Oyster Worldwide Reviews 

I booked a wildlife volunteering trip in Thailand with Oyster Worldwide, and knew immediately that I was in capable hands. My coordinator was so quick to respond to emails and queries, happy to move my dates when life got in the way and delayed my initial booking, and provided me with all the info I needed before I set off. My three weeks in Thailand were an absolute dream. I spent the first two with primates, bears, birds and all manner of other beautiful animals, and then did the third week with elephants, and both experiences were magical. The work was hard – you're up with the dawn preparing food, harvesting banana trees, scrubbing bear pools and monkey enclosure – but it was the most rewarding I've ever done. I met so many brilliant people, staff and other volunteers, and made friends and memories for life. I cannot recommend it enough, and will definitely be booking another trip.

Brilliant time researching elephant behaviour in South Africa. Oyster were great in organising the trip - just the right level of information. Everything went smoothly - faultless.
I have no hesitation in recommending them.

Wow this was such an incredible experience with the elephant research team! It was so amazing to get up close & learn about these animals & their conservation. It has been one of the best things I've ever done, thanks to the Oyster team for their support throughout. Communication was great & always very responsive.

From the very first day, I felt incredibly welcome. Razvan is always there when you need him, and the town of Brașov is such a special place with a wonderful atmosphere. The sanctuary itself is incredibly peaceful, truly one of the most enchanting places I’ve ever been. Traveling to Romania to work at the sanctuary is definitely worth it!

Volunteering with turtles in Costa Rica

The transfer packages and were super efficient and smooth. Communication before and after the trip was always reliable. The actual experience itself was also brilliant. Can’t fault it

My project was to go to a rehabilitation center for baboons in South Africa. I don´t think a better place for volunteer work can exist. My contact person at Oyster was Kate Tipler. Always easy in all communication and fast respond. Even if I´m quite used to travel alone Oyster offered a good system for all preparation that I found helpful.

I booked a Working Holiday in Australia for my son - I realised quite soon after booking that the company had totally ripped me off. You can book directly with Ultimate Travel if you want the same service but without Oyster Worldwide being involved. When I addressed this with Oyster, I got a very angry response from the member of staff in charge of the Australia trips who told me that my son was not suitable for these trips anyway.

Oyster makes a few hundred pounds by being the middle men between Ultimate Travel and the customer. If you want to go for a working holiday visa I suggest you do it all by yourself because you do it by yourself anyway with one of these companies. Its a real scam.

In response to Oyster's reply.
1. Please can Oyster delete my son's name from their response as they do not have permission to use his name in a response (see Trustpilot’s guidelines for reviewers) – hopefully this will be deleted soon.

2. I did not write the review because my 'firm request for a full refund was denied'. I asked for some compensation as what was advertised was not offered to us. In fact I have done very little in terms of asking for compensation, I simply want people to understand what to expect from this service, which is actually very little.

3. There were issues with transport from the airport not being provided so we did not receive the full service. My son arrived in Oz after a long flight with no person to meet him.

4. Oyster’s “guidance” was offering links to websites such as the Australian visa issuer, application for tax reference, all things that we could have done ourselves with a small amount of googling.

5. Regarding jobs, its not as easy as Oyster make out. Firstly Ultimate Travel, who they seem to broker through their site do have a jobs board, but with an extremely limited number of jobs. In fact Ultimate themselves don’t even use it. The Backpacker jobs mostly available are commission only jobs for companies like Hello Fresh. The advice that Oyster should be giving is that to find a job in Oz, it’s a numbers game and to look through sites like Indeed and Jora. There's no added extra by paying them to tell you that.

6. Oyster's help was a couple of phone calls and an email when we expressed concern. This was before we made our final payment.

7. We changed location to from Sydney to Melbourne because that was what my son wanted, one day after booking Sydney. But we did this because on your site you advertised that you had working holidays which started in Melbourne, as Ultimate Travel does too. This is non-argument and not an excuse for the lack of service we got.

My son is having a good time in Melbourne but he had a stressful few weeks at the start due to the fact that your package and advice was not in touch with what it actually is like on the ground in Australia in terms of finding jobs and accommodation. In fact there are companies that do set people up in Oz with jobs and accommodation on the holiday working visa. This is not one of them and it is a waste of money.

Hi I had the most amazing time what a beautiful place and the elephants Wow was so taken back with most wonderful people in the world so helpful and made me feel so welcome learning so much about what they do for elephants and all the information they help other sites who save elephants. I will definitely be returning there in the future.

The Libearty Sanctuary for Bears is my Happy place. Being able to volunteer and do a little bit to help these amazing animals is incredible. Although I was ill at the beginning of my trip and missed a couple of days at the sanctuary I was very well looked after. The in country support from Razvan is outstanding. Bear welfare is at the heart of everything they do - and they are very good at people welfare too.. This was my second time volunteering at the sanctuary and hopefully not my last.

Georgie at Oyster was helpful through out the booking process and nearer the time of leaving. Razvan, the in country contact, could not have been more helpful, briefing us each day on the tasks we would be doing during the day. Ovi, our taxi driver was able to talk about any topic in very good English. We had a great time at the bear sanctuary, seeing bears each day, getting to know the dogs, who are very friendly and getting close up to the donkeys. Most times we were sorting and preparing food for the bears. We were there for 2 weeks and joined in the feeding round twice, seeing many more bears than most visitors, and were fascinated to see how they ate and their relationships. Volunteering in places like this is not just for young people but us oldies as well. I am in my 70s and had a great time. Brasov is also a wonderful town to be based in.

My daughter visited Port Elizabeth in May for the Vet Experience and had a fantastic time at the Game Reserve. It was somewhat nerve-wracking as she travelled on her own there and back at age 17, but Kate in the UK, and the staff in Port Elizabeth, were extremely helpful, kind, and welcoming, and we felt confident with the programme organization and the safety precautions and support that were in place. Thank you Oyster, and Kate for an unforgettable, wonderful experience.

Whilst the programme looked great and my son had a great time as a parent I do not thnk it suitable for 17 as advertised. I thought there would be a little more supervison then there was, and the details given of who would be collecting at the airport were not correct (they didnt even meet that person the entire month there) as well as that the emergency (because unfortunately there was one) contact number that as provided didnt work. Its unfortunate that the parental reassurance that was promised wasnt in place

I took my son, who needed support for his epilepsy and learning difficulties, to the Game reserve near Port Elizabeth, South Africa. This was part of his residential for his DOE Gold. We had a fantastic time with many great activities in the the reserve and the local school. It was great to meet so many young volunteers from around the world. Kate Tipler in UK was very helpful and arranged some separate accommodation for us on site, the staff and management were very welcoming. I would definitely come back for a longer period and some of the volunteers from UK had been there before.

Great communication with an unforgettable experience. One of the best weeks of my life!

The internship was great, the people there were really helpfull and eager to offer the best experience. Had some problems when I arrived because I was expecting as promise from Oyster an internship mostly only with wild animals,but with the help of the staff of the program, we manage to work things out.
So my advise will be to double check the advertising of the program you choose and try to talk with someone who has done it. Don't trust Oyster's advertising 100%.

It was very straightforward to book, and the information provided was clear as to what I could expect.
When I had questions they were answered helpfully and quickly.

My son was 17 when we booked his trip to South Africa as part of his Gold Duke of Edinburgh award. Oyster Worldwide were amazing answering our many questions and helping us at every stage of the trip. I will definitely be recommending this company.

Kate was brilliant as the 'go-between' sorting out any queries I had before my son set off on an amazing adventure - volunteering in South Africa for four weeks. Communications were prompt and very informative.

Oyster has been incredible useful in setting up and communicating travel and information. Any questions were answered rapidly and with all the detail requested. An all round good and easy experience.

I have recently come back from my gap year and while I was there I spent a month working on the relationships between humans and elephants.

So why would I recommend Oyster?
I am so glad I picked to do this project with Oyster because they made me feel very well taken care of and looked after me before and during the project. They talk you though everything you need to know before the project takes place and what clothes and necessities you may need to pack.

So what does the project consist of?
I would do this project a million times if I could, and if you don’t believe me lots of people who were doing the project had already done it before and had come back because of how much they enjoyed it.

So the project is on a two week program and you have the option to stay from two weeks to 3 months. The first week is amazing because you build walls for the local community. Some days some of the locals will come and help, or a few kids will come and keep you company, that is amazing because you feel so immersed, it’s definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

The second week is spent tracking elephants. This was my favourite out of the two because you learn all about the elephants foot prints. We also managed to see a two day old elephant which we were lucky enough to name !!!

So why pick this project?
I think this project and Oyster have a lot of selling points. For starters Oyster takes very good care of you and help you organise yourself before the project starts so it doesn’t feel overwhelming. Secondly you are in the middle of the desert, I don’t think you could get anymore rural than that. You don’t really have much service so it’s lovely to disconnect for two weeks. You get to spend some time with lovely people who you may not meet on a day to day basis, people from different countries, locals, and different ages. You camp under the stars which is also amazing. Overall I would always recommend this amazing project, such a special experience!!