Sun and fun
Cancun, South Padre
popular vacation spots
for spring break travel
By Mike Kluck
Senior Reporter
College students often have been
accused of procrastinating, being lazy
and putting things off.
But when it comes to planning for
spring break, some local travel agents
said many college students were well
prepared and had planned early for
their getaway.
John DuPont, owner of Travel
Agents International at 70th and O
streets, said some of his office’s col
lege spring break clientele started plan
ning for their spring break trip as early
as October and November.
Because of their early planning,
DuPont said, the college students were
able to secure some of the lowest fares
to their particular destination.
“When it comes to spring break
travel, the college kids are really seri
ousand will book early,” DuPont said.
“The favorite places are really hard to
find and book right now.”
, DuPont said if students were still
interested in going somewhere for
spring break and had not made reser
vations, there were still openings—if
they’re willing to pay.
But Vicki Grieser, manager ofTravel
& Transport at 70th and Van Dom
streets, said students wishing to go to
Mexico for spring break may be out of
luck because Mexico is “booked solid.”
Dave Bowden, manager of Inter
national Tours of Lincoln, located at
East Park Plaza Mall, said students
should start checking with airlines and
travel agents early and often until they
find a sale for the fare they want.
Bowden, Grieser and DuPont all
said that over the years Cancun,
Mexico, and South Padre Island,
Texas, have become a more popular
vacation spot than Florida.
“Cancun is real popular among
college students this year,” Grieser
said. “College students don’t even
think about problems goingto Mexico.
All they they think about is getting
away to sun and fun.”
Grieser said the most popular va
cation spots in Florida among college
students were not beach destinations,
but in-state at Orlando with Mickey
Mouse at Walt Disney World.
Besides Cancun and South Padre
Island, a new spring break trip has
become increasingly more popular this
season.
A three-day cruise has been booked
by many college students this season
and is affordable, Grieser said.
Grieser said she did a price com
parison between taking a cruise and
going to Colorado to go skiing and
found a three-day cruise was cheaper
than flying to Colorado and skiing
during the same time period.
But, Bowden said, most college
students who go skiing for spring break
from Lincoln tend to drive to Colo
rado instead of flying to save money.
He said if students drove to Colo
rado and had a friend or relative to
stay with out there, a ski trip was not
too expensive.
All three agents said students should
make sure their trips were well-planned
so they were as enjoyable as possible.
Travel through the Web site
to plan for spring break ‘96
Cliff A. Hicks
“I want to get out and go some
where for Spring Break, but I don’t
have time to call a hundred people
planning! What do I do?”
“Don ’ t fret! You can use your trusty
World Wide Web! In just minutes, a
few button pushes can haveyourwhole
vacation reserved and ready to go.”
No, really, it’s as easy as one, two,
six. I don’t need a car, a flamethrower
and a silly infomercial to tell you that.
And I can get you what you need to
know. Leave it all to me; I’ll have your
vacation mapped out before you can
say “I’m going to Disneyland!”
Okay, first thing’s first. Were you
planning on traveling in or out of the
United States?
What? Oh, I know. I’m too poor to
leave the country, too.
Fine. Good ol’ United States it is
then. Are you planning on going any
where in specific? Hmm? Oh. Great...
you’re not sure. Not even a general
idea? Sigh. All right, I suppose we’ll
just have to start from the top then.
Wei 1, let ’ s start out by pianning the
basics. Did you want to stay cheap
during the vacation?
Sorry, stupid question. Youth hos
tel s are cheap (real cheap! Under S20!)
and clean. There’s a list of them at
(http://gnn.com/gnn/bus/ayh/
usa.html) Pick out the section of
America you’re planning to visit and
then look via state and city. You can
save a lot of money by going hostel.
Everyone needs to keep as much
change as possible in their pockets,
right?
What? You’ve got money? Why
don’t you tell me these things when
you sit down and pick up this paper
and ask me for cyber travel advice? I
would’ve asked for a consulting fee.
All right, all right, let’s see.
Good hotel, huh? There’s a major
listing at (http://www.excite.com/Sub
ject/Life_and_Style/Travel/Hotels /
Hotel_Chains/s-index.html) that will
give you the major hotel chains in
America.
Heck, you can even reserve rooms
over the Web for many places. The
nicest system reflects the best chain,
so I’m stuck recommending the Holi
day Inn, (http://www.holiday
inn.com). There are others too. Best
Western (http://www.travelweb.com/
bw.html), Marriott (http://
www.marriott.com/), Embassy Suites
(http://www.embassy-suites.com/),
Hilton (http://www.hilton.com) and
more.
If you were considering skiing, the
city of Vail, Colo., where people tell
me the skiing is marvelous, has its
own web page, (http://vail.net). Here
you can look at hotels, restaurants and
anything else you would ever want to
know about the city. Vail’sall the rage
SeeCYBERBREAK on 6
Students can break for education
Museums provide spring vacation alternatives
By Patrick Hambrecht
Senior Reporter
There’s nothing college students
love more than visiting museums, and
spring break offers the rare opportu
nity to visit three or four specialized
houses of learning in the same week.
What bliss!
Happily, there is a wonderful new
crop of hip travel books aimed at the
pre-Social Security set, among them
“The Outrageous Atlas” by Richard and
Laurine Rogers, “The Wild West Guide”
by Michael McCoy and “The Cock
roach Hall of Fame and 101 other Off
The-Wall Museums” by Sandra Gurvis.
The only real loser in the bunch is
the Rogers’ book, which provides no
information you couldn’t find on a
map. But both McCoy and Gurvis’
books shine with practical vacation
detours. Here are a few:
• The (Hormel) First Century Mu
seum is located in Austin, Minn., the
birthplace of SPAM, Dinty Moore
Stew and other near-organic edibles.
George Hormel, a pioneer of the In
dustrial Revolution, found a way to
combine functionalist form, mass pro
duction and tasty pork products.
You will reel with emotion as you
bemoan the sad story of Hormel com
pany embezzler RJ. Thomson. Then
you will celebrate a small climax of
freedom when Hormel president R.L.
Knowlton presents Boris Yeltsin with
a can of SPAM.
Bug fans wondering how they could
ever scrape together the money to
travel to London, St. Petersburg or
Onderstepoort, South Africa, can rest
easy. There’s a tick museum right here
at home.
• The U.S. National Tick Collec
tion is situated cozily at the Georgia
Southern University in Statesboro, Ga.
More than a million dead parasites
soak up alcohol at this informative
haven. Here you can learn how ticks
unmiraculously evolved over millions
of years with no real changes at all.
• Few of us ever got a chance to
really say goodbye to Nathan C.
Meeker after we were robbed of his
charm and easy going wit in the Meeker
Massacre of 1879. But we can still pay
our respects today at the site of the
Colorado killing, where the Indian
agent and his nine employees were
decimated in a Ute Indian Raid.
In the future, these three tourist
attractions will probably consolidate
into one main facility for easy access.
But until then, the U.S. National Tick
Collection, the First Century Museum
and the site of the Meeker Massacre
are only a disjointed and rambling
road trip away.
r
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