Student travellers can take advantage of a comprehensive range of spe- cial discounts - both at home and abroad - which enable them to go almost anywhere in the world on the cheap. To qualify for a range of discounts on train, plane and bus fares, on selected accommodation, admission to museums, etc., you need an International Student Identity Card (ISIC) which is recognised all over the world. The card is obtainable from local student travel offices for £6 or by post for £6.50 from ISIC Mail Order, PO Box 48, Horndean, Waterlooville, Hampshire, PO8 0FJ. The ISIC card is valid for 16 months from 1 September. All full-time students are eligible (though some flight carriers do not offer discounts to students over the age of 31); applications should include proof of student status, a passport photo, full name, date of birth, nationality, address and a cheque or postal order.

The ISIC card is issued by the Amsterdam-based International Student Travel Confederation (ISTC) which has a splendid website (www.istc.com) with links to all member organisations and discount information on goods and services available to students worldwide, from cafés in Armenia's capital to the national bus system of Egypt. These discounts and benefits are also listed in the ISIC Student Travel Handbook which comes free with membership. In addition, the handbook contains information on the ISIC emergency helpline for students who encounter medical or legal emergencies while travelling.

Several alternative travel discount schemes are not dependent upon student status but are available to young people under the age of 26. The Federation of International Youth Travel Organisations (FIYTO, Bredgade 25H, 1260 Copenhagen, Denmark, website www.fiyto.org) comprises 350 organisations and companies in 60 countries specialising in youth travel. A 'Go 25' membership card costs £6 and gives access to a range of concessions similar, although not identical, to those offered by ISIC; you can apply for one at any branch of STA Travel. Another similar card is the Euro Under-26 card administered by the European Youth Card Association (website www.euro26.org), available to Europeans under the age of 26. In the UK this card is administered by usit- Campus.

Accommodation

The international youth hostelling movement continues to thrive, despite keen competition from other hostel organisations and independent hostels. Hostelling International, to which the Youth Hostels Association (YHA) belongs, is still the first port of call for many travelling students and young people. Membership for people over 18 costs £12 a year and is available at any youth hostel or by contacting the YHA National Office (Trevelyan House, 8 St Stephen's Hill, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL1 2DY, tel 0870 870 8808 or 01727 855215, website www.yha.org.uk). Hostelling International has more than 4,500 hostels worldwide, listed and described in two books costing £8.50 each: Europe and the Mediterranean in one volume, Africa, America, Asia and Oceania in the other. Note that ISIC card holders aged 1825 can claim a £1 discount on all hostel stays within Britain, bringing an average overnight stay down to less than £9.

An explosion of budget accommodation for students and young people has taken place around the world and many leads can be found on the internet. One such hostel network is the Hostels of Europe Group, based in Belgium (133- 135 Langestraat, 8000 Bruges, tel +32 50 34 49 28, website www.hostelseurope.com). VIP Backpackers Resorts of Australia is especially strong in Australia and New Zealand but also offers an international network. You can get an up-to-date list of their hostels on the internet or on a pamphlet available from its head office in Australia (PO Box 600, Cannon Hill, Brisbane, Queensland 4170, tel +61-7-3395 6111, website www.backpackers. com.au). Another very useful website for worldwide hostel listings is www.hostels.com/hostels. The small, up-to-date Independent Hostel Guide is published every spring; it costs £4.95 from bookshops or from the Backpacker Press (2 Rockview Cottages, Matlock Bath, Derbyshire DE4 3PG, tel/fax 01629 580427). The bulk of the listings are in the United Kingdom and Ireland, but a growing number of European hostels is also included. With a little initiative, you may be able to negotiate use of student accommodation during vacation time. In West Germany, students can use university catering facilities (Mensas) which are decent, reasonably priced and open all year round. Most student and independent travel agencies can book budget accommodation or short backpackers' packages worldwide in hostels or 1-, 2- and 3-star hotels.

Travel discounts

Cheap rail travel is dependent chiefly upon age and is generally open to everyone under the age of 26. Inter-Rail is available on a zonal basis - from £129 for a 22-day 1-zone pass to £219 for a month-long all-zones pass covering all 28 countries on the network as well as offering discounts on Eurostar and cross- Channel travel. Inter-Rail passes are available from youth travel agencies and from Rail Europe (179 Piccadilly, London W1V 0BA, tel 08705 848848); alternatively they can be booked via the internet at a £5 discount (www.inter- rail.co.uk). For more flexible rail travel, Euro Domino is a go-as- you-please touring pass valid for three to eight days of travel during any one month. You simply buy a coupon for each country you wish to visit.

Europe's largest scheduled coach operator is Eurolines (4 Cardiff Road, Luton, Bedfordshire LU1 1PP, tel 0990 143219, www.eurolines.co.uk) which offer a ten per cent discount to passengers under 26. It pays to compare prices carefully between coach and rail because the differences are sometimes less than you might expect. Student travel agents such as usit-Campus (see below) sell European coach passes: 30 days of travel between 50 cities in 25 countries costs £195, for example, while the 60-day pass costs £227.

Within Britain, students with a Student Rail Card costing £18 are entitled to a third off all rail travel for one year (tel 0845 7484950). National Express markets a Young Person's Coach Card for £9 which gives holders a 2030 per cent reduction on all standard fares; enquiries to the Coach Travel Centre (4 Vicarage Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3ES, tel 08705- 808080, www.nationalexpress.co.uk).

Valuable discounts are also available for air travel. Student and youth discount flights are operated by the major student travel organisations under the umbrella of the Student Air Travel Association. Most of the flights are open to ISIC card holders under 30 (some have different age restrictions) together with their spouses and dependant children travelling on the same flight, and to young persons with a valid Euro Under-26 or Go 25 card.

Travel offices

Specialist youth and student travel agencies are an excellent source of information for just about every kind of discount. Staff are often themselves seasoned travellers and can be a mine of information on budget travel in foreign countries. But check out your High Street or local independent travel agent as well, in order to compare prices before making a final decision.

The two leading youth and budget travel specialists are STA Travel and usit-Campus Travel, both of which can organise flexible deals, domestic flights, overland transport, accommodation and tours. Both publish brochures-cum-magazines which survey travel options for students: look out for STA's The Guide and usit-Campus's Hit the Ground. STA originally stood for Student Travel Australia, though it is now a major international travel agency with 250 branches worldwide; the UK head office is at Priory House, 6 Wrights Lane, London W8 6TA (tel 020 7361 6262 worldwide, 020 7361 6160 insurance and other travel services, website www.statravel. co.uk).Usit-Campus is Britain's largest student and youth travel specialist, with 47 branches in high streets, universities and YHA Adventure Shops. As well as worldwide airfares, they sell discounted rail and coach tickets, budget accommodation and insurance and many other packaged products. Their head office is at 52 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W 0AG (website www.usitcampus. co.uk); the national call centre number is 0870 240 1010 (tel 0161 273 1721 in Manchester, 0131 668 3303 in Scotland or 0117 929 2494 in Bristol).

Council Travel, America's largest student travel agent, has branches across the States; to find the local address, ring 1-800- 2council or visit the website at www.counciltravel.com.

Working abroad

Established organisations that run working abroad programmes are invaluable for guiding students and other young people through the problems of red tape, and for providing a soft landing for first-time travellers. BUNAC (16 Bowling Green Lane, London EC1R 0BD, tel 020 7251 3472) is a student club which helps British students to work abroad. It offers a choice of programmes in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ghana, Jamaica and Argentina, and in all cases assists participants in obtaining the appropriate short-term working visas. In some programmes participants have jobs arranged for them, for instance as counsellors or domestic staff at American children's summer camps; in others, individuals must find their own summer jobs once they arrive at their destination.

Usit-Council is affiliated to the Council on International Educational Exchange in New York and oversees work abroad programmes in the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and China (52 Poland St, London W1V 4JQ, tel 020 7479 2000, website www.councilexchanges.org).

Many other youth exchange organisations and commercial agencies offer packages which help students to arrange work or volunteer positions abroad. Camp America (37a Queen's Gate, London SW7 5HR, tel 020 7581 7373, website www.campamerica.co.uk) and Camp Counselors USA (6 Richmond Hill, Richmond TW10 6QX, tel 020 8332 2952) are major recruitment organisations which arrange for thousands of young people to work in the US, mostly in summer camps. Other agencies specialise in placing young people (both women and men) in families as au pairs, as voluntary English teachers or in a range of other capacities.

The best way of finding out about these mediating agencies and companies is to visit the library of a student careers office. These have key reference books and other resources, such as the very useful series published by Vacation Work Publications, and titles such as Working Holidays from the Central Bureau for Education Visits and Exchanges.

Gap year students

An increasing number of school-leavers are deciding to take a gap year between school and higher education. A plethora of organisations both charitable and commercial offer a wide range of packaged possibilities to gap year students, from working on a kibbutz in Israel for eight weeks to teaching in Nepal or Ecuador for six or more months. Some placements are straightforward to arrange and require little more than phoning a UK partner agency, filling out some forms and paying a fee.

Pre-arranged placements are seldom self-financing, with some commercial organisations charging up-front fees of £3,000 plus for, say, a three-month placement in South America combining language instruction, a stint of voluntary work in a conservation or welfare project and an expedition. In a very few cases outside funding is available; for instance the European Union's European Voluntary Service (Connect Youth International, British Council, 10 Spring Gardens, London SW1A 2BN, tel 020 7389 4030, website www.britcoun.org/education/connectyouth/evs.htm) has recently provided subsidised or even free training, flights and board and lodging for six-month voluntary attachments to social projects in Eastern and Central Europe.

An association of placement agencies called the Year Out Group was launched in 2000. It exists to promote the benefits of well-structured gap year programmes and publishes guidelines to help students and their parents choose a responsible and appropriate scheme. At present 22 member organisations belong to the Year Out Group (PO Box 29925, London SW6 6FQ, tel 07980 395789, website www. yearoutgroup. org). Students should apply as early as possible in their final year at school or college; early acceptance leaves more time for fund-raising which is usually an intrinsic part of the experience.

This is a small selection of the key organisations in the field of gap year placement abroad:

A number of books on how to fill the gap year are available, including Taking a Gap Year from Vacation-Work Publications (£11.95), Taking a Year Out (Hodder & Stoughton) and The Gap Year Guidebook (Peridot Press).

Studying abroad

To study abroad you must first be sure you can cope adequately with the local language. Organisations such as the Central Bureau and possibly the British Council should be able to advise, as should the Cultural Attaché at the relevant embassy. If possible, ask someone who has just returned for details about local conditions.

The Socrates-Erasmus programme enables students to obtain financial assistance for 3-12 months' study in another European country. This is normally taken as part of a recognised degree course, e.g. third year university year abroad for language students. A Socrates-Erasmus grant will contribute towards the extra costs that arise from studying abroad, but it does not cover all the usual student living expenses. Anyone interested in taking part in the Erasmus programme should look for universities that participate in the Erasmus exchange. This information is contained in The UK Guide to Socrates-Erasmus available from ISCO Publications (12A Princess Way, Camberley, Surrey GU15 3SP).

Lingua offers the opportunity to go on an educational exchange to improve foreign language communication skills. Lingua Action C enables future language students to spend up to one year working as a language assistant in another EU country.

Ask your university, college, higher education department or local authority if they have any special trust funds for study abroad and student travel. Two handbooks on grants are the Directory of Grant-Making Trusts and the Grants Register. Both are expensive (£90 and £99 respectively) but should be in student and some local libraries.