Student Travel Special: STUDENT DEPARTURES
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Student travel is in danger of becoming respectable. The InterRail pass and the Hitch-hikers Guide to Europe are both well into their twenties, and now even Hollywood is getting in on the budget travel act with the film Before Sunrise, which is about love-and-romance-on-the-last-train- to-Vienna.
Fortunately, the long-term decline in the real cost of travel means that students' end-of-term horizons are expanding faster than the establishment can catch up. Instead of Amsterdam, Barcelona and Copenhagen, the new ABC of vacation possibilities includes Ashkhabad, Bogota and Calcutta. Students are indeed, as a travel industry figure called them last week, a bunch of lucky YITs (Young Independent Travellers).
Responding to the globalisation of students, Europe's travel operators are offering some tempting deals this summer. The price of the InterRail has been held steady at pounds 249 for a month of unlimited train travel in Europe. This excludes the former Soviet Union and parts of the former Yugoslavia, but it does include Morocco and Asiatic Turkey.
Participants must be under 26 and have been resident in Europe for at least six months. The pass is available from student travel bureaux, BR International appointed travel agents, principal BR stations and the International Rail Centre at Victoria, London. Further information: 01420 220902.
To get you off to a good start, the standard Eurostar fare of pounds 155 is reduced to pounds 84 for under-26s heading through the Channel tunnel to Paris. Meanwhile, Eurobus, a road-based rival to InterRail, offers two months on the Continent's highways for just pounds 169. These buses serve a limited area (basically Paris, Nice, Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, Prague, Vienna, Milan, Florence and Venice). Eurobus tickets are available through student travel specialists, notably STA Travel and Campus Travel - both of which have offices throughout Britain.
As a kind of high-altitude, upmarket InterRail, Lufthansa of Germany has for three summers offered a Young Europe Special (YES) deal for people under 26 and ISIC card holders under 31. Each flight costs pounds 59 (plus taxes where applicable). You must buy a minimum of four and a maximum of 10. The deal is available only through Campus Travel (0171-730 3402) or STA Travel (0171-937 9921).
This summer you can insure against academic failure, or at least the risk of having to resit. Campus Travel (see above) has built in to its insurance policies a clause covering people obliged to cancel or curtail a trip to take an exam again.
Travelex bureaux de change now offer commission-free currency and travellers' cheques to students; just show a valid ISIC card to qualify.
Students keen to find out more about the cutting edge of manufacturing technology should head for the new Kansai airport at Osaka. There are plenty of possibilities for sightseeing in the manufacturing heart of Japan. The latest edition of Plants to Visit in Osaka (from the Japanese tourist office, 0171-734 9638) includes, in addition to car and computer factories, five breweries and a distillery.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments