Spring Break really needs no introduction, but in case you haven’t watch any American ‘college’ movies, here’s what it is:

Spring Break is normally a week holiday (yes only a week!) that kinda correlates to the UK’s Easter weekend, but it doesn’t always. Spring Break is notorious for college students descending on countries with warm weather, beaches and cheap booze, or places where the drinking age is 18. One of my friends who I met at Davis at our study abroad orientation, joined a sorority, she told me and another study abroad friend about plans to go to Cabo in Mexico for Spring Break. Naturally we hoped on board as we wanted to have the full American college experience.

The weekend that finals finished, off we jetted to Cabo. As soon as we stepped off the plane we felt the heat! We decided to book our trip with an all-inclusive company, with a wristband that meant breakfast and drinks were included in a reasonably priced hotel room. When we first arrived we have to go through an orientation where we got said wristbands, some free merch, and had a safety talk run by ex-cops. They emphasised the 3 big no-nos in Mexico: no drugs, no going anywhere alone and no urban peeing. Once that was over we got a shuttle bus all the way around to where our hotel was.

Our hotel was lovely, and only a 7 minute walk to the beach. The first night we watched the sunset on the beach, and then got some yummy tacos and margaritas. I have to say as much as we wanted to have the Spring Break experience, we also prioritised just doing what we wanted in order to make the most of a holiday with friends. So for the majority of the week we spent lazing on the beach or by the pool, reading our books, working on our tans, and trying out different restaurants along the strip. At night we would pre-drink in our hotel room, and then go to a few of the bars our all-inclusive wristband had scheduled. Then we would hit El Squid Roe, one of the weirdest and most unique clubs I have ever been to. El Squid Roe had booths all along the sides and smaller tables down the middle, filled with people dancing. There were three stories and upstairs was like a balcony running the whole way round.  Basic club house remixes blared from the speakers, and every inch of the space was filled by bodies dancing away. My favourite club was called Mandala, it played pop and RnB music and had a decent sized dance floor.

I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about going on Spring Break, my usual choice on holiday is somewhere with a bit more of a traditional cultural experience, with sightseeing etc. If it hadn’t been Spring Break perhaps Cabo could have been more like this, but at the time we went Cabo was overridden with college students, giving it a much different feel. From what I had seen in movies, a lot of Spring ‘Breakers’ can be very entitled and rude to local people and I did not want to be lumped into that crowd. Luckily my friends and I managed to steer clear of anyone that gave off those vibes, and we had a fun holiday together.

Overall I would definitely recommend going on a Spring Break holiday with your new friends, its a way to bond about more than just classes or being study abroad students, and a fun way to spend a holiday off uni. I would also recommend Cabo as a destination, we had a lot of laughs and fun on the beach and walking up and down the strip.