memorable weeks of your life. An important recess for any college student, spring break provides an escape from midterms, papers and the fast-approaching end-of-the-semester hustle. With proper research, you may be able to find yourself on a beach in Mexico instead of on a lawn chair in your high-school friend's yard.

Airfare prices often discourage students from traveling during spring break. Typically, students want to get away from the cold and flock to tropical areas where the beaches are plenty and the drinking age liberal. According to Cheapflights.com, a roundtrip flight to Cancun can be obtained for $198, if purchased in advance. If going to Cancun or another similar destination, there are plenty of deals combining hotel, airfare and some amenities. Cheapflights.com offers four nights plus a roundtrip ticket for only $649. If you prefer the Barbados Islands to Mexico, you can get seven nights plus roundtrip airfare on Studentcity.com for as little as $799. Think about it; for about the same cost as two semesters' worth of books, you can be on the beautiful beaches of Barbados or Mexico - and believe me, you won't be thinking about the cost.

If you don't care to spend your spring break in the traditional MTV style most college students have become familiar with, don't worry. There are alternatives to heavy drinking, nightclubs and tanning. The Center for Community Outreach's Project Pericles is co-sponsoring a trip to New Orleans over spring break to help in the rebuilding effort. Twenty students are selected from both the New York City and Pleasantville campuses to help restore homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The trip is free except for airfare and you can come back knowing your spring break wasn't put to waste being wasted.

If community service doesn't appeal to you, your week of freedom from school can be spent on the other side of the ocean, for instance, in the United Kingdom. According to priceline.com, roundtrip flights to the U.K. can be bought for less than $300, and once you are there, what's holding you back from backpacking across Europe to see Spain, Germany or France? Europe is very backpacker-friendly; hostels and train fare are both relatively inexpensive. Flights all around Europe, including Prague and Amsterdam, can be found on expedia.com for a price comparable to the University's mandatory meal plan.

If you're not daring enough to explore outside of the United States, don't forget how big our country is. If you are traveling with someone over 24, Budget.com will rent you a car for less than $50 a day. For a few hundred dollars, you can explore southern California, visit Seattle, or recreate some of your favorite scenes from Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, or On The Road by Jack Kerouac.

So, if you'd rather not spend spring break sleeping until noon everyday, followed by watching television as your mother tries to vacuum the carpet below your feet, there are an infinite amount of fun and inexpensive options to get up and discover what's out there.