My daughter was due to go to Costa Rica in July/August 2020. We were 'sold' an amazing experience during a talk in school. We were told there would be lots of support to help fundraise the £4350 to go on the trip, which there wasn't. She has worked hard over the past year to raise the money. We started to have doubts about the trip when we weren't given answers as to which other schools she would be going with (she is only 15 and a month away from home with strangers raised a few concerns with us). We eventually were given a list of other schools she would be going with. When the whole Covid situation started, we received no advice, no reassurance or guidance from camps so we contacted the schools on the list that she would be travelling with. Many schools were happy to talk to us, but wanted us that the options they were being given involved their students losing a significant amount of their monies paid and they would have to claim on their own school insurances. We then discovered that most of these groups were not even travelling or would not be in Costa Rica when she was going to be there. This raised our concerns even more and when we emailed camps we were fobbed off with some lame excuse about composite groups being different. We were then told that the options for her travel had been sent to the school - not us. There is only 2 students from her school travelling to Costa Rica so it couldn't be hard to send us the information to. The trip has now been cancelled as Camps option to defer until next year is not really an option for us. The department for Education has said that school trips must not go ahead for an indefinite period of time, so if we defer until next summer and the restriction is still in place, the insurance will not pay out as the trip was booked against government advice. Camps have kept half of her money paid, just over £2000, money which generous people have sponsored her and donated and also companies who have sponsored her in return for her to advertise their companies by means of a blog/ Facebook/istagram posts etc whilst she is there. She will now have to try to raise this money to repay all these people who have given her money. Apparently, because British Airways are still flying in July the trip isn't cancelled therefore she isn't entitled to her money back, despite the fact the British Embassy in Costa Rica are advising travel for non-residents is prohibited, despite the fact that the Department for Education is saying no school trips abroad and also in their terms and conditions of the booking it states "You have the right to cancel your expedition before departure without paying a cancellation charge in the event of “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances” occurring at the destination of your expedition or its immediate vicinity and which significantly affects the performance of the expedition or which significantly affects transport arrangements to the destination.  In these circumstances, we shall provide you with a full refund of the monies you have paid but we will not be liable to pay you any compensation.  For guidance, you may wish to refer to the Foreign and Commonwealth office.  www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice  For the purposes of this clause, examples of “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances” include warfare, acts of terrorism, significant risks to human health such as the outbreak of serious disease at the travel destination or natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes or weather conditions which make it impossible to travel safely to your destination" Terrible company who have exploited young people and kept their money!