Photo ©Jana Jones

High-school students traditionally head off to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It's not too far to drive, it's cheap, and you don't need to figure out the ratio of pesos to the dollar.

There are many activites that parents can feel fairly safe about sending their high school grads to experience. Accommodations run the gamut from high-rise condos to main-highway motels to huge, elaborate oceanfront homes. The South Carolina constabulary, whether on the highways or on the crowded streets of Myrtle Beach, mean business; parents can worry a bit less than they might had their offspring gone elsewhere to celebrate.

University students are going in different directions. MTV will appear in Cancun again this year with a full schedule of B-list headliners to ramp up the frenzy on the beach. Daytona will be hot, of course, and South Padre Island, Texas, with its miles and miles and miles of clean white sand, warm Gulf waters, and liberal "keg laws" is set to draw record crowds.

Negril, Jamaica, is moving way up on the "Hot List" for Spring Break destinations. Much cheaper and "looser" than the Bahamas, it's almost as easy to reach from the Triangle. Once a hippie enclave, the "anything goes" mentality is still at work. Really inexpensive cliff-side guesthouses vie with beachfront all-inclusives for the Spring Break dollar. The choice of accommodation rests solely on how much the student saved during the year and/or how much the folks are willing to contribute.

Photo courtesy ZN Jones

The Mac Daddy of all the hot spots this year remains Panama City Beach, Florida. Wall-to-wall hotties of both sexes line the wide expanse of beach; partying is non-stop, morning to night to morning. The entertainment is as good in Panama City as it is anywhere else, whether MTV shows up or not.

There's still time to book Spring Break trips, and several travel agencies specialize in doing just that. Look around campus, you'll find solicitations in every dorm, in the libraries, in the cafeterias. The smart students are the ones who become reps for the agencies; by signing up their friends, they get to go free or at least get a reduced rate.

Wherever you choose to go for Spring Break, be safe.