• Are you driving, & if so, who’s vehicle?
• Calculate roundtrip miles to be driven and divide that by the miles per gallon of the vehicle. Take that number times the cost per gallon of fuel & you have the total fuel cost.

  Take that number & divide by your travelers going. Next, add for an oil change & for (2) full service car washes (the kind with vacuum included since it’s not your responsibility to clean up after others).  Finally, you have the total cost of driving to Panama City.

  PRE COLLECT this money BEFORE you ever agree to load the rig – a couple of bozo’s will spend all their cash in PCB on beer, and then it will come down to the mooch saying “I’ll get you when we get back” – yeah right you will – and you know one or two of the people going might be like this. It’s not anyone in your groups’ responsibility to pay for someone else’s spring break travel expenses when you’re a broke college student.

• Factor in hotel & condo cost/charges

  Make sure your quote includes sometimes “hidden” fees such as:

  -Occupancy Tax – roughly 15%
  -Maid or lined fees (- for a condo)
  -Processing or “booking” fees (- for a condo
  -Property Security Wristband fees (- per person)
  -“Refundable” Damage deposit fees (tough to get back, budget for that)

  Or…book a package with Inertia & all these stupid fees are included. We find many times prices quoted online conveniently forget such fees – and your person rate can almost double! – Buyer Beware!

  Also, double check your travel dates – booking your trip during “peak week” of spring break vs. one of the weeks that are tad slower can greatly vary rates. If you book the wrong dates, and discover this last-minute when everyone is sold out or you have the rate go up by 50% would be really disappointing

• Food Money

If you are going for a week, you’ll eat at least twice a day. That’s going to run you per day, MINIMUM – and you should be budgeting an extra for that one nice meal you all will probably go to anyway. Another - for food inside your unit is also smart

If you do book a trip with Inertia, we include 12 restaurant meals per person, but you’ll still need some additional money for tax/tipping, as well as snacks & eating out off this meal plan sometimes.

• The “Beer & Booze” Money

This varies greatly by not only by group, but by individual. Some sororities simply pool money before they arrive & buy X bottle of vodka & mixers that everyone shares. Our Fraternities we tend to see guys buy their own with a strict “hands off!” rule.

First of all – don’t be a mooch. No one in college has money to buy your booze when they are already probably stretched to the max to go on spring break at all. If you can’t afford to go – don’t impose on others & still go unless you have some prior financial arrangement with them.

Secondly, if everyone is buying their alcohol & being cool about it, but for some unforeseen reason they “run out” when the hotties come over to play flip cup – be cool enough to offer yours up dumb ass.

Finally, how much money will alcohol cost you? Well, in Panama City (unlike many international destinations) you really have to budget for both daytime drinking, and night time drinking at the clubs.  Daytime drinking you need to figure you’ll drink SOMETHING of SOME quantity every single day. Don’t plan on taking a day off budget-wise. If you do once you arrive, great.
Nighttime drinking is a challenge. Make sure you adequately “pre-game” so that you don’ t have to buy round after round at /drink at the clubs (yes, plan on /drink)

The clubs also work against you in that your “high school” mentality of putting booze in your car & doing the “in & out” won’t usually work – the clubs don’t allow in & outs at some locations.

• Club & bar cover charges

We cannot stress enough that if you are smart, you’ll get our Red Carpet Event Package with both the Panamaniac card AND the Club La Vela Card. While they do restrict certain times (like you have to there by X time to get in free) if you follow the cards rules, it’ll provide DOUBLE the price you paid as a minimum.

If you don’t have the cards, get ready to get hit by a cover charge on certain nights. Think you all will just “go to the shit hole local bar” with no cover instead? You might a night or two, but when all the cool kids are going to La Vela, you’ll be stuck with just you & your group – not that fun.

During the day, everyone goes down to the beach (on certain weeks, not all) and hangs out by the MTVu Beach Stage. We’ve found a few misleading websites claiming “exclusivity” with MTV – it’s simply bullshit. The shows are free & open to the public – but mostly it’s the location of conjugating everyone to party rather than listening to a blaring MC for half the day.

• Spending Money

This covers everything from sunscreen to souvenir t shirts to a beach towel to a pair of sunglasses you broke when you were wasted. If you’ve budgeted for food & drink, setting aside /day for miscellaneous is really smart. You might want to grab a random beer at this bar, get a bag of Doritos or an energy drink, etc. It’ll add up as life’s expenses do.

Not budgeting for this doesn’t mean you won’t spend it – it just means you’ll be putting it on a credit card to pay off later at 19% interest probably.

• Location matters in Panama City - being on the beach doesn’t so much

If you can get a hotel or condo in a great location that’s across the street from the beach at the same price as a hotel or condo that’s on the beach in a shit location - go with the off beach property.

The “action” centers around Club La Vela – so consider Paradise Found, the Boardwalk Beach, the Summit or the Holiday Inn Sunspree for these reasons – as you can walk to the action day or night.

• Focus on getting the largest possible suite or condo

You’ll need the extra space. Usually you can book a suite for /more per person for the entire week – that’s /day per person – and WELL worth the money.

Just think about (4) 6’ tall guys supposed to sleep in (2) double beds – not fun. If you get a suite, it might still have 2 double beds – but you also have that extra little sitting area that you’ll need - & here’s why: you read this information, and you brought (2) blow up double sized air beds & bedding!!! You can put these in that area.  at Wal Mart goes one hell of a long ways in this instance.

Don’t think you’re going to get to hook up much if you’re sleeping next to farting Freddy the whole trip. Just having your own sleeping area when others didn’t think ahead will make your trip much more fun.

Also, when it comes to pre-gaming or after bars, inviting people that have crappy standard rooms to your suite makes your invite much more attractive of course.

• Major Name Brand Hotels

Are generally a waste of money & cost more since these name-brand properties are paying exorbitant monthly franchise fees that have to get paid for with highly rates.

With that said, the Holiday Inn Sunspree really DOES have the BEST pool area in Panama City – so take note of that if you want a sick pool area – stay there. If you’re more interested in doing the beach during the day anyway – who cares?

This is as simple as booking a travel package with a travel agent that is being really upfront about what’s included at what price, with it all in writing on their website. If it’s not clear, why not? Consider that it’s probably not published for a reason – they want to be super vague so when you arrive you can’t really complain as they didn’t promise you anything solid in writing you can point out.

Our website clearly shows our package inclusions & costs related to the trip since we stand behind our product. Offering money off your trip to sign up for  some other non-related travel offer is such a gimmick, or  “exclusive” anything usually means it’s made up & not all that exclusive, or unbelievable advertisements  on trip prices are not what they are cracked up to be. You’re in college, be smart.

A full package to Panama City is going to be - per person when you get all the costs included. If it’s less than that, you’re “deal” might be a disaster. Booking travel with an Agent that escrows your money & has onsite staff to help you out with sometimes argumentative hotel staffs is a really valuable, “no charge” item

If something is broken or not right, take digital pictures or even a short video of the problem and IMMEDIATELY report it to the condo staff and the travel company onsite IN WRITING. If you don’t when you check out, you might get a nasty surprised & be charged for something you didn’t do to the condo in terms of damages.

While Wal Mart you might consider the "evil" giant, you're on a budget spring break trip. Save money by loading up with chips, salsa, Coke (mixers in General) and stopping by a liquor store for some booze. You can drink a bit in your room to save some cash - bringing it down by the pool will usually get you thrown out.

We are not wasting our time pretending to ask a question & then answering it ourselves - we'll simply answer the most common questions with bullet points:

• The bars close at 4 a.m. generally
• The condos have kitchens (Summit) some suites have wet bars (Paradise Found) and normal hotel rooms do NOT (Sunspree, Boardwalk Beach)
• Damage deposits required at check in are to in cash PLUS some even require a major credit card on top of that. Be Aware – damage deposits are required regardless of age Mom & Dad (if you are coming)
• PCB has tons of fast food restaurants. Our meal plan that’s included free of charge on our trips utilizes some of the “higher end” LOL fast food like Quiznos & Waffle House
• The shopping in Panama City Beach blows on the strip – mostly junkie t shirts, etc. If you go back over Hathaway Bridge (15 minutes to an hour) there is the Panama City Mall.
• Panama City Beach is located in Northern Florida in the “panhandle” – not in Panama the Country, and yes, 99% of people drive in for this as a road trip adventure
• The legal drinking age (like ALL OF THE USA) is 21 years of age. The clubs are 18+ to get into. Your fake might work, but it might also get taken away or even get you arrested.
• If you need to get around and are wasted take a taxi. There is some sort of “free” public transportation system that you won’t ever use nor figure out how to use.
• Bring for your trip not less than /day in spending money. If you wanna pimp, bring minimum.
• The weather can be chilly depending on your week – remember you are fairly north, actually. 50’s at night and 70’s during the day is the hope at least
• Should you buy the Panamaniac card? Yes. Will it get you everything free or discounted – hell no, but it will a.) save you money and b. ) put you in the same place that 10,000 other people will be going. Should you buy the Club La Vela Card? Yes. Will it get you into La Vela Free all the time? Nope – but before 9 pm it will. Should you buy any other card in PCB or party package? Absolutely not, the fact that they exist is sorta shady.
• What’s the cover charge each night? for smallish places, for super clubs like La Vela. If you plan on getting laid on spring break and you are a girl, you will. If you are a guy and plan on getting laid on spring break, follow this advice:
  1.) Workout for 90 days before the trip, every single day do something at the gym.
  2.) have a hot girl between 19 years old and 22 years old go & buy in clothes for you before the trip, including board shorts & sunglasses. Yes you will pay for them and probably have to pay her. Makes sense a hot girls KNOWS what she wants a potential mate to wear, AND has way better taste than you do.
  3.) Go tanning 3 weeks before the trip every other day with good quality lotion.
  4.) Get a condo with multiple bedrooms 
  5.) go to a quality salon 3 days before the trip for haircut & style – get a tad wild with it.
  6.) bring sufficient spending money for booze, meals, etc. Sorority girls aren’t poor & if you are, it might be tough. Will all of this cost you money? F Yes. Lots of it, and if you’re a dork, it still won’t help – but this much we can tell you – it certainly won’t hurt

  One more thing - girls, just because the bitches on the Hills can wear any size sunglasses she wants, it doesn't mean that sunglasses the size of bar coasters on your moon face look good. Bear this advice in mind. Buy a purse to impress other girls.