E-Mail the Folks Back Home

The International Students House in London, a youth hostel, has opened a cyber-cafe from which travelers can also send e-mail home economically.

The new ISH cyber-cafe is open 4 to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. till 9:30 p.m. on weekends and holidays. The introductory rate is $3.33 per 30 minutes if you are staying in the hostel. Nonresidents must take out a three-month membership for $8.05, but this includes a free hour. Starting Jan. 1, students who are in London on work-abroad programs are automatically ISH Club members.

ISH has three residences in London. All have been recently refurbished. In total there are 600 beds. A bed in a multi-bed room costs $16.50; in a room shared by three or four it is $27.50; a twin room is $33; and a single room costs $66. There are discounted rates to travelers who have International Student Identity Cards. In all but the multi-bed rooms, the nightly rate includes continental breakfast. ISH features a restaurant, fully licensed and subsidized bar, currency exchange, launderette, fitness center, 24-hour access for residents and telephone facilities in each room. The hostel also hosts organized events, including sports activities, social evenings and free films.

For further information, contact the International Students House, 229 Great Portland St., London WIN 5HD; tel. 011-44-171-631-8300 or e-mail: [email protected], or visit the ISH Internet site at https://www.ish.org.uk . The closest Underground station is Great Portland Street. The Heathrow A2 Airbus also stops outside ISH.

Other affiliated International Houses worldwide that provide students with long and short-term accommodations are in New York; Philadelphia; Chicago; Berkeley; Washington, D.C.; Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Darwin, Australia; and Taipei, Taiwan.

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Outpost magazine has just been relaunched with a new design and new editorial departments. Using the words of adventurous travelers, the magazine presents an intimate window into many areas of the world that are off popular tourist paths. You may never get to many of these places (or want to), so this is one way you can armchair travel. Outpost isn’t really about destinations, it’s about the experience of traveling, and includes music and food columns.

In the most recent issue traveler Laurie Gough visits alleyways in Fez, Morocco, where she finds herself participating in a carpet-buying frenzy after drinking several suspicious cups of mint tea. Steve Cohen leads readers into the Ecuadorean rain forest along the jungle trails and by dugout into Cuyabeno Faunal Production Reserve, a 1.6-million-acre national park, home to toucans, squirrel monkeys, scarlet and yellow macaws, and rivers with piranha. Finbarr O’Reilly walks the streets of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Oakland Ross rides the rails of Zimbabwe; Michael Buckley investigates Cambodia; and Amy Serafin spends her Saturday night at a concert in Senegal.

The magazine was created by Christopher Frey and Kisha Ferguson, who hatched the concept while they were teaching English in Japan. They reinvested their earnings from that adventure and relied on many of their friends who were now spread out around the globe.

Subscriptions (four issues per year) are available for $12 from 490 Adelaide St. W., Suite 303, Toronto, Canada M5V 1T2.

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STA Travel, one of the largest global student travel organizations, is offering members a special air fare for U.S. travel.

The Circle the Country fare allows students to visit two destinations before completing their circle and returning to their original departure city for a flat rate of $380. For example, you could travel from L.A. to Miami, on to New York, and back to L.A. Additional cities can be added for $100 per city. This offer, which is valid though April 1998, for a stay of up to 60 days, is available exclusively through STA Travel to students who have a valid International Student Identity Card (ISIC). There is a three-day minimum advance purchase required.

STA has 20 offices across the U.S. and a toll-free booking hotline at (800) 777-0112. STA Travel’s Web site is located at https://www.sta-travel.com .

STA is also offering special discounted round-trip fares within the U.S., requiring no advance purchase, available for travel departing before Dec. 14, 1997. The company has also introduced special packages for budget travel to Australia and New Zealand for departures before Dec. 14.

The Down Under packages combine transpacific flights on Air New Zealand with passes for the OZ/Kiwi Experience bus services. The buses travel to major points in each country, and passengers can get on and off as they choose. The buses stop at backpacker hostels and budget hotels, major cities, and places of interest to adventure travelers, such as sites for bungee jumping, white-water rafting, hiking, scuba diving and water sports.

The Aussie Sampler Sydney package includes a round-trip flight between Los Angeles and Sydney, round-trip airport transfers, two nights in a Sydney backpacker-style hostel and an Oz Experience Blue Mountains Excursion. The starting price is $1,119. The Reef and Rain Forest Package includes a flight from Los Angeles to Cairns, Oz Experience transportation from Cairns to Sydney and return flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. This starts at $1,218. The Essential South Package includes a flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Oz Experience transportation from Melbourne to Sydney and return flight from Sydney to Los Angles. It starts at $1,183. The New Zealand package Geysers and Glaciers includes a flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, Kiwi Experience transportation from Auckland to Christchurch and a return flight to Los Angeles. The starting price is $1,348.

Izon is a Toronto-based freelance writer. She has a Web site at https://www.izon.com.