Oyster Worldwide Reviews 

I planned to travel with Oyster Worldwide to South Africa this summer 2020. Due to the Covid pandemic, I had to cancel the trip. Despite this, Oyster team, I would like to thank you for everything you have done. Your work is absolutely professional, you are helpful, kind and your communication is fast. I would definitely choose you again in the future and recommend you to my friends. Best wishes, Dasha

My daughter was so excited about her planned veterinary experience trip to South Africa this summer with Oyster Worldwide. The booking and facilitation process was a breeze and we were of course very disappointed when the trip had to be cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.
We have found our experience with Oyster to be highly professional and supportive and even when we made the difficult decision to cancel our trip for the time being and ask for a refund Oyster complied and reimbursed all the expenses incurred without question. I am so grateful to the team at Oyster worldwide and would highly recommend booking with them. We will definitely be hoping to re book next year! Thankyou Oyster

I booked an experience in a bear sanctuary in Romania but, unfortunately because of COVID-19, it has to be cancelled. Anne at Oyster called me to personally advise me on my situation. As my travel dates (due to my job) are very restricted, I can’t commit to a postponement so they were refunded me whatever I’ve paid so far; super efficient and hassle-free. I’m definitely praying for the time when we can travel again and I’d book through Oyster again in a heartbeat!

Unfortunately our trip to Costa Rica was cancelled but the experience with Oyster was great! Hopefully we will be able to book again soon!

Oyster has been an absolutely incredible travel agency, sorting out my trips to South Africa and Borneo whilst maintaining close and friendly contact! Nothing but positive feedback for Oyster and I highly recommend this organisation!

Unfortunately we've had to postpone our trip to South Africa which we were so looking forward to. The whole team at Oyster Worldwide has been incredibly supportive and friendly during these crazy covid times, especially Anne who I have dealt directly with. We're hoping to be able to re-book soon.

I was meant to be travelling to Thailand in July for the Elephant Sanctuary trip. I booked in Autumn time and from the moment I enquired about the trip I was treated with absolute respect. Anne, the destination manager was wonderful and extremely accommodating my needs and any questions or queries I had. When we first went into lockdown and they were obviously flooded with emails and questions yet they still were able to answer questions within a few days. As soon as it became apparent that the trip wouldn't be going ahead, I had frequent phone calls from Anne to keep me updated on how rescheduling or refunding the trip would work. I had my trip refunded within 3 days of deciding that is what I would like to do. I only asked for a refund because I am a student so I needed the money for university as I haven't been able to work due to lockdown restrictions and working in hospitality- but I will be rebooking my trip for next summer and will definitely be using Oyster Worldwide for my trip. I cannot recommend them enough!

Like many of the reviews written from around April 2020, my trip, like many others, couldn't go ahead due to the small issue of a global pandemic!

I was meant to be travelling to South Africa for the Veterinary experience and garden route tour. I'd booked my trip over a year and a half ago and had been saving up for even longer! I didn't mind working in my gap year and using all the savings I had because I knew that I had a once-in-a-lifetime trip booked!

All through the booking process Anne, my destination manager, was So helpful with answering any of my queries or concerns, from what bag would be best to take to how much spending money I would need... nothing was too much trouble.

Roll on to March 2020 when the UK entered lockdown and the world stopped. I was naturally, yet almost selfishly, very concerned about my trip. Anne was very optimistic about the outcome and encouraged me to stay hopeful (but working in a scientific environment had shown me that these sort of events, although rare, hang around for a long time!).

Oyster weren't the first to 'cancel'. My flights which were booked through the Flight Centre (I highly recommend using them), had been cancelled and along with the FCO advise advising against all but essential foreign travel, there was no way I was getting to South Africa. Also you now require a visa to enter the country and the SA borders were closed. Although disappointing, I wasn't surprised. A bigger challenge was yet to come...

Getting a refund is always a challenge, especially for a small business like Oyster Worldwide. At first I was encouraged to postpone my trip but I couldn't see this as a viable option as my original trip was booked for 5 weeks and I wasn't sure when I'd have that sort of free time at university (I'm even more glad I don't postpone now as my university has said they are shortening holidays in order to allow for social distancing... and who knows what will happen if people continue to ignore the lockdown guidelines!). I can totally see why postponement or credit notes were encouraged, yet this just wasn't the right solution for me.

It took a while to hear back from Oyster about what would happen next, but this was due to the shear number of calls and emails they were receiving. There were some scary moments during this time as I was unsure if I would get a refund and originally, I was only offered a partial cash refund with the rest on a credit note.

By this point, many of the wonderful staff at Oyster had been furloughed and so I've mainly spoken to the equally wonderful Rodger in the past few months. In order to get a refund, I was told to first put an insurance claim in. This was an incredibly long and painful process and my review for the company I used will be less than positive! It took longer than my trip length to hear back from them, only to find out it had been, unsurprisingly, refused. At the start of my claim, all I was offered was my final instalment back, but as time went on, and various developments occurred, I was offered my whole payment back.

This is a really challenging time for almost all businesses, especially for those in the travel industry. I really feel for Rodger and all his employees at Oyster! :-(

Although this has been a long and drawn out process ( a bit like this review!), I received a full refund today. (I'm still waiting on the flight money but thats a whole other battle!).

Rodger and Anne have been great and very understanding! I'm gutted that I couldn't go on my trip, but I'm so relieved that the money is bank in my account so that, when the time is right, I can start to plan another trip (and of course I'll use Oyster again).

Im sure if my trip could have happened I would have had a wonderful time and made lifelong memories!

Overall, minus some stress over the 'cancellation', my experience with Oyster has been great and I would certainly recommend them to other Gap Year travellers!

Very helpful from the very start to the very end unfortunately trip didn’t go ahead due to the virus, however, they were straight on it with providing alternatives and postponements along with extra support in all areas. Highly recommend!!

i would definitely recommend oyster to anyone wanting to travel in their gap year & for most of the stress to be taken out of their hands! whilst unfortunately my trip to southeast-asia wasn't able to happen this year because of covid-19, their correspondence throughout the process was efficient, personal and friendly, & they did their best to accommodate me through the changing global situation. i was given many options including open postponement & full refund cancellation. while sadly i was not able to postpone on this occasion, i am hoping & intending to book with oyster again once the global situation has cleared up! thank you for providing a quality service.

I had planned to go to Ecuador through oyster, but this fell through due to the covid-19 situation, regardless of this, the booking experience was very easy and efficient and they handled the situation very well when I was unable to travel, remaining friendly and helpful despite the uncertainty. Whilst I can’t comment on the actual trip (unfortunately!) I would wholeheartedly recommend oyster to a friend.

This summer I had booked to travel to Romania to help volunteer at a Bear Sanctuary, with the trip being organised through Oyster. Unfortunately I'm unable to make the trip due to Coronavirus concerns, but despite this, my experience with Oyster has been excellent. In direct contact with Anne Smellie the trip was quickly arranged with everything taken care of, all I needed to do was fill out my online profile. I'm sure that if the trip had gone ahead then this level of care would have been maintained throughout it's entirety, and it would have proven to be an experience that would stay with me for the rest of my life. I hope that in the future I will be able to attend a scheme similar to this, and I know that if I do, I'll be booking it through Oyster.

The review is written by Manon's mother ! Since many years, we were waiting that Manon would have been able to participate to the Vet Programm in South Africa.
When she turned out 17, we signed up for the programm and she did it at the age of just 17. She travelled alone and integrated herself into a group of strangers, who soon became friends, of all ages and from all over the world- and all in the medium of English. The programme and all interactions were conducted in English, and Manon learned a lot from directly working with the vet and programme staff on a one on one basis. She was the youngest participant.
She was in a Big 5 game reserve that including a rehabilitation to care about animals but also into their wildlife.

Manon was working 3 afternoon a Week with the Vet and did the following tasks:
• Practical health checks
• Checking for parasites, diseases and injuries
• Monitoring behaviour and well-being of animals in the reserve and in rehabilitation
• Basic dart gun training and possible darting of animals in the reserve
• Fence patrols and game drives
• Feeding and caring for the animals in the rehabilitation area
She also helped with the removal of invasive species and planting trees. Additionally, she joined a school feeding programme in the local school, where she was able to meet the local children and learn more about life in South Africa. Manon was so happy to go every thursday at the local school. Before arriving there, they were stopping into a small shop, where participants were proposed to buy some foods for children with their spending money. This was really rewarding for Manon.
When she was not working with the Vet, she was included into another programm of Wild Cat. She feeded animals etc... and made several Safaries (Sunrise and Sunset)
From the start to its end, Anna from Oyster guided us. She was super reactive and brought a lot of advice, her assistance throughout the programm was really helpful.
Manon is French and I would hightly recommend this program also to foreign young people as it will also reinforce your English skills.
Many thanks to Oyster team for this amazing and rewarding experience. You are the best

This is a parent review. Our son had an amazing time in Thailand, summer 2019. Oyster worldwide was efficient and helpful with taking care of every detail to ensure that our son had the best experience and was safe at all times. However, this is not a beach holiday. There is a clear structure to the day with early morning dives gathering data, taking photos, reef cleanups. In the afternoons there are sessions to analyse the data. The accommodation was basic and he had to make sure he fed himself. There were lots of cheap and tasty local restaurants that over looked the sea that provided most meals. The village is a typical old fashioned fishing town and is certainly no wild night life! You are very independent and at the weekends you are able to explore the island with the other volunteers. Our son was the youngest and only “boy” volunteering and had the chance to work with interns from all around the world. Coresea is a great research program and Oyster worldwide was completely ontop of this project with lots of feedback and support whilst he was there. Can highly recommend them.

I'm so glad that I decided to go there to volunteer.
People are so nice and kind. Of course, bears and other animals there are so cute too. I really want to go back there again!

The support from MyOyster was great, the Website had a very organized structure so it was easy to know what I had to do and buy before the trip. I wasn’t always 100% satisfied and happy with the project where I was at but all in all it was very good.

Oyster Worldwide provided great amounts of useful information to me and made the whole booking process as well as the trip itself very easy and enjoyable.

Oyster was instrumental in making sure that my wife and I found the right program for our interests and goals. We wanted to work with a project doing critical hands-on work to help the wildlife of Borneo, and they set us up with an organization doing just that on the Kinabatangan River in Sabah. Our liaison at Oyster, Anne, either answered all of our questions promptly or contacted the field organization and got back to us quickly. We were more prepared life on the ground when we got there because we had such a good line of communication from our first inquiry. We also had an unforgettable experience seeing and helping wildlife like orangutans, proboscis monkeys, seven species of hornbills, and even an Asian elephant. We'll definitely use Oyster again if we're looking for more conservation volunteer opportunities around the world.

Had a great experience with oyster. Anne was so helpful and her replies were always fast which helps. Everything about oyster ensures that you are travelling in a safe way