Spring Break Airfare Price Drops by 12% vs. last year

Our analysis of spring break airfare pricing from around 50 US departure cities to South Padre Island, Texas for spring break reveals that airfare has decreased in price approximately 12% on average. We feel that the safety of going on college spring break to Texas, combined with the travel deal that seems to exists points to the fact that South Padre Island should be one of the hottest spring break 2010 destinations this year.

Saida is THE place to stay with Inertia on Spring Break in South Padre

Inertia Tours offers complete spring break trip packages with airfare, included airport transfers, condos at the Saida Towers, and 2 dine around restaurant meals per day.
Trip prices with airfare run $649 to $1099 per person with all fees included. Visit http://www.inertiatours.com for more details on this exciting destination or call us toll free 800 821 2176 x 1
or email chad@inertiatours.com

South Padre Island businesses happy with Spring Break

Aaron Nelsen
The Brownsville Herald

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Chad Hart’s voice is hoarse after a 34-hour shift organizing Spring Break events on South Padre Island for his business, Inertia Tours.

Inertia offers seven-night Spring Break packages that include lodging, meals and a schedule of parties for $400 per person.

With several of the Island’s largest hotels closed and others struggling to fill rooms by late February, the early indication was Spring Break 2009 would flop, but you wouldn’t hear such talk from Hart.

“I won’t rest until the end of April,” Hart said. “And right now I have a group of spring breakers in front of my office waiting to check in.”

Hart says he won’t know until this year’s sales are counted, but he expects to top 5,000 packages sold, up from roughly 4,000 in 2008.

In fact, Inertia sales for Texas Week, usually the busiest week during Spring Break on SPI, surpassed 2008 sales.

“My sales are up 35 percent,” Hart said. “It seemed there were true people here on vacation instead of people just doing laps on the strip.”

In February, the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau indicated that it was anticipating a weak economy would take a toll on students.

The CVB projected 40,000 college students would take their Spring Break vacation on SPI, down from 60,000 in 2008.

On Monday, an upbeat Dan Quandt, executive director of the South Padre Island CVB, said while the overall number of visitors doesn’t look like it will surpass the CVB’s early estimate, Spring Break 2009 should be considered a success.

“Of course, there are some students who’ve yet to arrive,” Quandt said. “But all in all I’d say we did pretty good, probably better than last year.”

Prior to the arrival of students, many Island businesses were concerned what affect the economic recession at home and escalating violence on the border with Mexico would have on students.

Hotel occupancy numbers, sales tax totals and liquor sales won’t be published until April. Until then most seem content with this year’s turnout even if there were fewer spring breakers.

“It went OK,” said Daniel Salazar, general manager of the Isla Grande Beach Resort, formerly the Radisson Resort. “We had about 90 percent occupancy for Texas Week. That’s a little down from last year, but nothing drastic.”

The Isla Grande Beach Resort features one of the Island’s biggest attractions with the Coca Cola Beach, which pulls daily crowds between 12,000 and 18,000.

The Coca Cola Beach wraps up later this week, but Salazar and his staff have already turned their attention to conventioneers.

“The mood is still Spring Break, but I’ve done a 180,” Salazar said. “The posters have come down and most of the students are gone. My focus is now on conferences.”

Spring Break Discounts for College Students on a tight budget

Our Company http://www.inertiatours.com specializes in college spring break packages for $500 & less per person. we aren’t

South Padre ....we ROLL !!!

I have to laugh when I see ump-teen MILLION websites promoting spring break travel – from travel agents to students marketing their trip as “the best” thing since sliced bread. With travel, you get EXACTLY what you pay for. There is no magic wand you wave and get 96% off your spring break trip, or all inclusive all the time at a 5 star hotel for $750. Sorry, we had that deal. In 1992.

We have 4 specific spring break packages under $500/person with no hidden fees nor games. Does that price include airfare? No, dipstick, it doesn’t, you have to drive UNLESS we are talking about the Mazatlan Spring Break Party Bus trip – that has the bus included.

Trip #1: South Padre Island, Texas
Price $499/person
includes:

Trip #2: Breckenridge Spring Break Ski – colorado
Price: $499/person
includes:
5 nights ski in condo
4 days worth of lift tickets good at Breckenridge, Vail, Beaver Creek, Araphoe Basin, & keystone mountains
$20/day rentals
UNBEATABLE price with lift tickets included!! check rates out then call us LAST!!!

Trip #3: Mazatlan Spring Break Party Bus Trip
Price: $450/person
includes:
RT luxury motorcoach from Austin, San Marcos, or San Antonio Texas
5 nights beachfront hotel stay at the Balboa Towers (yes, BEACHFRONT)
2 dine around restaurant meals per day per person
4 hours of free drinks (one house drink on special that is FREE to our guests)_ every single day of our trip
All taxes & fees.

Do you have to have a passport? Yes.
is this insane trip gonna last long on availability. F no Foo

#3 – Panama City Beach, FL – the Dirty South!!!
Price: $499/person
includes
5 night beachfront condo stay at the Summit Condos (THE place to stay, not some dump)
2 dine around restaurant meals per day per person
Onsite Souvenir Kit at Check in
Red Carpet VIP Event Package with all cover charges that includes the Club La Vela card AND the Panamaniac gold card…not just one – BOTH!

Sure, you can buy a stripped down shithole for $200/person – but we are talking about THE best vacation package to Panama City spring break that exists in the world, period.
You can get a Chevy or a Ferrari. We have the Ferrari. Get one.

Does one of these sound good? Call me – 800 821 2176 x 1 ask for Chad. I won’t pull your chain, and I will sell you a trip over the phone in less than 5-10 minutes. I’m not a college kid hoping to get a free trip, I simply have THE best trips. The advice is always free or visit my discounted spring break page: http://www.inertiatours.com/lowcosttrips/

Inertia Chad…OUT!!!

The more things change…

I found a picture of spring break in South Padre from back in 1988. My first impulse was to say that the only major change on the beach (other than the crowd size and corporate sponsorship) is the fashion, but with the resurgence of neon in the last couple years, even that’s debatable.

South Padre Then:

South Padre Now:

South Padre Frequently Asked Questions

Understandably, parents have a lot of concerns about their kids going on spring break. So, in the Inertia office, we end up answering a lot of the same questions repeatedly as the spring break season gears up.

Here are a couple of the most common:

Q. Where is South Padre?
A. It’s a long skinny island that runs along the coast of Texas.

Q. Is South Padre a part of Mexico or the U.S. or independent?
A. It’s a part of the U.S.

Q. Is South Padre safe, since it’s so close to Mexico?
A. We’re a full 40 minutes, one border, and several checkpoints from Mexico. So, not unlike Las Vegas, whatever is going on in Mexico, stays in Mexico.

Q. What’s the drinking age in South Padre?
A. It’s 21, like everywhere else in the States.

Q. What if I’m on a party cruise, don’t the laws change in international waters?
A. The party cruise sails around the bay between South Padre and Texas. It’s still the United States.

Q. South Padre is an island, but it doesn’t have an airport. So, do we have to take a boat there?
A. No. We’re connected to Texas by a bridge.

Belly Flop Contest

In the hopes of luring folks into the pool during our giant pool party at Isla Grand last night, the boss offered all of our staff free drinks to demonstrate their belly flopping skills around midnight.

Not sure how well it went, as I was DJing in another part of the complex. But, it would likely have wreaked havoc on the henna tattoos and body paint they’d picked up in the hopes of winning the most-outrageous-swimwear contest.

Spring Break 2009!

More shrimp, but not for us.

Per my earlier note, our meal plan is pretty badass. Unfortunately, our staff can’t usually eat it this week–since there’s so many people on the island and we’re swamped with work.

Adding insult to injury, one of our restaurants just doubled the amount of shrimp they give out with their meal giving the mountains of Chinese food I wrote about earlier a run for their money.

She loves my underwear.

Last night, while trying to sleep, the boss yanked me out of bed to drink some absinthe. This involved pulling my sheets off and evaluating my underwear and wondering aloud if this is the kind my girlfriend required me to wear.

Firstly, there are no underwear requirements in my relationship. Secondly, she loves it.

A girl’s bike!

The inhabited part of South Padre Island isn’t more than a few miles long. So, I sold my car awhile back in order to cruise around by bike.

I’m actually pretty jazzed about my bike. I got it in Austin on the cheap from a dude who’d fixed it up and thrown extra paint leftover from a Lexus on it. I’m not sure why, but that’s what he did.

In any case, it’s gotten a few nicks and some of the paint’s been scratched off only to reveal what seems to be a pink bicycle underneath.

This doesn’t bother me. It does appear to bother some of my co-workers, though, as they make repeated references to it as “a girl’s bike.”

If nothing else, it’s taking the heat off of my bike helmet–which usually bears the brunt of their scorn.

The First Day of Spring Break

This is the first in a series of posts detailing the goings-on of South Padre Island for Spring Break ’09.

The first week is generally slow, but the folks are hype all the same. Even if it’s not blazing hot, the mere sight of palm trees seems to have put the Michiganders who’ve taken over the island at ease.