This is where you should go on a gals trip, based on your uni

This is your sign to blow your remaining student loan on some Ryanair flights


It’s that time of year where we sit in our marginally sunny garden or local park, scrolling through Instagram, wondering how all these people are affording the lavish, hot vaycays they all seem to be on – especially as they could barely afford take-out a couple of weeks ago. It’s the kind of endless content which makes you wonder if your left over maintenance loan and minimum wage job salary will stretch to a nice week away.

Rounding up your pals and choosing a dream destination which will suit you all is definitely one of the biggest challenges you can face, equal only to fighting your uni stereotype – so why not do both at once? This is what ultimate girls holiday you should go on with your mates, based on what university you go to:

Oxbridge – Cooking class in Rome

Let’s face it, if you can’t put it on your CV, what’s the point right? Well, the good students of Oxbridge won’t be wasting any precious time doing something unproductive. They can combine learning a new skill with some educational, historic sight seeing – and there’s the added bonus that the outcome of this trip will give them some great tools when it comes to dating: not only will they be able to woo a partner with your rustic, authentic Italian cooking, but they can also tell stories of their travels.

Cardiff – Exploring Greek Islands and Mamma Mia tour

Cardiff gals know how to party. They’re used to going out in terrible weather and managing their booze despite the cheap prices so they know how to have fun. A good time for Cardiff girlies is a bit of exploring, a few beautiful beaches, and lots of nights out. They’ll be the ones putting the hen-dos to shame, dancing on the tables to Gimmie! Gimmie! Gimmie! and grabbing a random guy for an ouzo filled rendition of Voulez-Vous (aha!).

Hangovers aside, they’ll be up in the morning, ready to catch the ferry to their next destination, getting some cracking re-enacted photos for Instagram too.

Bath – Yoga retreat in Bali

Earthy, wholesome and adventurous, Bali is the perfect place for Bath students where they can explore the temples, stand under a waterfall, hold a monkey, and get that all important sunset beach swing picture, before heading off on a truly enlightening and bonding yoga course in a town which they can only almost pronounce.

The history and culture will be their home away from home, and teach them a new skill to keep them mindful and balanced throughout exams.

St Andrews – Wine tour in Italy

Actually, it probably doesn’t matter where you go, give St Andrews students some ‘organic’ wine and some sunshine and they’ll be happy. Work hard, relax harder, and there’s no better way to do that for these classy students than with a nice chilled Pinot and some sun-beds overlooking the rolling landscape.

Bristol – Diving in the Maldives

Nothing goes better with artsy, chilled and endlessly cool students than diving in a hot country. These gals are up with the sun, probably getting in an early morning swim and mediation or yoga before a nice fruit bowl breakfast to make any artisan coffee shop swoon. They’ll be out in the water, probably saving endangered ocean wildlife as they go, and raising awareness of climate change.

You probably won’t actually see any photos from this trip as they all decided to have a social media break or even a whole digital detox for their mental health.

Warwick – Hiking in Costa Rica

Rouge through and through – rouge uni, random holiday. No one really knows where Warwick is, or where Costa Rica is for that matter, so it’s really a perfect match. Warwick students are desperately trying to squeeze in that gap year that they never took into their uni summer before going back to their gruelling studies, trying to keep up with the rest of the league table.

Exeter – Château in the South of France

A tiger never changes its spots, and an Exeter student never changes their Dior foundation either. Really, these students are not classy as such, but bougie. Give them a large château which is owned by the father of the Real Estate society president, in an area where fruit costs £10 a punnet and they’ll be happy – you can probably see them spraying vintage Bollinger from across the channel.

They’ll be jumping in the pool by day and playing Ibble Dibble by night, around a fire-pit which extinguishes after only 20 minutes as none of them actually passed their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh.

Manchester – Boat party in Ibiza

There is only one uni that comes to mind when you say party and that’s Manchester. Whilst there are a couple of destinations that scream party abroad (Magaluf, Xante) none of them quite come close to Ibiza. These guys will be partying till dawn; out-dancing and out-drinking the 18-year-olds on their first ever holiday without their parents. Plus, they’ll be up by midday and ready to work on their tan so they can do it all over again the next night.

Edinburgh – Spa Retreat in Cornwall

Edinburgh students went really far away for university and slightly underestimated all the travelling involved. Between all the flights and trains back home for Christmas, birthdays, breakdowns and holidays, they really haven’t got much money left. Really, the destination had to be somewhere in England as they are done with travelling.

Besides, they’ve been up in the cold for so long it’s about time they got some vitamin D and relaxation. What better time to do it than right at the end of term, before the rest of universities and schools have broken up?

Durham – Full Moon party in Thailand

Again, these are some people who suffered the tragedy of being forced to go to uni without a gap year and can’t believe they haven’t been enlightened yet. They are probably accompanied by the few who did manage to have a year out, and came to uni with henna and a hair braid still in tact. The ones who talked about how life-changing their backpacking tip around South-East Asia was, and how they think they might move out there after uni.

They’ve been working so hard all year (claiming that Durham is actually way harder than Oxbridge) and are ready to party like Manchester students. Most of them probably won’t actually see much of Thailand, spending most of the day hungover and feeling the effect of trying magic mushrooms for the first time the night before. Whilst others will be out trying to find that “authentic” experience they heard all about in Freshers’. The group who go together will all have one thing in common though: they’ll all come back with matching palm tree tattoos.

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