Student Tours of the Soviet Union

Independent travelers touring Europe on a budget can join economical English-language tours into the Soviet Union through two Scandinavian youth travel bureaus.

Between June and September the Scandinavian Student Travel Service will operate 6 to 13 night tours. The international programs attract people from a variety of English-speaking countries.

Accommodations are provided in two- or three-bed rooms; meals and sightseeing are included.

There will be seven departures for a six-night tour of Moscow and Leningrad. If you join the program in Copenhagen, the cost is $695 U.S.; from Leningrad the price is $405.

The programs usually fill up about three weeks before departure. You can make arrangements through many European student travel agencies by contacting SSTS’s retail travel office, DIS Rejser, at Skindergade 28, DK-1159, Copenhagen.

Each summer Travela, the travel service of the Finnish youth hostel association, offers weekly budget programs to Moscow and Leningrad. You can contact Travela at Mannerheimintie 5 (about a block from the Helsinki rail station). It takes at least a week to make visa arrangements.

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The travel service of the Danish youth hostel association reports that it is operating a new youth hostel in Greenland.

The building, within walking distance of the international airport at Narsarsuaq, is owned by the Greenlandic Sheep Farmers Assn.

It’s a modern, Scandinavian-style building with four four-bed rooms, two eight-bed rooms and a kitchen. Some tourist information also is provided.

It will open for the summer on June 20. When a staff person is not there, a key is left at the airport.

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This summer, budget travelers will find 17 youth hostels and 29 hotels, homes and schools offering low-cost sleeping-bag accommodations in Iceland.

Budget travelers on arrival in Reykjavik can head for the youth hostel at Laufasvegur 41 in the center of the city. There are budget accommodations and a travel service that can help make arrangements to visit other areas of the island country.

For example, you can arrange a short bus trip, plus a three-hour ferry ride, to Heimaey, one of the 15 volcanic Westman Islands.

Heimaey, with a population of 5,000, is Iceland’s largest fishing port. It has an intriguing, turbulent history. In 1627, 250 of its 500 residents were carried off by African pirates.

In 1973 more than 300 homes were destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Residents were moved off the island for a year and a television camera was placed on top of a mountain beside the village.

After regular television programming signed off each night, a switch was flipped and the displaced villagers were able to watch Mother Nature’s production. You can still see homes half-buried by the lava flows.

The cost of the round trip by bus and boat, plus a night at the Heimaey youth hostel, is 111 German marks (about $62 U.S.).

At the travel office you can also buy a Circlepass (valid for travel in one direction around the main island), plus vouchers for seven nights of hostel or sleeping-bag accommodations for 404 marks (about $226 U.S.). This is only available from June 1 to Aug. 31.

Another option is an Omnibuspass that allows travel in any direction for seven days, plus seven vouchers for sleeping-bag accommodations. The price is 444 marks. You can buy the pass from May 15 to Sept. 15.

For more information on travel to Iceland, contact the Icelandic Tourist Board, 655 3rd Ave., New York 10017, (212) 949-2333.