International Student Identity Card?

[nothriver]

Not sure where to post this question!

 

Does anyone have experience with the International Student Identity Card?

 

Looks like the card is good for 1 year, at a cost of $25. I just reserved tickets to the Vatican and I see that we could have saved 8 euros with the card. We do have two trips to Europe in the coming year. I've seen some places however that only give the student discount to EU students, not foreign students, so I don't know whether this is worth the $25. My son is a 19 yr old college student (US).

[RSLeesburg]

I went over to Germany to study for a while, but was too old to qualify for most of the student discounts. If I recall, the cutoff age was 26 at the time, and I was 29 (over studying for my MBA). However, if your son is going to be there for a while, I would definitely get him one. It used to be that "students" would get discounts on trains, air travel, entrances to museums, etc. Each country may be different in terms of whether they will offer these discounts to US students or not. I was attending a German university, so had I been young enough I would have gotten all the benies. But, if he is only there for a week or so, it might not be worth it.

[RSLeesburg]

You may want to also see if that card provides any discounts here in the US.

[gymbomb]

I had one when I went to Italy for 3 weeks during college (age 19/20). It was a requirement for the group trip with my University, but I do remember getting discounts at a number of places with it. At the time it also provided some sort of insurance coverage. I don't remember the details, although I believe that is why we were required to have them.

[nothriver]

Thanks for your responses. I'll explore the benefits further. We'll have a total of 4 weeks in Europe this year. I suspect he'll be abroad next summer as well but that would require a renewal of the card; I wonder if there is a renewal discount of anykind.

[RSLeesburg]

Give it a try for one year, and have him track his savings - if it pays for itself renew and pay the $25 again. If it doesn't, don't renew. :)

 

I remember my company shelled out $450 Marks (I am dating myself) for a Bahn First Card while I was working in Germany. This card gave me 50 percent discount on all train tickets. I thought they were crazy, but the card paid for itself in less than 3 months - they obviously knew more than I.

 

The point is, you just never know, and $25 is not such a major investment when you consider spending 4 weeks in Europe. My wife and I can blow through over $5K for a week in London, and we have a free place to stay over there...

[dijid]

I'd suggest asking about this on a more general forum such as TripAdvisor. Many countries now only give discounts or free admission to EU students - or even (in some places) to their own country's citizens.

 

Italy and Greece were EU citizens/students only. France would probably take the card. Turkey is questionable. We found the policy changed every place we went.

 

The other thing to consider is whether you can just save money by buying discounted museum passes. Many places offer cards that bundle museum admissions and save you money versus buying them individually. Or you can get a one-price-covers-all for a certain number of days of travel in a city. If you're planning to do a lot in a short period of time, these can often be a good deal and might be better than aying $25 for the student ID.