The tropical tip of Texas is best known for its Spring Break South Padre Island program in the month of March. Most people don’t know that when you cross the border between Oklahoma and Texas, you still have about 11 hours drive down to the Island – yes, Texas is just that big.
The good news about this drive is that it means you are heading about as far south as you can get in the continental US. SPI is roughly as far south as Miami, Florida. This means great, warm weather during your break from studying.
Spring Break as we know it was started with the movie “where the boys are” in the 1960’s. The late Tony Cervinik and Dennis Anderson founded College Tours back in the late 1960s as well, bringing students from Arizona via train to Mazatlan, Mexico. This was the birth of organized tours for students during this break time. Many destinations have risen, and fallen, as the spring break capitals of the World. First, there was Fort Lauderdale. For Mexico, it was Mazatlan. Next came Daytona Beach, as well as a rise with Cancun, Mexico as MTV networks visited both spots and broadcast them live. In the mid 1980’s South Padre made a claim to fame as Texas resisted raising its drinking age from 18 to 21. Acapulco became red hot in the 1990’s along with Negril, Jamaica. The early 2000s traveled many to Nassau, the Bahamas along with the absolute peak year of college spring break travel in the year 2000 for Cancun. After 9/11 happened, many students flocked to Panama City Beach, Florida. Today, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, South Padre Island, Texas, and Cancun stand out as the definite top 3 remaining “big” college hot spots in March.
One of the allures of South Padre Spring Break is that you can drink on the beach, and all the clubs are 18 to enter, 21 to drink unlike Florida. In approximately 2016 Panama City Beach banned drinking on the beach.
The other attraction of the Island of South Padre is the fact that you can drive there, so you don’t need an expensive plane ticket. Parents are also more easily convinced to allow their students to go to South Padre Island.
Another amazing fact about doing any week in March or Texas week would be booking the big spring break condos instead of small hotel rooms. These condos are great for pre-gaming, as well as the “bring everyone” a lot of the Greek community embraces.
If you would like a great spring break trip package, contact us 800 821 2176 or email us your week of spring break and number of people to info@inertiatours.com
