Words and photos by Makenna Kaminski, our Jetsetter Journalist studying abroad in Sorrento, Italy, during Spring semester 2023.

If you've already decided to study abroad, then congrats! Making that decision is already a huge step. Yet, after deciding to study abroad, there's still so many choices as to where you're going to study as well as when you're choosing to go abroad.

There's the option to study for a J-Term or a Summer session. Or there's the common decision that most study abroad students face - the choice between the Fall or Spring semester.

Both semesters have their own set of perks, but I chose to go abroad over the Spring semester and I was very happy that I did. I originally chose the Spring since I wanted to be at my home university for the Fall months and it worked out better with my housing options.

Yet, once I was abroad I realized that there were many more perks to traveling in the Spring. Here are a few of them:

Less Tourism

When you're choosing your city to study abroad, chances are that you'll end up choosing to live in one of many big tourist destinations. These are usually the most popular options for students since these are the places where there is the most to see and do. Yet, with a tourist city comes many tourists along with it.

Studying in a touristy area can be fun, but it can also be stressful to adjust to your new home when the streets are constantly flooded with travelers from around the globe. The excess of people adds an extra layer of stress and difficulties when trying to navigate in a new place that is supposed to be your home.

The tourist season in Europe lasts from around April to October. The way the months fall within the semesters leaves more months of peak tourism within the Fall semester than the Spring. The Fall semester has 3 months of peak tourism (August, September, and October) while the Spring only has only one (April).

From what I've heard from others, these few months make a huge difference. In April, the tourist season is just starting to amp up. Meanwhile, in those Fall months, it's still in full swing and it dies down far slower.

Studying abroad in the Spring allows you to adjust to your new home in the dead of the Winter months while it's mostly locals in your chosen city. This way you can get a good feel for your new home before the craziness begins a few months in. This also gives you the chance to enjoy a calmer city for a longer period of time.

Cheaper Travel

Traveling abroad in the Spring means that you're going to be starting out your semester in the Winter. This may not make for the best weather while traveling, but it surely offers cheaper travel accommodations.

Plane tickets and hotels in the months of January and February can be unbelievably cheap. These months are when we found the best deals and oftentimes found weekend flights for just €50 and train tickets for even less. The hotels normally followed the same pattern.

When we were once looking to travel to Barcelona, we saw first-hand how much the prices could increase by waiting an extra month to travel. Flights to Barcelona from Italy in February cost only €80. Yet, when we decided to try and fly there in April instead, we saw that the flights were no longer €80, but over €200. April is just the beginning of the tourist season and the prices were already much higher than in the Winter. I can only imagine what they'd be during the other peak travel months of the year.

Traveling in the Spring gave us the opportunity to go on more weekend trips. We had cheaper options and more availability (since the accommodations weren't being booked as quickly), so we had the chance to go on more trips than we may have had if we went abroad during a more touristy season.

Easier to get around

Public transportation is a necessity for getting around Europe, and it'll quickly become your best friend. However, the tourists who visit use public transport just as much. As more people start to flood into the city, the transport becomes harder and harder to use. Either the train tickets sell out, or you have to stand in awfully long lines to get them.

Walking around and seeing attractions becomes increasingly difficult. In my small tourist town of Sorrento, I noticed a massive increase in the number of tourists on the streets and in stores in the few weeks leading into Spring. It's created issues walking on the sidewalks and completing my old day-to-day activities. In just a few weeks, I've watched my quiet little town become a tourist haven and it's been a tad overwhelming.

I also visited Rome both at the beginning of my semester (mid-January) and then visited for a second time in April. Between these two trips I saw such a difference in the amount of people in the city. The added tourists in Rome made getting around far more difficult and it created a completely different atmosphere compared to my first trip. The first time I visited, I walked through the colosseum, Trevi fountain, and Spanish steps with practically no one around. The second time, I brought my sister along and the two of us were barely able to squeeze by these attractions. The added people definitely made it far more stressful to see any of these main destinations.

During the Winter, navigating some of these big cities is a breeze. I highly recommend it in order to get a more fulfilling experience with less stress.

Your semester leads into the Summer instead of the Winter

Finally, the best part about studying abroad in the Spring is that your semester leads into the warmer months instead of away from them. I've found that this gave us something to look forward to as we patiently waited for warmer days and Spring flowers.

We've just sat back and watched our city slowly transform from a quiet little town into a bustling, exciting destination. I think we all agree that we found this far more preferable than seeing it the other way around. Sure, we've had to wait an extra few months for a lot of things to open around our school, but it was more exciting than seeing them all slowly close for the Winter months.

This way, our last few weeks of the semester have been growing more and more exciting as we get closer to Summer. Watching the slow transition gave us all even more of an appreciation for our city. Seeing our small city grow to its full potential was another thing to add to the list of benefits of studying abroad during the Spring.