"Baboon volunteering project in South Africa."

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.

"A Scam "

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…"

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.

"Libearty Sanctuary, Romania"

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.

"Horse training and horsemanship in Australia"

I have had an amazing time with Oyster doing the paid horse training and horsemanship course in Australia. I had the best time in Sydney making loads of new friends and creating lots of memories, whilst also getting set up to start working straight away. Travelling to my job was also very easy and I am currently really enjoying my time working at a pre-training thoroughbred yard and learning lots. The project manager Georgie has been super helpful and supportive throughout my whole experience and is always happy to answer any questions big or small about my time in Australia. Would highly recommend this course to anybody thinking of doing it!

"Libearty Bear Sanctuary, Romania"

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.

"Wonderful experience with Oyster Worldwide"

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.

"Not for U18s"

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

"Unforgettable experience together with my son"

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.

"Trip of a lifetime"

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