Maryville tips – 4 spring break trips on a bud­get

For many col­lege stu­dents, pay­ing for ho­tels, plane tick­ets and rental cars for spring break can be a lot on the pock­ets. How­ever, in­stead of spend­ing thou­sands of dol­lars on a po­ten­tial spring break va­ca­tion, there are many af­ford­able des­ti­na­tions close to Maryville Uni­ver­sity. In ad­di­tion, Maryville of­fers an­nual cul­tural and ser­vice spring break ex­pe­ri­ences for stu­dents.

1. Lake of the Ozarks, MO

Dis­tance from Maryville: 2 hours 43 min­utes

Ho­tel Cost Range: $42 – $125 per night

Lake of the Ozarks is one of Mid­west’s top tourist des­ti­na­tions. The lake ex­tends around 54,000 acres, which cre­ates room for ac­tiv­i­ties like boat­ing and fish­ing. On the edge of the lake, there are many restau­rants, night clubs and beaches. Other at­trac­tions in­clude the Os­age Beach Out­let Mar­ket­place which is an out­door shop­ping mall that fea­tures re­tail­ers like Calvin Klein and J. Crew. The mall of­fers sav­ings from 25 per­cent to 65 per­cent.

Out­side of the wa­ter, there many other at­trac­tions like Pi­rate’s Cove Ad­ven­ture Golf, Ha Ha Tonka State Park and Bridal Cave/​Thun­der Moun­tain Park. Bridal Cave is the site of Na­tive Amer­i­can wed­ding cer­e­monies which goes back to early 1800s. Tours are avail­able which trav­els over con­crete path­ways and fea­tures many gi­ant columns.

2. Pensacola, FL

Dis­tance from Maryville: 11 hours 4 min­utes

Travel Fee: $340

Every year, Maryville Uni­ver­sity trav­els to Pen­sacola for Spring Break and part­ners with the Habi­tat for Hu­man­ity chap­ter to build a house. Dean of Stu­dents Kathy Quinn ex­plains the process of build­ing the house.

“We start with a ce­ment slab and when we leave, the house is all framed with win­dows in and doors hung,” Quinn stated.

Ju­nior sports busi­ness ma­jor, Josh Par­rish, has at­tended the Pen­sacola trip for two years and ex­pressed how the trip im­pacted him.

“From go­ing the past two years, the last­ing friend­ships and the mem­o­ries I made, I will have af­ter col­lege,” Par­rish stated. “The trip is very hum­bling. Some peo­ple are less for­tu­nate than we are at Maryville, and hav­ing the op­por­tu­nity to serve those peo­ple is a great ex­pe­ri­ence.”

For more in­for­ma­tion, con­tact Quinn at kquinn@maryville.edu.

3. Kansas City, MO

Dis­tance from Maryville: 3 hours 25 min­utes

Ho­tel Cost Range: $41 – $160

Since it is the most pop­u­lated city in Mis­souri, Kansas City has a va­ri­ety of tourist at­trac­tions to of­fer. Nel­son-Atkins Mu­seum of Art is a free mu­seum that in­cludes more than 35,000 pieces of art from Eu­rope, Asia and Amer­ica. Pieces vary from ar­chi­tec­tural pieces to stained glass win­dows.

Other at­trac­tions in­clude West­port, which is a pop­u­lar neigh­bor­hood where peo­ple shop and dine, Boule­vard Brew­ing Com­pany, Na­tional World War 1 Mu­seum and the Power & Light Dis­trict. The Power & Light Dis­trict has more than 50 shops, restau­rants and night­clubs.

One of the most pop­u­lar fea­tures is the KC Live venue, which hosts hun­dreds of con­certs and per­for­mances every year. In ad­di­tion, at the PBR Big Sky, any­one can ride the me­chan­i­cal bull.

4. New Orleans, LA

Dis­tance from Maryville: 10 hours 1 minute

Travel Fee: $300

From March 9 to March 16, Maryville stu­dents get the op­por­tu­nity to ex­plore the city of New Or­leans. Dur­ing the trip, ac­tiv­i­ties are planned for stu­dents to ex­plore Maryville’s core val­ues – civic en­gage­ment, sus­tain­abil­ity, di­ver­sity and in­clu­sion and in­no­v­a­tive lead­er­ship.

“Stu­dents are get­ting a unique ex­pe­ri­ence to learn about the core val­ues and them­selves by ex­plore a very unique city in our coun­try,” vice pres­i­dent for in­sti­tu­tional val­ues, Alden Crad­dock states. “Most of this is done through vis­it­ing sites and par­tic­i­pat­ing in events that high­light these core val­ues.”

Ac­tiv­i­ties in­clude com­mu­nity ser­vice at a farm, vis­i­ta­tion to the Whit­ney Plan­ta­tion and a tour of the World War II Mu­seum.

For more in­for­ma­tion, con­tact Crad­dock at acrad­dock@maryville.edu.