The annual college and high school bacchanalia known as Spring Break during the months of March and April has been somewhat muted the last two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But with a travel rebound fueled by pent-up demand and a precipitous drop in coronavirus cases across the country - including the lifting of mask mandates in many places - Spring Break 2022 is expected to be epic.
And so is the cost.
Airfares, hotel rates and gas prices are all up as hundreds of thousands of students and families are expected to hit such popular destinations as Florida, Hawaii, California, Las Vegas, Arizona, North and South Carolina beaches, and more.
Holidays and big events usually mean an increase for travelers and tourists, but this year seems exceptionally high. For instance, a quick random check of the Marriott Sand Key Resort near Clearwater, Fla. - a popular destination but not quite as popular as other Spring Break Florida sites as Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Daytona or Panama City - showed a rate of $675 per night from March 16-20. The same four nights roughly a month later, April 20-24, were $571 per night.
But in all likelihood, people will pay it.
"People planning spring travel are like bears coming out of hibernation," Melanie Fish, a spokesperson for the travel site Expedia, told the Los Angeles Times. "We are awake and planning to travel but not ready to go too far."
The Times spoke to one traveler who paid $600 for a roundtrip flight from Los Angeles to Orlando for spring break - the same itinerary he traveled just months earlier for almost $200 less. The paper also noted that according to the travel website Hopper, the average cost for a round-trip domestic fare between March 7 and March 21 was $290. It was $250 last year.
And if you're planning to travel by car, bring that gas credit card. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the national average for a gallon of gas in February of 2022 was $3.61 - a figure that is only expected to rise in the wake of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
In March of 2021, the average price was $2.89 a gallon and in March of 2020 it was $2.32, although the drop was attributable to the onset of the pandemic and fewer people traveling.
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