As spring approaches, students will begin searching for things to do outside the residence halls and apartments in which they have been imprisoned by the harsh Milwaukee winter. Luckily, Milwaukee has plenty to offer as repentance for the bitter cold in the way of cheap travel.

While it’s still reasonably chilly, using the public bus system is a good option for local transportation. It’s free for undergraduate students with a U-PASS and stops every few blocks, which makes it easier to get virtually anywhere.

“Taking the bus is really easy,” said Jordin Clough, a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences. “And you can always talk to someone on the bus if you don’t know where you’re going.”

There are, however, a few drawbacks to the Milwaukee County Transit System.

“The buses that run about every hour are usually only 10 minutes late, at most, in my experiences, but the ones that run about every 10-15 minutes are never on time,” said Abby Kaske, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences. “Sometimes two go by at once just as you’re trying to cross the street to catch one. Then you wait about 20 to 30 minutes for the next.”

But as the weather gets better there are other travel options, such as walking or biking around the city.

“I like walking around the Third Ward,” said Dana Ley, a freshman in the College of Health Sciences. “There are a lot of shops, and the Milwaukee Public Market has good food. It’s also fun to walk around the East Side. There are cool antique shops, clothing shops to browse and a lot of great restaurants.”

While walking is the cheapest and easiest way to get from place to place, for farther distances, or simply to get to your destination faster, biking is always an option.

“Biking in Milwaukee is much easier than in some of the suburbs where the trails can be limited, and very much segregated away from the streets, which (can be) incredibly dangerous,” said Charles Dobbs, a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences. “In Milwaukee, you can bike most anywhere without actually taking your life in your hands. (Biking) is fun, social, good exercise, inexpensive and environmentally friendly.”

These are all great options for local travel, but for students looking to escape a little further, the Amtrak, Megabus and Coach USA are all relatively affordable forms of transportation.

Amtrak’s Hiawatha service is a simple way to get to downtown Chicago in an hour and half, but at $22, it can be more expensive than alternatives.

Megabus, which goes to over a dozen Midwestern cities, is probably the cheapest travel option students will find in Milwaukee.

“Our prices are lower than anyone else’s,” said Matt Eggert, Operations Manager for Megabus.com Northeast. “We try to cater to the college kids in general, as there are major colleges in or near each of the stops we make.”

Those students with cars of their own may not have to wait around for buses or trains, but even driving can have its drawbacks.

“As nice as it is, having a car is also a huge hassle,” said Alex Gelhar, a sophomore in the College of Communication. “You need to pay a lot to park, not only at school but at most other places as well. Everyone bothers you for rides constantly. And there is the added expense of gas and maintenance. When you put that all together, it really does not pay to have a vehicle, however nice it may be.”