Website offers students new trip options

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., will turn cream and crimson this spring break when BTown Trips travels to the Sunshine State.
 
BTown Trips, started by junior finance and entrepreneurship major Rob Sekula, is offering all IU students a spring break experience that includes round-trip coach bus transportation, a six-night stay at a resort and a non-stop party involving a DJ, food and drink specials and night events. The cost of the trip is $549.

“People can drink on the buses, party on the buses, as long as they’re 21, of course,” Sekula said. “It’s going to be unreal.”

Sekula started BTown Trips after visiting a friend studying medicine at the University of Wisconsin. There he discovered Badger Trips, a company that offered students travel packages.

“I thought it’d be a good thing to bring to IU,” Sekula said.

To get started Sekula contacted Alex Golbstein and Mike Garson of Badger Trips, and BTown Trips was born.

The Ft. Lauderdale spring break trip is BTown Trips’ first endeavor, but it has already generated a lot of interest.

Sekula said more than 100 people have already signed up for the trip.

Price is one of the major factors generating so much interest.

Junior Shanna Polka said price was a major factor in her spring break plans. She was originally going to visit friends abroad, but said she changed her mind once she looked at airfares.

Polka knew Sekula, and said she decided to go on the trip because “it was cheaper and a lot of people here (in her sorority, Delta Delta Delta) were going.”

“It’s a win-win situation,” she said.

Sekula’s fraternity brother, junior Ross Brenner, agreed that price was a factor. But, he added, there will be cool add-ons to the trip.

Brenner is developing a BTown Bar Scene application for the iPhone and Android, and BTown Trips will have a page on the app to keep spring breakers knowledgeable of specials and parties during the week.

BTown Trips isn’t just about spring break, though.

“If opportunities come up, we’re open to doing any trips students want,” Sekula said.

Originally, BTown Trips planned to take a Mardi Gras trip and a skiing trip to Paoli Peaks. However, Mardi Gras is the week immediately before spring break, and Sekula said he wanted to focus on the spring break trip this first year. Sekula pointed to Badger Trips’ excursions to Las Vegas and around Wisconsin football as future possibilities, though.

Plus, he added, he wants to make spring break as good as possible to show IU students what BTown Trips can do.

“Once they see what BTown Trips can set up, you want to travel with BTown Trips,” Sekula said.