“What are you doing here?” the guy behind the front desk at Wheatshocker Apartments asked me on a mid-March morning two years ago.

“Um… the last time I checked, I lived here,” I responded, puzzled.

“It’s Spring Break. I thought you were going somewhere,” the guy said, sounding disappointed.

I didn’t get it. It was just a week off from school, which meant I could sleep in till 2 p.m. and not worry about making up believable, yet elaborately innovative, excuses for why I was late to class for the 30th time. You see, my ignorant-international-student-self was blissfully unaware of what Spring Break really had to offer.

So a week down the line, when the stories that were supposed to stay at their respective beaches came back to me, I wished it was physically possible to kick myself in the nuts. Needless to say, I planned my subsequent Spring Breaks down to every single detail. The planning gets insanely mathematical at times. I won’t deny creating multiple spreadsheets to plan what I deem as the ideal break, with an optimal cost-to-fun ratio.

So here are a few things you might want to take into account while planning for your break:

Carpool: As college students, a lot of us are über broke. The adjectives fail me when I try to articulate how broke we can get, but you get the idea. That doesn’t mean you aren’t entitled to having a good time. It just means you’re going to have to find a bunch of dependable friends and team up and split the cost of the trip, especially the driving and lodging expenses.

And if your car is not dependable, rent a car through a reliable rental service. You do not want to be stuck halfway between Kansas and the coast with smoke coming out of your hood. It might cost you a little more, but it’s worth the smooth progression of events.

Checklist: Create a checklist well in advance. I once showed up at my destination only to realize I didn’t have any ID on me. Getting in and out of places that required ID was a whole other story.

Google Maps: We’re lucky we have Google Maps. Navigating is so much more than punching in the destination on your GPS device. Apart from printing the directions list, you want to plan breaks while driving down to your destination every few hours. Fatigue is just as dangerous as driving under influence. It also helps to go over the street view at the important junctions to avoid getting lost. Most importantly, expect delays. A 17-hour drive can easily turn into a 22-hour drive before you even realize it.

Keep aside some buffer money: On the same lines of estimating how long the journey will take, the chances of exceeding your budget are quite high. Set aside a significant amount of money in case you exceed your budget. Hopefully, it won’t come down to that; but if it does, you’ll be prepared.

Spring Break is an interesting part of the experience of being a student in the U.S., and I would urge you to save up in your freshman and sophomore years, and experience it for yourself first hand before you lose yourself to schoolwork in the subsequent years. Spring Break starts March 17.