Spring break

Spring break is a U.S. cultural tradition that gives students from schools and universities a one-to-two-week academic break, usually falling in March or April. Although it serves as a general recess for all students, it is most closely linked with college students who head to warm-weather locations. This practice, which gained popularity through mid-20th-century films and media attention, centers on large parties and social events.

According to Bustle, American college students have "almost always" had time off in early spring. The vacation tradition itself started with Florida as a primary destination, spread by popular books and films, and later expanded to other places. In the mid-1930s, a Colgate University swimming coach brought his team to Florida for early training at a new Olympic-size pool in Fort Lauderdale. Other college swim coaches followed suit, turning this spring training migration into an annual tradition for swimmers nationwide. Today, spring break is an academic tradition in many mostly Western countries, with dates that vary by state and sometimes by region.

In the United States, spring break for universities, colleges, and many K–12 systems can happen from March to April, depending on term schedules and when Easter falls. It typically lasts one to two weeks, though some schools schedule it for mid-to-late March and give separate days off for Easter.

Popular destinations in the U.S. include Panama City Beach, Florida. Starting in the late 1990s, it marketed itself to attract crowds that had left Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach after those places imposed restrictions. From 2010 to 2016, about 300,000 students visited each year. Social media and digital marketing helped turn the beach town into a student hotspot during March. After well-publicized shootings and a gang rape in 2015, new rules banned drinking on the beach and set a bar closing time of 2 a.m. CT. Reports showed a drop in spring break turnout in March 2016, followed by a rise in family tourism in April 2016, both attributed to the new ordinances by the Bay County Community Development Corporation.

Daytona Beach, Florida, became a spring break destination after Fort Lauderdale began discouraging college students in the mid-1980s. Mayor Larry Kelly appeared on national TV to welcome them, and soon beer and cigarette brands advertised there. MTV Spring Break coverage moved to Daytona Beach in 1986. Kelly later called this a mistake, as locals faced problems each spring. He tried to rein in revelry by promoting “Spring Games” athletic competitions and proposing that hotels pay for police responses. In 1993, he lost his re-election bid, and Daytona Beach officials cut their spring break marketing budget and ended ties with MTV.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, got its spring break reputation after the Colgate University men’s swim team arrived to practice over Christmas break in 1934. By the 1950s, about 20,000 college students came, but the event was still low-key. That changed with Glendon Swarthout’s 1960 novel *Where the Boys Are*, which was quickly made into a movie. It showed college girls meeting boys on spring break there, and the number of visiting students rose to over 50,000. The 1965 Elvis Presley film *Girl Happy* also featured spring break, naming many universities and Fort Lauderdale. By the early 1980s, Fort Lauderdale drew 250,000 to 350,000 college students each spring. Local residents grew upset over damage, so the government passed laws restricting parties in 1985. That same year, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act raised Florida’s drinking age from 18 to 21, prompting many underage students to go elsewhere. By 1989, the number of college students in Fort Lauderdale had dropped to 20,000.

South Padre Island, Texas, became the first non-Florida spring break destination in the early 1980s. Despite having only a few thousand residents, it drew 80,000 to 120,000 spring breakers into the 2000s.

Spring break is one of the busiest times at Disneyland (California) and Disney World (Florida), with peak crowds in March and April due to staggered school breaks across the U.S.

Other popular destinations include the Caribbean (Montego Bay, Jamaica; Nassau, Bahamas; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic) and Mexico (Acapulco, Cancún’s Hotel Zone, Cabo San Lucas). For more, see *Girls Gone Wild*.