Firstly, Oyster Island is a truly beautiful place in a fabulous location. We never got tired of the outlook from our room, or walking the perimeter of the island, and the grounds and common areas always looked very tropical and well kept.
Often the place felt deserted, even though we knew what other guests were there.
Not a problem for us, as having paradise to ourselves is a luxury!
Plenty to do and see around the area, Santo is a stunning place, and most tours etc, can be organized at the resort.
However, communication problems abound, particularly when management are just not there. This led to some issues with guests missing tours and excursions.
Personally we got along well with management and thought that Bev and Nabil were friendly and approachable. All the recent issues for mine seem to evolve from them not being around and tending to their other hotel on the 'mainland'.
The local staff were excellent, particularly the wonderful Christina, and also Richard and the Johns.
Food was really quite good, excellent fish and lobster. And as is part with all of Vanuatu, food and booze will take up most of your money!
We had such a relaxing holiday in such a beautiful place that 4 stars is a fair guide, even with some of the managerial and logistical problems.

Oyster island is a beautiful island ! We made a walk around the island and discovered some pretty amazing beaches, the resort itself feels a bit tired..The paths around the island were not maintained, there was no decent way to get into the sea.Their main attraction a plan wreck to snorkel to was badly signed and was almost impossible to get to, you basically had to crawl through the dead coral. We booked a standard room facing the river which was basic, small room with fan and a small bathroom. Probably you get what you pay for, but the resort was completely empty! We were the only guests, upgrading wouldn't have costed that much! Breakfast was ok, almost a la carte since we were alone. Dinner was better than expected ( good meat and lobster risotto). We were there the same moment a religious conference was going on on the main land, not the fault of the resort but the enthusiast preachers (for hours) were a nuissance. Management was a bit absent, they were more interested with closing down for maintenance than with their actual guests. No farewell,.. strange !!

I wasn't overly impressed with Oyster Island at all. The place was DEAD!! We were the only couple there, every night we ate alone, drank alone, there was no ambience!!

If you want to stay here, make sure you are prepared to pay for all your water, as the water isn't "safe to drink" which is a lie, as we know people who've stayed here numerous times over the years and the water has always been fine until recently.. sounds like another way to make money off the customers.
We asked them to fill our personal water bottles (with lime juice at the bottom) with the rain water they have there, and the owner was very quick to inform us that we will get sick from the rain water and they haven't washed the tank is over 5 years.. he said "look at the water it's got bits in it, I hope you're going to boil that" - it's lime pulp mate..!

We were expecting a hot water jug in our room as every hotel/resort we have stayed at before hand has had one for hot drinks. There wasn't one and when we inquired about it, he swiftly informed us that we could buy drinks at the bar. (How could we boil the "dirty rain water"????)

The wet dirty towels weren't changed over our stay, just hung outside to dry on the balcony. Nice surprise to come back to :)

If you're into snorkelling, this isn't the place to be, it's cloudy, and the visibility is below average! They tell you the waterhole close by is amazing, LIES! It's not blue. It's grey. They have put concrete all around it for the tourists and it have changed the water hole. It's not clear at all, I had to ask the man "is this the blue water hole?" When I arrived because it was nothing special. 500vatu... the kayak was nice though.

Despite all this, the local workers, the Nevans, were lovely. And Vanuatu is a beautiful country with so much to offer, just wouldn't recommend coming to Oyster Island :) the new management seems to be CHEAP and you can really see it.