The International Student Blog

The issues of transportation for international students interested in studying in Washington, D.C. (just as with most travel abroad educational experiences) is worthy of student consideration and pre-planning. Transportation options for international students can be a tricky problem, requiring creative solutions whenever and wherever possible. An example of such creative solutions are the emerging bicycle sharing systems (also known as community bicycle programs, public bikes, free bikes, and yellow or white bicycle programs) in many major U.S. cities, such as Washington, D.C.

These are programs where bicycles are made available to the general public for a minimal charge (or for free in some cases) to be used for travel within specific areas in and around cities. This bike option reduces or eliminates the following issues of transportation for international students interested in studying in Washington, D.C. (infamous for its traffic congestion and delays) and other select U.S. locations: avoiding traffic jams, reducing your carbon footprint, finding home parking for a personal bike, cost and maintenance of a personal bike, as well as having to invest to protect a personal bike from theft.

Reasons for cities to provide these bicycle sharing systems range from promoting health and exercise for local residents to decreasing local environmental pollution. Of the many transportation options for international students in D.C. is a bicycle sharing system such as the Capital Bikeshare program or their competitor, SmartBike DC.

Other major U.S. cities with bicycle sharing system transportation options for international students include Boston in Massachusetts, Buffalo in New York, Chicago in Illinois, Denver in Colorado, Marquette in Michigan, Miami Beach in Florida, Pottstown in Pennsylvania, Salt Lake City in Utah, and Minneapolis in Minnesota.

If you follow the international student twitter feed, you will have already seen this amazing deal that we have come across from Air Berlin that allows you to travel around Europe (5 destinations to be precise) for the low price of Just €199!

From what we can tell there are not catches, you just need to be between 18 and 27 years old and travel must be in the summer months (July and August) – and you have the full choice of travel to 5 Air Berlin destinations for only €199! InternationalStudent.com is always on the lookout for great deals like this – and if you are in Europe or want to head to Europe this is probably one of the cheapest ways to travel this summer.

Hurry though, only 3,000 tickets will be sold!
http://www.airberlin.com/

This is probably one of the best videos I have seen in a long while which charted the adventures of Matt as he traveled…..no actually danced around the world. He did this a while ago, but we still think the video is fantastic and makes us all want to travel the world more! Well worth a watch:

You can also read more about Matt and his traveling adventures on his website “Where the Hell is Matt?”

With the recession hitting home for many students, the team at International Student are trying their best to bring as many discounts and offers to students from all around the world. With Spring Break and the Easter period just around the corner, this is traditionally a favorite time for many students to travel around the world and hopefully with a little extra help from us you can still realize your traveling dreams.

This limited time offer provides you with an extra $20 off the price of our already low-priced student airfare deals – and all you need to do is enter the special promo code. The offer is valid for any flight over $250 (excluding taxes and surcharges) and only available once per passenger.

Some examples of flights students have purchased over the last 45 days include:

- New York to Miami for $127 roundtrip

- New York to Beijing for $541 roundtrip

- and many more great deals!

Visit the International Student Airfare Booking Engine today:

http://www.internationalstudent.com/travel/student-airfare/

With the launch of the new InternationalStudent.com Rail Pass Center, we are giving away a FREE First Class Rail Pass for the UK. This fantastic prize offers benefits such as:

* 4 days First Class travel throughout the UK
* Must be used within a 4 month window
* Fully transferable – so you can give it to anyone

To have a chance of winning the rail pass you just need to purchase any one of our European Rail Passes during the month of January and you will be automatically entered into the draw. The winner will be announced in our next newsletter, so be sure to check back!

Please also note, that with most rail passes you can purchase them for advanced travel – so if you are planning to travel through Europe over Easter or Summer, now is often the best time to purchase a rail pass. You also have flexibility on most rails passes so you do not need to be specific on your travel date!

http://www.internationalstudent.com/travel/rail-pass/

We have just launched our own Student Rail Pass Center on the InternationalStudent.com Travel Center, and can now provide rail passes for the whole of Europe. Rail travel is growing in popularity as a new way to see many parts of the world on a budget and with the rail passes from our new center you can see the whole of Europe or parts of Europe without spending a fortune!

Rail passes offers some great benefits such as:
- Cheap option to travel for long period
- Stations are in the city center
- No need to turn up hours before your departure
- Most trains in Europe offers restaurants on board
- and much more…..

With rail passes and our student hostel booking engine – you can see Europe and spend your time having fun without wasting your money!

For more information about student rail passes, and all the other travel options we offer please see the student travel center:
http://www.internationalstudent.com/travel/

WOW! All we can say is how astounded we are by the sheer quantity and quality of the videos we received for the 2008 Annual Video Contest! You have all outdone yourselves and it will be very hard to choose who will be the winner this year. You can see the finalists online at:

http://www.internationalstudent.com/contest/

We also want to hear from you – if you like a particular video, drop us an email and let us know what you think. Our contest judges are going to have a hard time choosing the winner so any help you can give them just let us know!

Thank you all who entered and best of luck – we should be announcing the winners shortly so keep checking back!

Students are notorious for wanting to get cheap things, and for most part if you are a student you can get things cheaper than most through student discounts, student travel cards, etc… However if you are not a student or you want to get even cheaper airfare when you travel around the world we have some great money saving tips that will help find great low cost flights:

1. Travel on Holidays – With this time of year, the rush to get flights can really push up the prices and so trying to fly home before Christmas will most likely cost a premium. If you want to get home, but still save some money, travel on Christmas Day or the day after Christmas (Boxing Day for the English folk amongst us) to save money. Flights are generally much cheaper and there is more availability – so if you can arrive a few days later its a great option!

2. Travel on Off-Peak Days – There are off-peak and on-peak days in the travel industry when flights are generally cheaper. If you want to save some money try and fly on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday as the cost will often be lower than flying over the weekend or on Monday/ Friday.

3. Search Low-Fare Airlines – If you live in NY for example, and you want to get to Nice in France, sometimes trying to book all the way through can be expensive. Instead try booking from NY to London, Paris, Madrid which are the main trans-atlantic routes and then look at low fare websites like Ryan Air or Easyjet for cheaper connections – it could save you some money.

4. Flexible Locations – Often flying from major airports can be more expensive so check out the other airports, for example London has Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Stansted and Luton all within a close distance. Most cities are the same and have smaller airports that are cheaper to fly into.

For more information to search for low-cost student airfare, please see our site and if you have any other tips to find low-cost student airfare deals then please feel free to post any comments.