PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico - Over winter break, the vast majority of University students headed home to see their families.
But for some, home was not their only destination as students from campuses across the country invaded ski slopes and beaches worldwide with family members.
Those lucky students enjoyed spring break-like excursions - and mom and dad picked up the tab.
Art first-year student Tracy Silverstein, who tagged along with family members to Tampa, said traveling with her family was a different experience from spring-break adventures.
"It was fun because I got to see people I don't normally see and because it wasn't snowing," Silverstein said. "But it wasn't 'spring break' kind of fun - we weren't going out and partying or anything."
Local travel agents said the winter break is one of the most popular times of year for families to embark on vacations - including families with college-age children.
"The winter holidays are a big travel time for both families as well as college kids who go places on their own," said Heather Golembiewski, a travel agent for Boersma Travel's Washtenaw office. "This is a very busy time of the year for us."
Golembiewski said Florida, Hawaii and the Caribbean were some of the most popular vacation spots during the winter break.
But Mexican travel sites like Puerto Vallarta were also teeming with college students and their families.
"You hang out with your family all day and then go out to the bars and clubs with your friends at night - it's nice," said Cornell University sophomore Stu Katz. "Being here with the family has been almost as much fun as spring break trips I've been on - and it's definitely cool not having to pay for anything this time."
But other students said it was hard to party when your friends were thousands of miles away.
"The trip's been fun but it's up and down - there are times when I'd rather be with my buddies back at school," said Stanford University sophomore Jason Toranto. "In Mexico, winter break is a lot tamer - when I was down here during spring breaks it was much more crazy."
But Toranto also said he enjoyed the greater financial freedom traveling with family members usually provides.
"I have eaten food that is so much better and more expensive while I've been here," Toranto said. "I've been to restaurants I never would have set foot in with my friends or by myself."
Illinois State University sophomore Julie Johns said vacationing with her parents was good for her tan but not for her social life.
"Laying on the beach has been great, but this is the first time I've gone out at night - I didn't go out all week," Johns said. "I stayed in the hotel room and slept and watched a lot of HBO - it's hard to go out to clubs when you don't know anybody."
Locals said the more than 700,000 tourists who flock to Puerto Vallarta each year have transformed the once unknown fishing hamlet into a tourist mecca and have made speaking English a prerequisite for finding jobs in town.
"The company mostly only hires people who speak English," said Juan Gante, a concierge at the Puerto Vallarta's Sheraton hotel. "To work in departments like the front desk you have to speak it to deal with tourists."
Gante said his hotel was filled at or near capacity all year except during the region's rainy season months of September and October and that "college kids ready to go to the clubs downtown are here all the time."
Claudia Ile, who sells time-share apartments to the hotel's many guests, said learning English was not a very difficult task.
"I've learned it from speaking to so many tourists," Ile said. "English is everywhere and is spoken by so many people here that it wasn't hard for me to learn."
But outside the city's hotel row, English speakers are fewer and farther between.
"A lot of people (get in my cab) and can't speak any Spanish - it's confusing and frustrating for everybody when that happens," said local cab driver Esteban Crisne in Spanish. Crisne doesn't speak any English.
"I'd never go to a country like the United States where I don't speak the language - but people who don't speak Spanish aren't afraid to come here," Crisne said.
Crisne said Puerto Vallarta's locals can't afford to eat in the expensive and chic restaurants and bars on the city's main drag.
"We have our own local places that are near downtown - we can eat there," Crisne said. "The food is good and cheap and the tourists don't know about those places."
He points to a cluttered street crowded with small houses and apartments. The modest neighborhood is less than a block away from the large and flashy bars and night clubs that pack the city's downtown strip.
However, the language barrier and stark socioeconomic differences haven't stopped Americans from wanting to go into business in the tourist-oriented community.
But local entrepreneurs said getting started in Mexico is more difficult than most expect.
Recent University of Minnesota graduate Danny Schertzer, who manages a downtown restaurant here, said acquiring necessary working papers was not a simple process.
"A lot of college kids come down here on vacation and never want to leave - but it's not that easy to get work permits," Schertzer said. "They aren't going to just take jobs away from Mexican nationals - if you want permits you have to prove that you have some innovative skills like public relations or something. You have to be creative."
While many students partook in family excursions to places like Puerto Vallarta over the holidays, others declined their family's invitations to hit the road.
"I didn't want to be in the back seat of a car with my two brothers for five hours," said LSA sophomore Steve Thomson, who stayed in Ann Arbor while his parents traveled to Chicago. "I stayed in an empty house with only two other people - it wasn't exciting but it was kind of nice to have some time to myself."
For other students, just returning to the friendly confines of home was vacation enough.
"I didn't go anywhere else, I just headed home," said Art first-year student Roy Bird, a Flint native. "We didn't go anywhere special, but going home was restful and it was nice to see the family again."
But some students did not even have the option of going home.
"My parents live in Hong Kong, and I can't afford the $1,300 plane ticket - that was the main reason I didn't go home," said LSA Stanley Ip. "Staying here wasn't at all boring for me, I just read some good books I got from the UGLI - it was both fun and restful."
Regardless of whether they retreated to warmer climates, just headed home or stayed in Ann Arbor, students everywhere said the winter break provided a much needed vacation.
"My whole break's been a lot of fun - but it will be nice to get back to campus again," Toranto said. "I'm looking forward to my classes and getting in the groove of classes and everything again."