Earning a college diploma is a momentous accomplishment, achieved through countless hours of late night studies. You are now ready to join the real world, but first, you might consider a little well-deserved break. While you have the time and energy to spare, why not celebrate with a trip of a lifetime. To help you decide where to go, here are some of the best vacation destinations for fun and memorable experiences.

Sydney, Australia

Known for its friendly, relaxed residents, Sydney’s mild, sunny weather encourages outdoor activities including beachside lounging and water sports. Although you might see many fit people in swimsuits frolicking on Sydney’s numerous beaches, this isn’t your typical Spring break destination. This world-class metropolis also features plenty of performing arts venues, cultural events and major attractions like the Sydney Opera House.

Visit Australia

Las Vegas, Nevada

When you visit this vibrant city as a young adult, a countless array of entertainment options awaits. That’s the charm of Las Vegas, best known for its glamorous hotels and casinos, famous nightspots, and superb celebrity-owned restaurants. Daily entertainment includes Cirque du Soleil and popular musical or comedy acts. Be sure to take advantage of the Vegas Bite Card, a discount card for attractions, restaurants, nightclubs and spas.

Visit Vegas

New York City, New York

This city literally teems with activities morning, noon and night. The weather may not be as ideal here during the summer as it is in other destinations, but you can’t beat NYC for its diverse cultural, food, shopping and entertainment offerings. Visit iconic sites like the Empire State Building. If you love art in all its forms, explore the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Guggenheim, and catch a Broadway show or performances in Central Park. When purchasing a CityPASS, you gain admission to six of the city’s best attractions.

Visit NYC

Bermuda

For a more relaxing vacation, Bermuda offers a tropical environment with a slow-paced lifestyle that will allow you to catch up on some much-needed rest. This island paradise located in the Atlantic Ocean provides a mild climate during summer. Noted for its charming beachscape, including pink sand and turquoise water, Bermuda offers plenty of recreational activities such as snorkeling among coral reefs. You can also explore other attractions like the Bermuda Aquarium.

Visit Bermuda

Amsterdam, Netherlands

If you want to celebrate in Europe, Amsterdam is a festive city that embraces life and all of its amusements. Known for its picturesque countryside with tulips and windmills, the city features numerous canals, where boats float lazily on by, and beautiful Dutch Renaissance architecture. Along with its rich heritage, Amsterdam is very much a progressive city with a lively nightlife scene and some avant-garde entertainment options, including the infamous red-light districts that warrant some caution when visiting.

Visit Amsterdam

This guest post was written by Heather Johnson

Heather Johnson is a writer for Honeymoon Destinations, the leading online honeymoon planning resource. Learn all about the best honeymoon destinations today!

Money-savvy college students know to bypass the trip to the overpriced university bookstore if they want to save money on textbooks. They can almost always save money by shopping around for a better deal online, particularly by hunting for the lowest prices using sites like wecomparebooks.com. However, there’s another good way to save money on textbooks seeing what’s available at your university library.

Whether or not your plan to borrow textbooks from the library will work depends on how large your class size is and how many copies of your class textbook are available at the library. Before you choose this route, you will need to evaluate your likelihood of being able to check out your textbook as often as you will need to for the class you’ve enrolled in. You seldom will be able to check out all the textbooks you’ll need for all of your classes, so you should combine this tactic with buying or renting used textbooks online for maximum savings without sacrificing your access to the textbook.

Most university libraries allow students to check out a book for two weeks and allow a maximum of one renewal for a total of four weeks you can have the book. After this point, the book is overdue and you’ll have to pay fines if you keep the textbook any longer. Back when I was in college and decided to try checking out a textbook instead of buying it, I simply returned the book, waited for it to be re-shelved (it’s easy to tell online), and then checked it out and renewed it for another four weeks of access to the book.

I talked to one of the librarians ahead of time about doing this, and she said it was fine as long as no other student had placed a reservation on that particular book. The tactic worked for me because I was in my junior year of college and my class sizes were beginning to become progressively smaller as I transitioned from my basics into my major courses. That meant it was less likely that another student in my class would be doing the same thing as me.

I did run into some snags while doing this. When I returned the textbook the second time around, I went back to borrow the book again and it had already been checked out by someone else. My only recourse was to reserve the book for myself when it came back in, and ask someone in my class if I could borrow their textbook on the nights I needed it (luckily, I always found classmates willing to share). Eventually, however, the textbook I’d been borrowing from the library came back in, and I was able to check it out and finish out my semester using it. Grace periods also helped me extend the length of time I could hang on to the textbook I was borrowing.

While borrowing a textbook from the library is a risky endeavor and can limit your access to the book when you need it, it’s certainly a viable way for students who are tight on money to use a textbook for absolutely free.

This guest post was written by Katheryn Rivas

Katheryn Rivas regularly writes for online universities.  Questions and comments can be sent to: katherynrivas87@gmail.com.

It’s often hard to keep up with the expenses that come with being in college. From tuition to car maintenance to rent, it’s often stressful to even think about money. However, it’s possible to get a handle on your finances while you’re in college. To avoid falling into the trap of the “poor college student” and to gain some financial stability, here are five tips.

1. Avoid credit card debt.
Credit cards can be useful to build your credit score and for major purchases, but it’s easy to get sucked into a vicious cycle if you aren’t responsible with your credit card. There are two good rules to follow when using your credit card. First, charge only what you can afford to pay for. Second, pay your balance in full each month. Both of these ideas sound
simple, but they are the main reasons that people find themselves slipping further and further into credit card debt. If you can avoid credit card debt in college, you’ll be in better shape to manage your finances in the future.

2. Learn to budget.
Budgeting can seem unnecessary in a world of online banking, but budgeting is more than just making sure your balance is what it ought to be. Budgeting includes taking a look at your income and your normal expenditures and making a plan to ensure that your income is covering your necessary expenses. Budgeting can help you visualize where your money is actually going and help you decide if you need to make financial changes. A budgeting worksheet is a great place to start.

3. Find deals on textbooks and school supplies.
Textbooks are a necessity for college students, but often textbooks can be very expensive. Look for deals when purchasing textbooks, like buying used textbooks, or even trading textbooks with other students. Be sure to compare textbook pricing between your campus bookstore and other retailers. Also, many stores and restaurants offer student discounts, so be sure to ask.

4. Start a savings account.
You can start to save money, even if you start from nothing. When you are budgeting your income, make sure to include a place for savings. When you make saving a priority in your budget, it’s more likely to happen, even if it is just a little bit of money. Having savings will help you feel much more stable in your finances.

5. Make small changes in your lifestyle.
Do you eat out for lunch everyday? Do you buy a new water bottle when yours runs out? By making small changes in your lifestyle and spending less, you’ll save yourself more money and improve your financial standing. Bring a homemade lunch and save the money you would normally spend buying it. Use an eco-friendly reusable water bottle. When you notice how much you save, you’ll be motivated to make more changes in your life to save money.

This guest post was written by Diane Johnson

Diane Johnson graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in political science. When she’s not traveling she enjoys writing articles about pell grants.

This is a guest post from Welles. He is a recent college grad who now writes content for Creditnet.com, a site which provides info about credit cards for college students.

So you’ve finally stepped out from under your parents’ umbrella and settled down in the beer soaked world of college. While it’s awesome to escape the watchful eyes of the parental units, there are some things that you’ll realize are kind of a drag.

One prime example: increased financial responsibility.

Now that you’ll be paying your way for most things, it’s up to you to start organizing your money in an intelligent way and preparing for your future. As long as you are a responsible spender, opening a credit card account and getting a head start on building your credit score is a very wise thing to do.

There are a few classic mistakes that college students make when they’re just starting out with a credit card. Make sure you don’t fall victim to one of these errors, or you could wind up foregoing all your Top Ramen money to pay for textbooks.

1. Charging too much

Let’s say you open up a credit card with a $500 line of credit. While it might be appealing to the average college student to promptly order a $500 bulk shipment of frozen pizzas, in the world of credit cards, this would be a very bad idea. Even though your new card gives you the capability to spend $500, you don’t ever want to charge that much in a given month.

Think of it this way: let’s say you offer to share some pretzels with your roommate, and then he goes ahead and eats the entire bag. You wouldn’t feel that good about pretzel-sharing situations in the future, now would you? Credit issuers feel the same way, and it may hurt your credit score if you adopt the same “give an inch, take a mile” mindset of your pretzel monger roommate.

Experts recommend spending no more than 30 percent of your available line of credit, so charge wisely.

2. Keeping a balance

Credit cards provide spenders with the luxury of not having to pay for their charges immediately. But this does not mean you should put off paying your balance until the next Olympics rolls around. Not paying in full can be a great way to incur interest charges and decrease the confidence credit issuers place in you as a spender.

A good way to handle this is by only charging your basic living expenses- like gas, utilities, and groceries. This way you won’t forget about that killer pair of shoes you bought at the mall and have a big surprise on your hands when it comes time to pay your bill. And if there is ever an emergency need to carry a balance, it’s best to opt for an interest interest free credit card so you won’t waste any of your money on interest charges.

3. Not having a credit card

This is the most common mistake that college students make. Life is pretty simple as a student and many might assume that credit cards may complicate things. While paying for everything in cash can often simplify things, it comes at the expense of not building up your credit score. Just a few years after college, you may need to make a large purchase on credit for something like a car or house, and if you don’t have an established credit history, banks may be unwilling to lend to you without a co-signer.

The younger you start building your credit score, the better. Even if it means simply charging a few meals on your card every month and paying it back, credit issuers like to see an established history of full payments on time. As long as you’re wise with your money, you’ll be well on your way towards responsible financial independence!

College is an expensive time, and for some students it’s the first time they’ve really had to fend for themselves financially. The household bills that Mom or Dad paid are suddenly down to you, and you may also need to buy your own food (and cook it, but that’s another topic!) and an endless array of other day-to-day things that you probably haven’t even thought of.
 
Unless your parents are really rich and generous, it’s not advisable to take out a credit card. Although they can come in handy for students who manage to get a part-time job between lectures, the majority should really try to manage without. A quick look on any credit card comparison service shows you the average APR of available credit cards – to put it in some kind of perspective, a 26.9% APR on a balance of $800 would mean a regular payment of around $68 per month…could you afford that on top of everything else? And that’s if you pay off the whole amount spent each month…if you don’t, the repayments get higher.
 
If you feel like you need a bit of plastic (for instance, if your campus isn’t the kind of place you want to carry cash around on), then there is an alternative – a prepaid card. Sometimes called prepaid credit cards, these work like a cellphone top-up card; you go into a store, hand over the card and some cash, and the store loads the cash onto the card for you. You can then use the card in place of any other credit or debit card, but you know you won’t be at risk of getting into plastic debt.
 
Keeping away from credit can be as simple as setting )and sticking to) a budget for each semester. If you manage to get a part-time job, great; it will give you regular income and allow you to cover surprise expenses that might crop up. If you aren’t working, then you’ll probably have to stretch your student loan quite a lot. There are thousands of money-saving tips out there so I won’t go into them here, but one I’ve always lived by is the 48-hour rule; if you want to (rather than NEED to) buy something, wait for 48 hours before buying it. You’ll probably find that after that time, you don’t want it after all.
 
You may already have a credit card by the time you get to college; in which case, think about transferring the balance onto another card with more favorable terms. Cashback and other reward credit cards are a good way to get some of your money back as they either pay out a percentage of your repayments back to you, or grant you grocery vouchers and other rewards. Shop around, there’s bound to be a card out there which can help you if you feel you need to keep your existing credit.
 
This guest post was written by Louise Tillotson
 
Louise Tillotson remembers her student days all too well! Fortunately, they stood her in good stead and she is now a regular author on a number of financial websites and blogs. Follow her on Twitter @louisetillotson.