The idea of spring break is ingrained in American pop culture like many other tales that are told about American youth milestones. From Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez robbing a diner to afford spring break in “Spring Breakers” to the Florida adventure Rory Gilmore and Paris take in “Gilmore Girls,” going on a wild trip with all your college friends is thought of as a coming-of-age moment that many teens in the U.S. dream about when thinking of their college experience. 

However, there isn’t just one way to do spring break. There’s always the option of going to Cabo San Lucas to party and tan with every other college student, but there’s also great beauty to be found in exploring other cities and historical places.

The Panther interviewed four Chapman University students to learn about what types of vacations college kids can take over their highly anticipated spring break. 

The artistic fan-girl experience 

Madison Harris-Weiner, a senior creative producing major, is passionate about classic literature, motorcycles and the ‘60s. Luckily, there is one city, along with its surrounding areas, that encapsulates all her favorite things. She is taking a roadtrip to Monterey, California with her parents over spring break to experience the towns where her favorite events were held and celebrities lived. 

As a huge John Steinbeck fan, Harris-Weiner said she is looking forward to exploring the city where her favorite author set most of his books and lived out most of his own life in. 

“One of his books, ‘Cannery Row,’ is one of my all time favorite books,” Harris-Weiner said. “I wanted to go there and actually see Cannery Row and then also surrounding Monterey such as Salinas Valley, which is where ‘East of Eden’ is set.”

Another epic Northern Californian native, Clint Eastwood, enticed Harris-Weiner to head over to Carmel-by-the-Sea, a neighboring city of Monterey. Although Eastwood’s motorcycle thriller, “Every Which Way but Loose," isn’t set in Northern California, there are luckily other motorcycle related events that took place around Monterey. Harris-Weiner said she will be going to Hollister, where the 1947 Hollister motorcycle riot took place. 

“That was the event that inspired ‘The Wild One’ with Marlon Brando, which was the first motorcycle movie,” Harris-Weiner said. “The riot also gave way to the ‘one percenter’ phrase. The one percenter motorcycle gang is my lifelong obsession because that was the first time that motorcyclists bikers got in the news and gave themselves a bad name.”

The culturally immersive experience 

Gabby Lee, a senior creative producing major, will be exploring the music culture in order to find out what southern hospitality really means in Nashville, Tennessee for spring break. 

“I think everyone is nicer outside of (Los Angeles),” Lee said. “Maybe not New York, but at least they're honest. People are just fake (in LA). Whenever I go back to the Midwest, everyone is so friendly. I can only imagine that it's the same or better in the south, so I just want to make those bonds.” 

With Nashville being the home of many country singers, Lee is hoping to dive into the music scene and head directly to Dollywood.

“I love (Dolly Parton) — she's so honest and true to who she is and has no shame,” Lee said. “I saw interviews from when she was in her late 30s. She just turns every insult on its head and just makes people go, ‘Damn, I can't even insult her.' She's just so witty. She seems like a sweetheart.”

As an LA native, Lee didn’t grow up around country music, so she plans to listen to as much of it as she can when she arrives in the country music capital of the world. 

THE college experience

No spring break list is complete without Cabo. As her time at Chapman dwindles down to single-digit weeks, senior business administration major Kayleigh Reed wants to soak up the last bit of her college experience while she can. She is going to Los Cabos with a group of her friends, however, this isn’t her first rodeo at the iconic spring break spot.

“My favorite part (from my last spring break in Cabo) was when we were hanging out by the pool and then we met more Chapman people who were staying at the hotel that we didn't even know,” Reed said. “All of us ended up hanging out by the pool altogether. It wasn't like planned or anything.”

While socializing is fun, Reed told The Panther she also plans to have some quiet time by the pool at her all inclusive resort. She wants to take this time to read books by authors Emily Henry or Colleen Hoover to calm her mind. She is also leaving the resort to check out the local culture of Cabo by eating at some popular restaurants in the city. 

“We don't have a ton of time, so we're just eating at The Office and then another restaurant called Bagatelle, and that's kind of the only thing we have planned so far,” Reed said. 

As someone from a spring destination, Laura Cobas, a junior creative producing major, already got in her college spring experience growing up in the sunny, beach filled state of Florida. Cobas has thus decided to take a more calm trip to Mexico on a cruise that will take her and her mom to four different cities in Mexico — Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, Ensenada and Mazatlan. 

Cobas said she plans to not waste a second when she is finally let off the ship to explore the beautiful cities. 

“I don't need to take a nap on every beach we go to because I'll get my tan on the cruise,” Cobas said. “There's a Jeep tour where they give you a Jeep and then you get to drive around on the terrain. It's a manual Jeep and (my mom) doesn't know how to drive a manual and I don't either but I told her we should just figure it out.”

Whether you're figuring out a manual Jeep in Mexico with your mom or partying it up by the pool with other Chapman students, spring break is a time to relax in the sun no matter the destination.