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By
Angela Castellanos
7 November 2005
The days may be shorter in the winter, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy them just as much as those long summer days. While summer is full of internships, summer school and temporary jobs, the winter holidays could be the only time students have to actually go home and relax. Relaxing this winter break can mean having fun, traveling and gaining valuable experiences along the way.
Be a hometown tourist
Apart from transportation, one of the major expenses of traveling is room and board. How does one not pay for a bed? Sleep in your own. Becoming a tourist in your own hometown is a great way to not only save some cash, but also to get to better know the place you live. You may have to dig, but finding art galleries, museums or even the world’s largest ball of yarn could be more of an adventure than you could have imagined. By jumping in a friend’s car, splitting gas and picking a destination within a four-hour radius, winter days can turn into mini-vacations.
The best part about sightseeing in your hometown is discovering places that you can easily go back to and recommend. Local hotels are great places to find obscure tourist attractions. Just step into the lobby and peruse the brochure displays to find something that interests you and fits your budget. For many small companies, this is their only hope of exposure other than the Internet, so you will be sure to find something you’ve never come across while searching for things to do on a Saturday night.
StudentUniverse, an online resource for student travel and airfare that works in conjunction with Orbitz.com, offers a database of tours with destinations anywhere from Miami, Fla., to Apia, Samoa. Just choose your destination country and city, the dates you are traveling, and StudentUniverse provides a list of tours that range from a three-hour, $6 tour of Hollywood and Runyon Canyon at sunset, to an $18 full-day bike rental in Florence, Italy.
Fly where no one else is going
Going to Paris in the springtime? So is everyone else. Vacationing out of tourist season will save you on cost, not to mention helping you avoid the crowds. This way you can appreciate your destination in all of its unspoiled glory. According to an STA Travel representative at the University of Florida, Europe is notoriously cheaper in the wintertime, just as long as you don’t travel directly during specific winter holidays.
Contiki, which specializes in travel for 18 to 35-year-olds, offers a variety of packages for winter European travel so travelers can make the most of this so-called off-season. For more information, check out Contiki.com.
The season of giving
Sometimes the best way to get a lot out of a vacation is to give back. Winter break offers just enough time to get out in the world, help someone and even add a bit to your resume. It’s easy to find service trips targeted for college-aged students, and it’s a great way to meet service-minded, well-traveled people from all over.
Generally, international and domestic service trips use charitable donations so that the cost is minimal, and they are relatively inexpensive in comparison to tourist-oriented vacations to the same destinations. Though not anywhere near the lap of luxury, service organizations tend to feed and house their volunteers, which is all included in the price of the trip. Also, these trips normally include sightseeing as well as free time around the area, so not all the typical fun of travel is lost.
In December of 2004, Florida State University sophomore Emily Pensy sat in a gymnasium two hours outside of Moscow watching the bells of the city ring in the New Year. She was in Russia on a service trip through the Florida Hospital-sponsored “Drop Your Drawers & Jammies for Russia” international service project.
“On a typical day in this program, we would invite two orphanages to our site and the children would watch a Christmas show and get a meal, which was usually the best meal they got all year,” she said. “Then they got a plastic bag and got to go shopping through rooms filled with donated coats, toiletries and clothes. These children didn’t even have coats.”
This two-week experience cost Pensy $1,500. The price included airfare, room and board, food and sightseeing at several famous Moscow museums and landmarks. After seeing the kids smile, though, she realized the trip was truly priceless.
“Service trips are the best way to travel,” Pensy said. “It’s an unselfish way to see the world because you aren’t the only person benefiting from your travels.”
Internabroad.com has a database offering a variety of volunteer, career-related and service projects. Many programs are year-round and vary in length and cost, so it is easy to find something that will give you experience while allowing you to make a difference.
Don’t let the cold weather keep you indoors this winter. Make the break count by exploring the world, whether it is in your own back yard or someone else’s.
© 2008, Young Money Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
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