Spring break 2017

Flying Squirrel


 

 

If you have school-age children, this article is for you. If you don’t, this article could be for you even more. How so?

With school back in session, summer vacations are over—at least the ones involving children. But if you’re an adult who wants a kid-free holiday, the next few months are yours.

Cruise ships, hotels and resorts are now mostly kid-free. Yes, there are exceptions. Some schools around the country are open year-round, which means you might encounter families on a holiday break at times other than summer. But that’s rare.

The next popular time for vacation travel is spring break.

If you’re a family, your kids are off school that week. If you have a spring holiday in mind, you should probably start to look now at options for getaway destinations.

If you’re not traveling as a family, you might want to avoid going during spring break, especially if the thought of throngs of kids running around fills you with dread.

What dates are we talking about for spring break 2017?

Most of our local school districts, including CVUSD and Las Virgenes, have scheduled spring break the week before Easter, which falls on April 16 next year. So school’s out from Mon. through Fri., April 10 to 14.

The exceptions are Moorpark Unified has spring break from March 20 to 24 and Simi Valley Unified takes off March 27 to 31.

If you want to travel with kids, those are your school-break weeks. If you don’t want to travel with kids, avoid those weeks.

Of course, not every school nationally follows our local calendars. But the majority of districts tend to schedule spring break just before or after Easter. Since it occurs on the later side of the school calendar next year, more schools will likely be scheduling spring break before Easter.

How do you use this to your advantage? It may depend on where you’re going.

If you’re traveling within Southern California, you can probably anticipate that family-friendly destinations like Disneyland and Sea World will have more kids in the three weeks up through Easter, March 27 to April 16.

If you are taking a cruise out of Southern California during the second week of April, you can also expect to find lots of families. Of course there are exceptions, such as that 15-day Panama Canal sailing that’s probably not at the top of the list for most families.

Similarly, vacation packages to California-close destinations like Cabo, Mazatlan and Acapulco will also see more family arrivals in the first few weeks of April.

If you travel farther, say to the Caribbean, Hawaii or Orlando, you’ll be less affected by California school schedules and more by national patterns.

Generally speaking, though, the last week of March through the first two weeks of April are going to see the most family travel.

So if you want to see fewer kids on your trip, make plans for April 22 to May 20. Most kids are back in school, leaving the whole ship/ resort/beach to the adults.

A side note to spring break is another period that’s almost become a de facto “fall break,” and that’s the week of Thanksgiving.

It used to be that most school districts only gave days off on Thursday and Friday, possibly with a Wednesday half-day thrown in. But families started expanding their “holiday week” to include Tuesday, and eventually Monday.

School districts receive state funding only for students in attendance, so once classrooms began emptying on Monday and Tuesday, district schedulers apparently threw in the towel and decided to give the whole week off.

That’s true for all the local public districts cited earlier: Everybody gets a fall break Nov. 21 to 25. Plan accordingly.

So if you’re a family considering a kid-friendly spring break trip, pull out the 2017 calendar and flip to March or April. But if you’re a retiree seeking a tranquil pool chaise, or a honeymooning couple dreaming of a deserted beach, consider steering clear of the weeks before Easter.

Thor Challgren is a travel consultant who lives in Thousand Oaks. For more info on this story, visit www.facebook.com/ loveyourvacation. Email questions to thor@theacorn.com.


 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *