Students, families still paying for spring trips.

Paige Stachnik and her family left Thursday morning for a spring break get-away to Myrtle Beach, SC.

They paid a steep price for their vacation.

Stachnik, a sophomore at Glen Lake High School, and company filled up two Suburbans with people, gear and gas and were on the road in Ohio when she answered her cell phone.

“We’re heading to Myrtle Beach. I’m so excited to be going some place that has lots of sunshine and warm temperatures for spring break. I am very tired of winter,” she said.

With the price for a gallon of regular gas at $3.287 a gallon across the country, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA), as of Monday, travel agents are handling less business not only for spring break but for summer as well.

Jim Rink is head of media relations for AAA Michigan. While he had no figures to confirm the impact of high fuel prices on motorized travel for spring break, Rink said the Michigan office surveyed 282 members in December about their future travel plans. The organization asked how members were making changes in their lives to off-set the increasing cost of fuel.

“Of those who responded to the question, 23 percent said they had revised their summer vacation plans because of high gas prices. Seventeen percent said they had cancelled their summer plans,” Rink said.

Rink said the travel industry is down compared to this time last year. With the cost of jet fuel also increasing, Rink said people looking for cheap airfare may also be out of luck — although a plane ticket might seem like a bargain compared to that sucking sound at the gas pump.

“It depends on the destination. Some traditionally popular and low-cost destinations, like Las Vegas, it really isn’t practical for people from Michigan to drive there,” he said.

Becky Holton, who with husband, Kent. run Gills Pier Travel, an on-line travel site, said business was slow from people looking to get away for spring break. The website, www.gillspeirtravel.com, has been running since November 2007.

“We had a few people inquire, but not a lot,” she aid.

Of the people who did look at spring break plans, most were asking about the cost of driving versus flying to southern climates. “What we found with jet fuel going up in price as well that driving is still relatively cheaper than flying,” Holton said.

Some seekers of sun are combining the two. Northport Public School seniors Rose Petoskey, Betsy Shiner, Octavia Buss, Amanda Luna and Sophia Mosher drove to Chicago Friday to catch a flight to Venice, Florida.

“This is our senior year in high school and most of us haven’t gone anywhere on spring break, so we decided we would all go together,” Mosher said Thursday morning. The five seniors will spend their break on the beach in front of Mosher’s grandparent’s condominium in the central Gulf Coast community.

Having a place to stay was the selling point for Buss and company.

“It is a completely cost effective vacation,” Mosher said, with a laugh.

The Glen Lake girls’ softball team has spent the last two spring breaks in South Carolina getting in practice time and scrimmaging in warm weather. But this year coach Gary Galla said there wasn’t enough interest among players in making the trip. “The girls’ didn’t seem that interested, so we’re home for spring break this year,” he said.

The Lakers’ spring trip offered a chance to take preseason conditioning to a level not possible in the gyms other teams have been confined to. Galla said having two weeks of outdoors practice and scrimmage time under their belts gave the Glen Lake team an advantage.

“We were two weeks ahead of everyone else with those trips, it really paid off,” he said.

While the Lakers may not have made the trip this year, Galla said they are planning for it next year. With winter still hanging around — it snowed Tuesday — after two weeks of indoor practice, Galla said the point of the spring break trip has been driven home to the players.

“We’re starting the fund raising now,” he said.