Encounters Travel relaunches Oasis Overland

Hello Oasis Overlanders! 

We’re happy to announce that UK adventure travel company, Encounters Travel is relaunching the Oasis Overland brand.

After going into administration on 17 February 2021, Oasis Overland Ltd. became one of many travel companies around the globe to have been critically affected by the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the global travel industry. 

However, we’re very pleased that Encounters Travel is bringing Oasis Overland back online and back on the road! 

‘Oasis is in safe hands’ 

Chris Wrede, Founder of Oasis Overland is looking forward to seeing Oasis Overland vehicles on the road again. 

“I've known the guys at Encounters for nearly 20 years and feel confident that Oasis is in safe hands. Jackie and I will continue to be involved with the overland side of things, and to help with continuity. I'm sure that the high level of personal customer service we always focussed on will continue, and I'm excited to be able to look forward with some positivity now to getting our trucks back on the road again, as soon as Covid will allow anyway! 

We did our best to handle the closure of Oasis Overland as professionally as possible, ensuring that our ground suppliers were paid, and our customers refunded. For anyone that this was not straightforward for, I am genuinely sorry. I'm doubly sorry that we weren't able to retain our great team in the UK office or contact our customers personally after the administration was announced. 

But, now to the future and I look forward to seeing our Oasis Overland vehicles and clients once again travelling to some of those far-flung places as well as the iconic sites, engaging with different people and experiences that our groups so much enjoy. 

‘Providing the same great experiences’ 

Ralph Foulds, Managing Director at Encounters Travel says he is looking forward to relaunching one of the UK’s most respected travel brands. 

We are delighted to be able to bring the Oasis Overland name, trips and operations back online and make their great selection of overland expeditions and adventures available again. The situation is far from ideal, and we feel for everyone at Oasis, their great crews and UK team, and their customers who had their future travel plans disrupted. It's our strong feeling that Oasis and their multi-country tours were hit especially hard by the Coronavirus pandemic and without it would still be going strong.  

We have known Chris and his team for many years, since we first met on the road in the early 2000s when we ran our own overland expeditions through the Middle East and Asia. Over the years we've partnered on several small-group tours in both South America and the Middle East, so the style of trips and the way they run is very familiar. 

 We're committed to offering as many of Oasis's previous trips as we can, using the same ground suppliers, trucks, crew, and tour leaders wherever possible, and providing the same great experiences out on the road. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 and the gradual way that international travel will recover, particularly for multi-country tours, it's going to be some time until everything will be up and running again. We'll post regular updates on the website and on the Oasis social media channels as things develop. We also hope to bring some exciting new experiences to Oasis travellers, so look out for news on those too. 

Have any questions? 

If you’d like to know more about our relaunch, feel free to contact us and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can! In the meantime, keep an eye on our social media channels for more information. 

Refunds and re-bookings

If you had a holiday booked with Oasis Overland Limited, we regret that all prior bookings remain cancelled, and you will need to complete the refund process as previously advised.  

However, as we hope to be able to run most, if not all of Oasis’ trips again, we will be reaching out over the coming weeks with more information about rebooking options.