Oyster Worldwide was founded in 2006. Roger, our owner and Director, has been organising gap year programmes since 1999!

Oyster is a proud pioneer of safe and responsible travel. We are rigorous in checking our partners against our high standard policies. This helps us to meet the highest expectations when it comes to conservation, animal welfare, child protection and pay rates. We always assess your needs and abilities too, and we will be honest if we think a different project would suit you better.

We visit every project to establish a close relationship, and to ascertain exactly what support a project needs and what it can offer by way of participant experience. Whilst we don’t expect our volunteers to feel that they have changed the world overnight, we are proud that volunteers always come back feeling that they have made a genuine contribution to a worthwhile cause, and learnt a lot in the process.

Absolutely!

Oyster experiences are diverse in what they offer. Every participant (whether volunteering or completing paid work) will be trained and educated in range of skills, some leading to formal qualifications. In addition, project leaders will be enthusiastic to share additional information about their field of work, local area and cultural interests. Some of our projects include active language-learning, and almost all projects in non-English speaking countries will give you the opportunity to practice with locals. Traveling independently will improve your self-reliance, confidence and social skills. A unique travel experience can also set you apart from the rest on a UCAS form or CV/resume.

If you know where your passions lie and which countries spark interest, then we can help guide you to a project that suits you. If your interests are broad, consider your budget and time scale. If you know which projects you like but have further questions, please contact us. You will find contact details for the Destination Manager of that trip, on the project page.

The vast majority of our trips are open to anyway. Though all projects vary, so do check the requirements on the project page.

For many of our animal welfare programmes, the main requirement is passion for the cause and a willingness to get stuck in with manual jobs revolving around care and feeding.

For educational programmes with children, some experience supporting children is important. DBS checks are also required.

Most paid work requires some level of experience in the chosen field. Check our individual paid work opportunities to find out more.

We have been operating successfully since 2006. Being a small organisation means we keep a close eye on our costs to make sure that we are financially stable.

We have an ATOL Licence which allows us to book flights and offer financial protection should we go out of business. This scheme is backed up by the UK government and can only be used if Oyster has booked your flights.

Where we do not book flights, the money paid is protected through our bond with International Passenger Protection.

Check out our financial policy for more information.

We are a small family owned business who run a tight ship. We reinvest our profits into developing new projects and making donations to projects that have a specific set of needs.

Each project that we run is very different, however here is a general break down of where your money will go:

• Funds the cost to the project of accommodating you, training and supporting you while you are there
• Meet other expenses for your trip, such as your airport meet-up, transfer, orientation and any standard excursions
• Providing you with our experienced and dedicated team. You will be mentored by a specific member of staff, who will be on hand to advise you, monitor the project and respond to any issues and emergencies. We always work with Pharos to offer a 24/7 service in case of emergencies
• Maintaining a close relationship with the project through liaising with the local representative, monitoring feedback, and occasional visits by Oyster’s Destination Managers
• Ongoing work to review and improve our service and procedures to ensure your trip is well planned, safe and meets all your expectations
• Administration, insurance and marketing costs
• Work to research and develop future projects
• Regular donations to chosen projects. We currently support two children in Port Elizabeth and sponsor a bear in Romania, an elephant in South Africa and turtles in Costa Rica

YES! We welcome participants from all around the globe.

If you are volunteering, you just need to be able to get a tourist visa for whichever country you are hoping to travel to.

With paid work there are more restrictions however, as you will need to be able to get a working visa for the country you’d like to travel to. See below for a general ouline:

For paid work in Canada, we can take bookings from most Europeans, Australians and New Zealanders (as well as Canadians themselves!).

For paid work in Australia and New Zealand, we can take applications from most Europeans, Americans and Canadians.

We’ll happily put you in touch with a fellow participant, if they are happy for us to do so.

Yes, we have been full members for several years.

Oyster uses British Standard BS8848.  We have been actively involved as a member of the committee that drew up the 2014 agreement. You can see our commitment to this in our Meeting BS8848 policy.

BS8848 is the British Standard for organising and managing visits, fieldwork, expeditions and adventurous activities outside the UK.

The majority of our projects require solo participants to be aged at least 18 before departure. However there are a good number of projects that are able to accept 17 years olds with parental consent. These are listed on our Under 18s project page.

We also send many families away on our projects – under 18’s of any age can be accompanied by parents for an unique, eco-conscious family holiday.

For all volunteer projects, there is no upper age limit so if you are on a gap year, career break, holiday or retirement adventure, you are most welcome!

For our paid work programmes in Australia, you need to be aged 18-35 at the time your work permit application is received by the visa offices.

Most projects are suitable for adults of all ages and nationalities. The main requirement is that you have a keen interest in the work of the project and are able to speak enough English to communicate with the other people there.

Most projects involve quite a lot of physical work, so do let us know if you have any medical conditions or a disability that might require special arrangements to be made. A few Oyster projects also have specific requirements for working visas, relevant work experience or skills such as driving. These are made clear on the relevant web page for that project.

Oyster projects aim to promote your independence as much as possible while helping you to feel supported. Most projects don’t involve direct supervision 24/7, but there will always be access to help in an emergency from our crisis management team (who operate our phones out of hours).

Typically, you will be able to leave the project during your time off, allowing you to get to know the local area and discover its culture. However, with independence comes personal responsibility for making sensible decisions about your safety when a supervisor isn’t there.

In particular we expect you to:

• Respect the project’s own rules about safety and conduct
• Respect Oyster’s own code of conduct
• Follow Oyster’s advice about specific risks, such unsafe activities in your free time, places to avoid, the risks of too much alcohol, drug use and unprotected sex

This can really depend on the project. For our Canada work programmes you need to apply as soon as you know that you want to do it – getting a work permit is challenging and you stand the best chance of success the earlier you apply. For our winter seasons, the work permits are often released 12 months prior to travelling to Canada.

The summer periods are usually very popular and so we would recommend booking your summer holiday between November – February to get your guaranteed best dates. We can usually take late bookings too, but you might need to be more flexible on your departure dates.

You don’t need to have previous language skills as there will be some basic teaching on arrival. That said, any language skills you already possess will be really useful, particularly Spanish for our Ecuador wildlife and Costa Rica turtle conservation projects. Many volunteers heading to Romania, also find it useful to learn the basics before they start their trip. Most participants find language development to be one of the most rewarding parts of their time away!

Most of our projects accept solo participants all year round and the majority of participants are solo travellers. You will join a group of other volunteers in your orientation, as well as those volunteers who are already at the project. Be prepared to make life-long friends from around the world!

Our paid work programmes in Canada operate on set dates for the summer and winter season. Offering set dates means that we can group people together, so participants can travel out to Canada at the same time and often on the same flights.

Yes!

Whilst most of our participants do come to us as independent travellers, we do welcome friends as well! If you are travelling overseas for the first time, going with a friend can be a lovely way to build up your confidence in travelling.

Absolutely and this is encouraged. Bolt a backpacking tour onto your volunteering experience in Thailand, complete a tour before volunteering in Costa Rica, or take a tour or safari after volunteering in South Africa!

You could even do a few different volunteering projects in one trip – just check out our website to see what is available in the area you would like to travel to, and reach out for advice on which order to do them in.

If you combine two or more trips, we’ll give you a £50 discount.

Many of our projects qualify for the Gold Residential Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. We are an ‘Approved Activity Provider’ and are happy to sign off your completion to show that you have achieved the Residential section of the Gold Award.

Below are some examples of D of E endorsed programmes, but you can also click here to see the full list:

• Volunteer with turtles in Costa Rica
• Volunteer at a wildlife sanctuary in Thailand
• Wildlife conservation in South Africa
• Volunteer with elephants in South Africa
• Volunteer with baboons in South Africa
• Elephant conservation volunteering in Namibia

We have an ATOL Licence (number 9598). This allows us to book flights on your behalf and gives you financial protection.

We would charge you whatever the cost of the flight is on the day, plus a £50 admin fee. Please note that we are only able to offer this service for long haul flights and with a minimum of 4 weeks until the travel date.

If you want to organise your own flights, we recommend that you contact our partners at Flight Centre, we are happy to share their details with you so please do ask.

Just click on the ‘Book Now’ button found at the top of every project page. This will take you through to an availability calendar where you can select your ideal date and duration.

Once we have received your application, one of our project experts will be in touch to go through the programme, find out a bit more about you and answer any further questions that you might have.

In the unlikely event that we are unable to offer you a place on an Oyster programme, we would return this £180 to you. To read more about the booking process, please click here.

We ask for your first payment of £180 to be made at the point of completing your booking form. This payment is deducted from the total amount due to us for your project. This is refundable in the unlikely event that we are unable to offer you a place on one of our projects.

The payment schedule works as follows:

• £180 on booking your programme
• One or two instalments, scheduled in between the time of booking and 90 days prior to arrival
• Final balance due 90 days before arrival*

*Please note, if you book at short notice, you may be asked to pay the remainder of the full fee on confirmation of your booking

Oyster Worldwide is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an Introducer Appointed Representative of Global Travel Insurance. Our status means that we cannot advise you on insurance, the policy you choose needs to be your decision. Please note this Global Travel policy is only available to UK residents.

For many years we have acted as an ‘introducer’ to the above policy, which has been tailored to meet the needs of Oyster Worldwide participants.

Some key elements of the policy:

• Cancellation cover for the FULL AMOUNT of your placement (up to £5000)
• Travel disruption cover, should your journey be disrupted due to Foreign Office travel restrictions following riots, war etc
• Unrestricted winter sports cover for Canadian programmes (other policies have time restrictions)
• No excess on medical or hospital claims
• Cover is provided for all work to be undertaken as part of the programme (other policies will not cover work of any kind)

For people outside the UK, we can say that many of our travellers choose to use World Nomads.