Jared Launius>Sophomore>Journalism>University of Missouri
The Baseball Stadium Tour
The key is travel. If you live on the coast, go to the Midwest. If you live in the Midwest, get to the coast. This way, you kill two birds with one stone: you get to travel to another part of the country AND see new baseball parks.
Here’s a breakdown of four ballparks in each region, followed by their cheapest ticket prices. Since we’re college kids, I balanced price, attraction and proximity when picking these stops.
*Denotes Park with sliding price scale based on quality of opponent.
West coast: Seattle’s Safeco Field ($7), San Francisco’s AT&T Park ($5)*, Los Angeles’ Angel Stadium ($16) and San Diego’s Petco Park ($10). Total: $38
Midwest: Kansas City’s newly renovated Kauffman Stadium ($7), Minneapolis’ brand new Target Field ($11), Milwaukee’s Miller Park ($8) and Chicago’s Wrigley Field ($8)*. Total: $34
East Coast: (It’s best to just eliminate Boston and New York. Ticket prices are outlandish and therefore make tickets difficult to snag.) Philadelphia’s Citizen Bank Park ($20), Pittsburgh’s PNC Park ($9), Baltimore’s Oriole Park ($9)*, and Washington D.C.’s Nationals Park ($10)*. Total: $48
No matter which destination you choose, you have to plan ahead. To get some of these low prices, you’ll have to buy tickets in advance.
Total costs would vary based on which trip you choose, but figure in around $420 total for hotel accommodations. Obviously, the more people you cram in each room, the better. With four people per room, that’s $105 apiece.
The Vegas and Friends Tour
We know two things for sure about Las Vegas. First, you have to go there at least once while in college. Second, you can’t spend more than three days there. More specifically, spending more than three days there will destroy you physically, fiscally and emotionally.
So, how do you do Vegas and still enjoy a week-long road trip? You mix it in with two other must-see things in the proximity: the Rocky Mountains and the Grand Canyon. Spend a few days in Colorado seeing Denver and the Rocky Mountains, head southwest to Arizona to behold the sight of the Grand Canyon, and then finish up with a weekend in Vegas.
I have a few friends that did a trip very similar to this last summer, and they said to expect to spend at least $500, all told.
The Amusement Park Tour
Since our previous tour hinged on being a certain age, here is a more minor-friendly road trip option.
If you plan correctly, you could hit four of the United States’ 10 best amusement parks without driving more than six hours between each stop. It doesn’t matter if you start west and go east or start east and go west. You can go from Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio) to Kennywood (West Mifflin, Pennsylvania) to Knoebels Amusement Resort (Elysburg, Pennsylvania) to Busch Gardens (Williamsburg, Virginia.) in seven days.
Single-day passes between the four stops would total $183, but there are different prices available if purchased in advance on the Internet. As far as hotel accommodations go, figure in similar prices to the ballpark road trips.
photo from http://msideadmissions.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/road-trip1.jpg
