Name: Camps International
Address: Unit 10 Kingfisher Park Headlands Business ParkSalisbury Road, Ringwood
Rating: 4.10

“My son went to the talk at school last week and convinced me to go to the parents presentation tonight. I listened to the presentation and thought how good it all looked until right at the end they spoke very briefly about having to set up a direct debit by next friday to secure his place in the trip. I thought this was odd as i had assumed that you would be given time to start fund raising before having to make a personal contribution. Having looked on various sites at the many reviews of camp international it appears to me that you should only agree to pursuing these trips if you are willing and able to personaly underwrite the cost if the trip.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“I went to kenya in 2018 with my school and loved every second of it The staff were all kind and welcoming. I realy enjoyed learing about the history of kenya and the culture. I also enjoyed meeting the locals and doing some of the poject work. I loved spending time and geting to know everyone on my team.I have made life time friends . Go Team Pea I have so many stories to tell and memories to keep. I defiantly want come back again some day ??? Thank you camps international for making it a unforgettable month and I every second of it. I defiantly will recommend camps international to everyone.”

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Posted 6 years ago

Hi, great to hear you had such a fab time in Kenya. Team Pea really threw themselves into the project work and helped us make a huge difference to the local communities we work with. We hope you enjoyed your trek up Mount Kenya - it was hard work but really worth it. Well done!

Posted 6 years ago

“Don't even think about sending your kids to these hell holes, my daughter was sick and required hospital treatment and i was informed 2 days later. Better conditions in prison camps , you have been warned.”

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Posted 6 years ago

Dear Parent We’re very sorry to hear that you feel we didn’t communicate early enough with you regarding your daughters illness. Without knowing the full details it’s very difficult for us to respond to your concerns, however, we would like to explain that sometimes there will be a delay in us receiving the information back in the UK Head Office due to the time differences in the various countries our teams are in. In all cases, we endeavour to inform parents as soon as we have the full information relating to the incident. We have thousands of students travel with us every year and the health and safety of our volunteers is paramount, so much so, that we have an unrivalled safety record throughout the industry. We only ever use checked and approved medical facilities and work very closely with them to ensure our volunteers receive the best medical attention. Students live alongside rural communities, staying in traditional style accommodation and get to experience the local cultures and way of life. Whilst the facilities might not be what they would be used to in the UK, they are clean and well cared for and our camps staff work tirelessly to make sure our volunteers as comfortable as possible during their stay with us. Thank you for your message, we take all feedback very seriously. We sincerely hope your daughter recovered quickly and fully and was able to continue with the rest of her expedition

Posted 6 years ago

“I've had the pleasure of organising 2 expeditions with Camps at my school. In 2015 we travelled to Borneo and 2017 we travelled to Peru. I have found the organisation very professional both at HQ and in the destination country as well. At all stages of the organisation of the trips I've been fully supported and always had my enquiries dealt with fully. Whilst we were in Borneo we had a incident with a student which resulted in them needing to be repatriated, at all times of the day Camps were co-ordinating the situation allowing me to get on with the rest of the trip with the remaining students. In terms of a life changing expedition I can not rate them highly enough. The level of projects that the students get involved in is excellent and so relevant to improving peoples' lives, it really broadens the minds of any participants.”

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Posted 6 years ago

Hi Simon We would like to thank you and your school for working in partnership with us since 2007. So far, your students have travelled to three different continents with us and we're sure they are excited about their expedition to South America next year. We do our best to support not only the students, but our travelling teachers as well because we value the important role you have within your team throughout the whole expedition journey. Kind regards Camps International

Posted 6 years ago

“The camp international trip was amazing except for the miss communication some times and the illness but that is part of the expirnce I am unable to tell u all about the trip. u have to find out for your self by going on the trip and living it through your own eyes”

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Posted 6 years ago

“My time in Cambodia with Camps International was an incredible experience, I was able to learn so much about not only Cambodia but myself.”

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Posted 6 years ago

Hi We're so pleased you had such an incredible experience in Cambodia. It really is a magical country, full of wonderful people who really need our help. Thank you for travelling with us and getting involved in our project work. Kind regards Camps International

Posted 6 years ago

“I went an a month long expedition to Cambodia in 2018. During the trip we learnt all about the Cambodian history and culture through emotional visits to the S21 prison and the killing fields as well as stories from the camps staff who were super friendly and helpful. We also took part in a padi scuba diving course for a week off the coast before we went to the camps where we completed our project work which included building a toilet and well for a local family and helping in the local schools which was all very rewarding. We ended our trip in Siem Reap where we experienced more of the culture when we visited the impressive Angkor Wat temple and a few of the other temples.”

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Posted 6 years ago

Hi, Thank you for telling us about your expedition to Cambodia last year. It really is a magical country isn't it? We hope you enjoyed getting stuck into the project work, especially where you helped provide toilet facilities and new wells for a rural community which is lacking in both. Kind regards Camps International

Posted 6 years ago

“Hello I just wanted to let you know how much my daughter enjoyed her trip to Tanzania with camps. We have really enjoyed hearing all of the stories of her adventures. I really think it has been life enhancing for her and that she would have gained significantly in personal resilience and global awareness through the trip. Her Group leader seems to have achieved the tricky balance between support, mentoring. control and enjoyment and has obviously got a great skill in managing teenagers- always a challenge”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Please read the warnings re a hard sell, no refunds and expensive company. It seems so unfair to pay £1200 within months of booking and get none back, aggravated by best friend putting off said 2nd payment for months and then withdrawing losing 25% my fee. Wise her, but life lesson for another parent. Please enter eyes wide open.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“By giving my daughter the opportunity of a lifetime. My daughter has raised all of her expedition fees by hard work. She has thrived on this task and it has been a great learning curve that things don't come free in life, work hard and reap the reward. Thank you for all your help Camps International and I would highly recommend this company to all schools and gap year students.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“camps international stay away. Firstly, the Terms and Conditions are not clear. They state that 50% of the amount paid after the third payment by the participant can be refunded when a notification of cancellation has been made to you. However, when I phoned to ask for this 50% back I was then told that you could only get 50% back after the full total amount of the trip had been paid. It doesn't make sense that I have to pay the full amount for a trip that my daughter can no longer attend in order to get some percentage of the amount paid refunded. Also, if this is the case then what use is the list in section seven detailing the percentage you would get back after each stage of payment since it is always based on the end total amount? Secondly, no help is received from the company in the area of helping the very young participants to raise the money. It is a very expensive trip over £4000 and a decision to participate in it has to be taken very quickly because they give a very short period of time between the initial presentation delivery and the booking a place deadline. These are very young participants who often don't understand the difficulty in having to raise such a large amount. Your presentations do not do a good enough job in emphasizing the difficulty of having to raise the money and the implications of not raising it but still having booked the place, which are usually either; the parents have to then cover the remainder of the cost or not being able to get a percentage of the money paid back if you cancel. Its all been very disappointing and frustrating. as single parent I lost £1038 they don't want to refund me any percentage back. they left me broke after believing on them they will help fundraising. I wish someone will listen to the families suffered from them and these company as they really damaging the emotion of our teenagers and our finances.”

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Posted 6 years ago

Dear Meriem, thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback, we’re really sorry that you feel disappointed with Camps International. As you know, we have spoken to you directly and although we were unable to offer you a refund, in line with our T’s & C’s, we hope you can understand the reasons behind this. We would disagree with you about the lack support available to students regarding fundraising. We not only have a dedicated team here who are on hand to help our volunteers every step of the way, but we also provide our volunteers with a series of three fundraising guides and regular newsletters. All students have access to their own Traveller Gateway which has lots of ideas, tools and resources to help them organise events. We help 1000’s of students each year achieve their targets and actively share their achievements on our social media to inspire others on their fundraising journeys. I have passed your comments on to our Regional Expedition Co-ordinators regarding communication around the challenge of raising money for their expedition, but would like to reiterate that it is achievable through hard work and organisation. Whilst we are obviously disappointed that your daughter is no longer travelling with us, we would like to wish you both all the best for the future

Posted 6 years ago

“I went on the 3 month trip to Ecuador and Peru with the Galapagos add on in January-March 2018. I had the most amazing time on my gap year and would definitely recommend. The people on my trip were amazing company (13 of us doing the whole 3 months) and the camp leaders were always so welcoming and friendly. The food there was surprisingly always fantastic- shout out to the local chefs Theo and Sonya! The projects we worked at were always varied and we felt we were being useful at all times (projects included: building church benches, painting the playground, cementing the health centre, digging septic tanks, creating a medicinal garden, building a greenhouse, chalking and meshing Adobe walls and teaching). The Maestroes in Ecuador were particularly friendly and would teach us their techniques for cementing, plastering, painting and grouting. Teaching the school kids in Peru was also very fun. This programme is amazing as all the camps in Ecuador (we went to 4) are really nice and all the camps in Peru (went to 3) have amazing views. You also get to visit local towns and cities between camps so you really have the opportunity to explore and get to know the country. This gap year programme is great because you get a lot more freedom than the school trips I imagine. The galapagos add on was great as we got to snorkel with sharks, turtles, sea lions, rays and see the marine iguanas and tortoises. I highly recommend this add on despite the extra expense. Of course the salkantay trek at the end to see Machu Picchu was equally as amazing and definitely one of the many highlights of the trip. This trip was during the rainy season which meant that Ecuador was hot and humid but Peru was dryer. Both countries had heavy rainfall during certain times of the day. However this meant the countries were lush and beautiful. I would recommend doing the trip for the whole 3 months. A lot of people who came with us for 2 weeks to 2 months ended up extending their trip once they were there anyway. There are things you might need to get used to like the bugs (BRING MOSQUITO REPELLENT PLEASE), camping, toilets and weather but you will soon get used to all of this. By the end of the trip no one was scared of spiders anymore! My only regret was that the 4/5 month trip including Costa Rica and Nicaragua was not yet available for me to go on. So please consider this programme and happy travels!! 💗”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Attended a Camps International Presentation for a school excursion to Kenya - Talk about a hard sell for an hour and half for what I was told was a 40min presentation. They are very clever, go into the school a week before, do a massive sell to the kids, then a week later a parents presentation where they pretty much guarantee that pretty much all the kids raise at least 75% of the total cost, do lots of positive reinforcement and claim that you get UCAS points (additional cost) - vaccinations at additional cost, spending money, insurance excess, transport to/from uk airport and so on.. Usual hard sell tactics, until all the way at the end they present you with either a monthly direct debit of £290 a month plus a £240 deposit.. or a £400 deposit with a payment plan every quarter with the total payable in full the following year, Grand total of the cost is just short of £4000 (that excludes probably £1000 of extras taking into account UCAS £80, Visa £30, Spending money £300, Insurance Excess £50, Airport Transport @£100, Vaccinations £100 let alone the rest) and you HAVE to sign up within a period of just over a week or so with your deposit as they can’t save places and then offer them to other school pupils.. and so the cycle continues! That’s called a hard sell to me, and unsurprisingly designed to have kids whining at parents as they believe a sum of around £300 per month is actually achievable to fundraise! I have little doubt that 90% of parents end up paying most of the cost. Other “Gap Year” style courses are available from them at around £1600 (okay they don’t include flights or the scuba course which is around £300-£400 separately) no doubt these are the positive reviews, but ultimately other providers are available and much cheaper even for gap years. To then read some of the reviews below about pulling out 10 months in just reinforces my beliefs.”

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Posted 6 years ago

Dear Anon Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback. We are sorry to hear you feel this way about the way we communicate the cost of our expeditions. As a social enterprise passionate about travel and making a positive impact globally, we pride ourselves on being transparent about the costs whist offering support and encouragement to those who want to volunteer with us. We structure our launch process so that the schools choose the expedition destination they want, we do a short presentation to students, followed by a more comprehensive presentation to interested students and their parents. All interested students are reserved a place on the expedition, which is confirmed once they pay their deposit. The deadline is short as spaces are limited and fill up quickly and although the thought of raising the deposit may appear daunting, we have 1000s of students from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds who achieve this each year in a variety of ways. We are always on hand to personally discuss and support any volunteers who need extra time, help and advice. Last year, our Regional Expedition Co-ordinators challenged themselves to raise a deposit for a trip in a week and all achieved it through different means, including car washes, face painting, quiz nights, sponsored walks, bake sales and bag packing. The cost of the expedition is communicated in a letter home, 1 week before the presentation and again in the first few slides of the expedition presentation. There are additional costs which we explain in the presentation and also on the Traveller Gateway in more detail, along with ways to reduce this such as purchasing second hand kit, which a lot of our travellers do. Vaccinations can also cost so we recommend you shop around to find the best value. If there are enough students travelling from the school then travelling together in a coach or minibus is normally the best option and the schools often help organise events to cover this cost. Again, our apologies, if you feel this wasn’t communicated effectively, we have discussed this with our expeditions team to ensure this message is being fully explained. Regarding our Gap year trips, they are structured very differently to our school trips and do not include a trained Expedition Leader or supervisory adults, flights, insurance, scuba and other adventure elements. We have a dedicated fundraising team here who are on hand to support all volunteers, and who themselves have been through their own fundraising journeys so understand the struggles but also know what works. Additionally, we have blogs, newsletters, and the Traveller Gateway which provides support, resources, ideas and tools to help organise successful events. Once again, thank you for your feedback, we wish you all the best and I have passed your comments on to our Regional Co-ordinators to review. Kind Regards, Camps International HQ.

Posted 6 years ago

“So unhappy. They only want your money.”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Unfortunately, another warning for parents. Our experience was the same as the parent 10 months ago. Even though we cancelled within 28 days with a disclosed condition, which THEY had postponed originally with the booking, (pending further investigation), they were not prepared to return any money at all. Other parents had paid half of what we did due to the payment methods that they chosen - despite sending several emails, they would not return anything. We contacted our credit card who disputed the claim and Camps International even fought that - we were lucky that our cc company gave us a goodwill gesture and the money we lost isn't as bad. We are talking about 14 - 17 year olds here, away from home for a significant period and situations can change very quickly. I am saddened for the lack of empathy and unethical practice of the company. Seriously, look into what you are doing before booking, (which is really hard given the very short time provided), do not expect any empathy, support or help from Camps International if things do not go as planned.”

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Posted 7 years ago

Dear Anon Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback. We take every complaint very seriously and responded to you directly regarding yours. We do have Terms and Conditions relating to our trips which outlines both your and our obligations to the products and services we are providing. I am sorry that in this case we were unable to offer a refund, but hope our response to you explained why this was not the case. If you would like any further clarity then please do contact us at operations@campsinternational.co.uk and we would be happy to provide a more detailed response. Kind Regards, Camps International HQ

Posted 6 years ago

“In 2016 I went on a school expedition to Uganda with Camps International. After our Camps Leader phoned the London Headquarters, they allowed us to go for a swim and a game of volleyball in the Nile. We also used Nile Water in the showers on Hairy Lemon Island. After we returned to the UK one of our group became quite ill and after some testing was diagnosed with a parasite- Schistosomiasis/Bilharzia. After the rest of the group heard of the diagnosis we all went to get tested. Most of us tested positive for the parasite. In the UK the NHS covers the medical costs, however because I moved to Germany for Uni straight after the trip, I have to pay for my medical bills of roughly 1500 Euros myself. After my Stepdad contacted Camps International to ask for my payment to be paid by them, they denied the request with the reasoning that I was lying about how they were contacted to give permission to go in the water. This, in fact, can be confirmed by members of my group and so whether they have no written record of the phone call or are trying to cover themselves, I do not know. I am now left with these extensive medical bills after Camps International acted negligent. Myself and the rest of my group were all minors at the time given in to the care of Camps International, who we were promised had excellent knowledge of dangers in the area we were to visit. After doing one google search I was able to find that it is actually common knowledge not to go swimming in the Nile, as it is a breeding site of many parasites. Had the one member of our group not become acutely ill, we would have never known about the parasite and left untreated it can do severe damage to internal organs. I am sharing this now, over a year after our expedition because only now has my medical treatment been completed. I want to warn other parents and kids who have gone on trips with Camps International to get tested and make sure you were not in contact with anything dangerous. Other groups are still being sent to the exact same camp in Uganda where we contracted the parasite so I hope that others are more wary of the organisation and get tested for various parasites upon their return.”

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Posted 7 years ago

Dear Marlene Thank you for your feedback. We have addressed your concerns directly with you and this has been concluded but we did want to publicly respond to your comments. We are sorry to hear of the problems you experienced after your return to the UK. International travel is not without its risks and we do risk manage all our expeditions to ensure we deliver safe expeditions. Whilst our students are on our expeditions they are covered for treatment for the duration of their trip but once you return to the UK then any subsequent treatment would not be covered and a UK doctor would treat you. Treatment is normally a short course of tablets. In your case, there were unfortunately medical bills for the treatment, as you no longer resided in the UK. When all our volunteers return to the UK we do ask them to make an appointment with their GP should they feel unwell. We can also confirm that we no longer use the area in Uganda where your group contracted the parasite. Kind regards, Camps International HQ

Posted 6 years ago

“I went away with camps over the most recent summer (2017) to Ecuador/Galapagos. The trip provided me with many great memories to swimming with the fish to the beautiful views at all the camps that we stayed. we even started calling base camp 'home.' I was the only one from my school to go and everyone was so friendly and I wouldn't change it for the world. Thank you for a brilliant experience.”

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Posted 7 years ago

“My son has just done a month in ecuador on a school expedition. He thrived on this trip. I had my concerns as he has a few social problems. To be told your child was the best worker out there. Helpful to other students and motivating others was a joy to be heard. It helped having a expedition leader that was fantastic. With never being away from home before he didn't want to come home. I recommend the schools expeditions as you have so much support. He would love to go again. He keeps in touch with people that worked and live in ecuador. My son's group consisted of 2 schools who didn't know each other prior to the trip and they all got on like a little family. I'd recommend camps international to anybody thinking of volunteering to help others. My son put in so much and he got so much out of it. Thank you for giving my son an amazing experience.”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Both our children experienced a camps trip (Ecuador 2015 and Peru 2017). What a fabulous , professional organisation . Whilst in Peru my son needed medical assistance (His own fault) they kept me up to date with everything and ensured he was treated quickly and effectively . Both my children talk of experiences I can only dream of . Thank you for making it happen . I would 100% recommend the organisation . Totally transparent and totally get it right”

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Posted 7 years ago

“I had the most incredible month of my life on a trip to Ecuador. It was two years ago now but I still think about it very often. The people we met, work we did and sights we saw all combined to be an incredible time.”

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Posted 7 years ago

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