Ljs: Taking liberties: a jailbreak to San Diego

Every year, rag week students compete to get as far across the world as they can. Here's how the Guardian helped two of them to go to the west coast of the US, 5,500 miles away

It was around midday when I picked up the phone to an eager, breathless voice. "Hello! Is that the Guardian travel desk? I'm Sarah Malik and I am a student at Cambridge University and I'm taking part in a competition for charity. I'm in reception and I wondered if you could help ? we have until 9pm tomorrow to get as far around the world as possible!"

Something about the excitement in her voice spurred me down the stairs to hear them out. Sarah and Alice were taking part in a rag week "jailbreak" stunt. Teams had 36 hours to get as far from their start point as possible. Last year's winners had made it to Washington DC, about 3,600 miles. The clock was ticking.

Using industry contacts I tried to get them last-minute flights to the world's furthest-flung destinations ? New Zealand or South Africa. To no avail ? but then Hotels.com came to my rescue. "How about San Diego? The flight goes from Heathrow in two and a half hours ? can they make it?"

Course they could ? and here's their story ?
Gemma Bowes, Guardian travel editor

At 9am, 122 teams were gathered in a mock "jail" in Cambridge. We would all have 36 hours to blag, beg and busk our way around the globe. Each year the imagination of the teams reaches new heights. One year a team got to the Med without taking off their banana costumes; others were cautioned at the Parthenon in Athens for photographing each other dressed as cows.

In 2010 the prize was taken by a pair of amateur magicians who spent the weekend frantically busking to buy two tickets to Washington DC. When the go signal was fired, we joined in a mass stampede heading directly to the train station. We gamely rattled our purple collecting bucket until we'd collected enough coins to buy two �15 tickets to London. Once at King's Cross we felt braver ? we had escaped Cambridge and a world of possibilities lay before us. We spent two hours trying to get sponsorship from firms before landing at the Guardian offices, where travel editor Gemma Bowes was our "Guardian angel". She eventually told us she had found us a flight to San Diego. We got to check-in with minutes to spare and boarded our United Airlines plane euphoric. San Diego is 5,500 miles from Cambridge, and as it was still just a few hours after the start, we were sure we were in first place.

Changing at Washington DC, we finally landed in San Diego, to sunshine and palm trees. A text told us that Hotels.com had found us a room, at the Hard Rock Hotel. The much-needed drink was illegal (the hotel cleared the mini-bar in our room), as we are under 21, so we explored. On 5th Avenue we found a Mexican restaurant ? Tequila 100 (+1 619 233 2838, tequila100.net) ? and ravenously consumed our American-sized portions.

The aim of the jailbreak is to do as much as possible without using your own money. We had �50 in dollars for security. We decided to spend the day checking out the area and were delighted to find that most of San Diego's interesting shops were on 4th and 5th Avenues, right by our hotel. We were smitten with the Bettie Page store (bettiepageclothing.com), which sells 1950s-style dresses. The shop owner found us perfect dresses to try on (with matching shoes and belts) and we posed in the window like pin-ups.

But there was plenty to see without spending a dime. The Exclusive Collection Gallery on 5th (ecgallery.com) was showing fine art from artists such as Michael Flohr, and at the Horton Plaza Mall (westfield.com/hortonplaza) we browsed in American classics such as Abercrombie & Fitch.

Our age and lack of funds (or smart clothes) meant the city's reputedly brilliant nightlife was off-limits, so we made do with a mountain of frozen yoghurt, piled high with fruit and sugary toppings, for just $5 at the Pinkberry frozen yogurt shop (pinkberry.com), which was open till 11pm, and next to the Hard Rock.

Next day we decided to find out how San Diegans spend Sundays. The city is on the Pacific and has wide, clean streets with colourful architecture. The pace is stroll, don't rush ? the people are as relaxed and sunny as the weather. The Gaslamp Quarter is the beautiful heart of the old city, full of bars, galleries and affordable restaurants, and the beach is a must-see.

To the right out of our hotel was Petco Park (tinyurl.com/yky5ox2), home of the San Diego Padres baseball team. We had hoped to catch a glimpse of some handsome Padres in full swing, but it was no longer baseball season. Nevertheless, we saw a real slice of American life in the form of an amateur, middle-aged team practising in their threadbare gym shorts. In fact, we soon learnt that a typical San Diegan Sunday is dominated by sport ? all the locals, it seemed, from dogs to toddlers, were in sportswear, making the most of the parks and sunshine.

We had blagged some free pancakes at the famous Maryjane's (tinyurl.com/6yb4gdv) at our hotel, so splashed out on a $13 taxi ride to uptown district Hillcrest, a largely gay, transgender and fabulous community, with quirky vintage, independent and hip stores such as Luigi Vera on 5th, and some of the best restaurants in town, including the Tractor Room (+1 619 543 1007, thetractorroom.com) and Extraordinary Desserts (extraordinarydesserts.com).

At Balboa Park (balboapark.org), an "urban cultural" park with 14 museums and beautiful botanical gardens, we sweet-talked the receptionist into giving us a press pass for free entry to each museum.

We were getting good at this. Later we got a free dinner at upmarket Mexican restaurant Barrio Star (+1 619 501 7827) after explaining we were writing for the Guardian and doing a charity competition. The waitresses indulged our "oh so cute" English accents with a three-course meal.

On Monday we were up early to spend our last few hours basking in the sunshine, eating peanut butter and jelly bagels at the adorable Cafe 222 (cafe222.com). Even on this short budget break, the infectiously cheerful California people, eclectic urban culture and stunning golden bays had enlivened our tired student souls.

Sadly we were beaten to first place: one team reached Buenos Aires, courtesy of a Cambridge alumnus. The total raised for local and national charities is already more than �30,000. Thank you to all the kind strangers who helped and advised us on the way.

Sarah Malik and Alice Wainwright

? United Airlines (unitedairlines.co.uk) has return flights to San Diego from Heathrow via Los Angeles from �478. Hotels.com (020-3027 8142) has doubles at the Hard Rock Hotel from �148