Going into my final winter break as an undergrad, I knew that I wanted to go on a vacation. I had leftover airline credit as my cousins and I were trying to think of some plans. However, as time went by and break got shorter and shorter, my hopes of actually going away were starting to get smaller. That is until we found a deal online for a relatively inexpensive vacation to Universal in Orlando. Days later, only two weeks before our chosen vacation dates, we were booked for four days in Universal.

I was extremely excited since Universal is my favorite place to go for vacation. I had gone a few times before, the last time being just last summer which is the reason that I had an airline credit. I knew everything I wanted to do in the park. I wanted to ride roller coasters, go on some classic rides like E.T., and I wanted to drink butterbeer. I somehow managed to do all of these things within the span of the trip.

Planning this trip only a few weeks before may sound stressful, but I found it to be even better than the usual amount of time before a trip that I spend planning. I didn't have to sit around waiting for the date to come for months, it was right around the corner from the moment we booked the trip which made waiting a lot more bearable.

If I had to give a few tips for planning a last minute vacation, my biggest one would be to make sure you look into all of your options. Yes, you will be a bit crunched for time and will want to book the first hotel that you find, but it is important to make sure you look around first. You don't want to later find out that you could have saved a few hundred dollars if you had just waited until you found the best option. Another tip would be to make a list of all of the things you want to do on the trip. You should do this on any vacation, but I found that being caught up in the rush of last-minute planning can make it hard to decide exactly what you want to do on vacation.

Though I know that it is not for everyone, I prefer booking a last minute vacation to booking months in advance. Though, I know that a much bigger trip takes a lot more planning. Booking two weeks in advance definitely worked for me on this trip because I didn't have to wait a long time to have to go, which made it easier to stay excited from the second we booked the vacation through the second we got home.