Colleges canceled spring break. Students are traveling anyway.

• Schools across the US canceled the week-long spring vacation to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
• But mental health concerns are on the rise, and students are struggling to balance a need for a break with COVID safety.
• Some students are venturing on traditional spring break trips, while others considered lower-risk options.

Kyle arrived in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, around 2 p.m. the last Friday of February.

Just a few hours later, Kyle, who asked to omit his last name for privacy reasons, was drinking and taking shots at the shoreside bar Wrecked at the Reef. Later that night, his group of 15 friends (and friends of friends) went bar hopping, from Tekila Bar to Iguana Banana. Kyle said the only sign of the pandemic he noticed that night was the curfew, which cut his night short at 11 p.m.

It wasn't a scheduled spring break for Kyle, a 21-year-old junior in college, but it was his version of one.

When his school, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, canceled its spring break last fall, Kyle and his friends started planning a trip.

"I thought, 'Why not just go?'" he told Insider. "The virus has been going on for a while now, so I might as well go because it's not going to end anytime soon."

As early as last fall, universities across the country canceled spring break. Some students, like Kyle, planned wild trips anyway. Others scheduled modified vacations while mourning the loss of a college ritual.

Those who aren't traveling are looking ahead at a nonstop semester, and they're burning out. Across the country, schools are reporting a rise in depression, anxiety, exhaustion, and loneliness among college students.

Typically, spring break would provide a designated respite from the stress. But this year, schools have shortened or canceled the time off to discourage travel during the pandemic, leaving students to find their own ways to take much-needed breaks.

Despite some states preemptively lifting restrictions, the coronavirus remains a serious threat - perhaps increasingly serious as new variants circulate the country. It's possible that spring break could be a superspreader event again this year.

Last year, spring break was a superspreader event

Last year was Moses Roldan's first "real spring break," the junior at St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida, told Insider.

He spent the first week of March partying on the shores of Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach. He said he remembers lifting his GoPro up and seeing "hundreds, maybe even a thousand people, all bunched up together."

At that point, the coronavirus wasn't on his radar. Outbreaks of a new respiratory illness were popping up around the globe, but the World Health Organization wouldn't officially declare the coronavirus pandemic until March 11. Much of what we now know about the virus, like how it can travel through the air and sometimes spreads via asymptomatic infections, was not yet understood.

In retrospect, Roldan said he's lucky he didn't get sick because similar gatherings - like an outbreak among 44 spring breakers vacationing in Cabo - would later be linked to the spread of COVID-19.

Community case rates spiked two weeks after students returned to campus following spring break in mid-to-late March, according to an analysis of smartphone location data published in the Journal of Urban Economics. Those rates were especially high in areas that saw students return from destinations like Florida and New York via airports.

A year later, students are again faced with the choice to travel or stay in place. Many of them have already tested positive for the virus, with little to no symptoms. And after a particularly difficult year, students are craving a break.

Schools are replacing spring break with one-off 'wellness days' and offering 'staycation' grants

College campuses have seen massive outbreaks of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic, leading many universities to cancel or reschedule spring break as early as last fall.

Some schools have replaced the traditional week off with "wellness days." In theory it's a middle-ground solution: give students a couple days off, but schedule them during the week to discourage travel.

In an email to students at Ohio State University, the college's president wrote in December, "While we hope students can use these days to relieve some stress, we want to re-emphasize the importance of following COVID-19 safeguards - particularly limiting travel - should current conditions continue."

Other universities have even offered incentives for students not to travel. The University of California, Davis, offered $75 "staycation" grants to students who aren't planning to leave town for the break.

It hasn't stopped students from going on vacation

Nick, a Temple University sophomore who asked to omit his last name so he could speak freely, said he's not so sure these efforts have successfully stopped travel.

Temple University moved its classes online this spring, and while Nick isn't planning to travel, he's seen his classmates log on to Zoom calls pool and shoreside. No one bats an eye, he said.

"I know people who are traveling right now, and because they're on Zoom, they can just go," he told Insider.

The sophomore said he feels jealous, but he also doesn't want to be responsible for spreading COVID-19.

Lauren, a third-year at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, who also spoke to Insider on the condition of anonymity, said she's "over" the virus. She's driving from her home in Houston, Texas, to spend a week skiing with five friends in Buena Vista, Colorado, the third week of March.

It's a smaller group in a more remote destination than she'd typically choose, like Florida, Mexico, and the coast of Texas.

Other student travelers are still seeking sunshine. Although travel interest has drastically decreased - flight searches are down 76% from last March according to Kayak - travelers are still looking for warm, domestic destinations, a representative for Hotwire, a travel search engine, told Insider.

Florida remains a popular destination for vacationers this year. Last January, only one Florida destination topped Hotwire's list of most-booked destinations for March. This January, a majority of the most-booked destinations for March were in Florida, Katie Lay, the senior director of database marketing at Hotwire said in an email.

Marcelle, a senior at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan, who withheld her last name, wanted to escape the cold, so she traveled by plane to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with five friends when they had a Wednesday off in February. The group originally looked for an Airbnb, but ended up booking their accommodations at a small hotel.

Like many other student travelers, Marcelle's group packed their laptops and tuned into remote classes poolside.

Roldan, who lives in Miami, said he still plans to scope out the city's spring break scene again this year. He said he'll avoid crowded clubs and bars, and opt for places where he can just "chill out."

"This year, I really just expect to have fun," he said. "But I don't really expect it to be crazy like last year."

Young people need a mental health break

Whether they're traveling or not, students told Insider that single days off don't provide the same mental break that comes with a full week vacation. They've had an especially tough year of balancing schoolwork with the added stressors of the pandemic.

A CDC report published this summer found that one in every four young adults in the US had seriously contemplated suicide in the last month. In the fall, the Healthy Minds Network conducted a survey of 33,000 students, and half of them screened positive for anxiety or depression.

A fourth-year computer science major at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, told Insider his first month of the spring semester this year was riddled with anxiety attacks. He requested not to be named so he could share his experience honestly.

"I've been in college for four years, and I've experienced stress before, but there's always something you can look forward to," he said. "This semester we don't even have that."

What he did have was a "wellness day," but instead of relaxing, the 21-year-old spent the Tuesday off playing "catch-up." He had assignments due the next two days and a list of things to turn in Sunday night.

For some students, a true break means getting away from campus. Others just want permission to stop and relax.

"The reason students miss spring break so badly is not so that they can go to Cancun or whatever, but so that they can just have a mental break from the stress of being a college student," Grace, a senior at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, told Insider.

Grace, who declined to share her last name, is planning to go home for Easter in April, but Holy Cross canceled its usual end-of-February break this year. Waiting for a break later in the semester leaves several consecutive months of school to get through during an already tough year.

"I think we're all kind of just trying to take it week by week, and not having a break to look forward to makes it just that much more challenging," she said.

COVID-19 variants make it harder to 'get lucky' and avoid infection

No social interaction is risk-free during the pandemic, but some spring break options are riskier than others, Amesh Adalja, a pandemic preparedness expert at Johns Hopkins University, told Insider.

"We're talking about what used to be on MTV's spring break, that's what the concern is," Adalja told Insider.

Mixing social groups, drinking alcohol, and yelling over loud music all increase the risk of coronavirus transmission, Adalja said. He added that the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant - the one first identified in the UK - is currently circulating in Florida, so there's less room for lapses of judgment.

"If you would have gotten lucky before with the original version of this virus, it's less likely that you would get lucky and avoid infection with a new variant, if you're in a situation where you're not following those general common sense principles," Adalja said.

The safest spring break option is a solo road trip like Jocelyn Rausten's. The junior at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, lives in a van and plans to spend a couple of long weekends visiting national forests or driving along Oregon's coast. Adalja said a trip like that has "zero risk."

If you want to travel with friends, keep the group small and limit it to your household contacts to minimize your risk of exposure. You should also avoid crowded places like restaurants and bars, where you're likely to remove your mask to eat or drink.

Even outdoor spaces can be high-risk settings if people aren't properly masked and distanced, said Marissa Levine, professor of public health expert at the University of South Florida. She also emphasized the importance of signage at restaurants to remind people to take precautions.

"People need reminders that we're still in a pandemic," Levine said. "If we don't do that, then when people go on vacation to relax, they'll let their guards down."

Most students Insider spoke with said they plan to travel domestically, wear masks, and social distance. But not all of them plan to get tested or quarantine before their trips, meaning they could potentially pose risks to the communities they're visiting.

Any college student traveling for spring break should assume they've been exposed to the coronavirus, Adalja said. That means they need to self-isolate for five to seven days after coming home or returning to campus, get tested, and continue to quarantine while they wait for their results.

It'll be a long time until students get their vaccines, but spring break is happening, shots or not

With vaccine doses expected to be available to every American adult who wants them by May, it may seem like the end of the pandemic is in sight.

But most young people who don't have chronic health conditions won't be vaccinated in time for spring break, and the immunity afforded by previous illness wanes over time.

Experts have previously told Insider that people who have already gotten COVID-19 can take more risks because they have some level of immunity. But with at least five distinct coronavirus variants circulating in the US and worldwide, that protection may have some holes.

"If it's been a while since you've been infected, like you got infected last spring break, then maybe your immunity isn't so strong anymore," Adalja told Insider. "I would be a little bit more cautious if you're somebody that's more than several months out from your infection."

When Kyle started planning his spring trip to Mexico back in November, he had no idea he'd have access to the vaccine before his vacation.

Kyle said he got both of his vaccine shots before his trip through his mom and dad, who work in a hospital setting. Kyle said that he didn't technically qualify for the vaccine, but his parents didn't want him coming home frequently without being vaccinated.

But even without the vaccine, Kyle said he probably still would've gone to Mexico.

"I stayed inside all summer and didn't do much last semester," he said. "This can't be on me now. I've been waiting to be done with the virus."