Dee3

We own a timeshare through the Royal Resorts in Cancun Mexico. We have been very pleased, no regrets. It offers great trading power through Interval International (we frequently get approached to trade our week for 2 weeks elsewhere), but we prefer to return to our home villa every year. As others have said, rent the timeshare for a week before you buy to see how you like it. Another online resource for purchasing/renting a Royal timeshare is mexicondo.com. The Royal Resorts company, based in Fort Lauderdale, is top notch in Mexico. Definitely do your research. I would recommend purchasing where you own a deeded set unit during a set week rather than floating "points". In the later you have an actual unit to trade. Friends of mine have a points based timeshare and have not been unable to trade through RCI.

BBEAR

We purchased a timeshare in Ft. Myers Beach, FL about 10 years ago and have NEVER regretted it! We rented a unit during Feb vacation week (Presidents week in NE) for $1100 and a unit was for sale for the same week for only $4000 (obstructed view). We figured for that amount of money it was worth it. Also for sale were weeks 6 & 7 (7 is Presidents week) for $5000 and $6000 respectively - this time with an ocean view. We decided to take the plunge and buy all 3 weeks!

We always use our week 7 and let our in-laws use our other week 7 unit. They own timeshares in Orlando, so they then give us a week there - trading amongst ourselves. The week 6 we either rent, which covers maintenence fees or trade. We've been to Williamsburg, Cape Cod, White Mountains, Sedona, SW Colorado, etc. We've had amazing units to stay in and are guaranteed 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, full kitchen, etc. With a family of 5, it sure beats hotel rooms!

The best advice given is to purchase in a place you plan to return to. We love knowing that our unit in Ft Myers Beach is waiting for us every Feb so we can escape the NE winter. Once you learn to use the system (we're with RCI), exchanging isn't very difficult. RCI also has a credit card so you can earn points for your membership fees, exchange fees, etc. as well as other travel purchases - airline tickets, hotels, etc.

I can't help with the point system or flex weeks, since we own fixed weeks. Ours is a fairly small complex (about 40 units) and there were no high-pressure sales pitches to sit through - they simply give everyone a list of units/weeks currently for sale. We feel like we've aleady gotten more than our money's worth from our timeshares.

irishmccart

We have timeshares where we have to deal with RCI and another where we deal with Interval. I would stay away from any time share where you must belong to Interval. Our exchanges thru Interval have been mostly disastrous. Will probably get rid of that time share because of it. RCI much better. My advice would be to buy a timeshare at a location where you really want to stay...and not plan to purchase just to exchange.

ilisa

We own a timeshare at the Marriott Grand Chateau in Las Vegas. We are those people who bought with the intention to exchange since we don't go to Las Vegas every year. Whether that's wise, well, time will tell. However, we have already exchanged it for a week in Spain in January 2006 and a week in Disney June 2006. Our family of 4 (kids are 6 and 3) will be staying in 2 bedrooms with full kitchens, something we never would have gotten if we were just booking a trip. Never have we thought of it as an investment, but as someone said, a pre-paid vacation. Our t/s is completely paid for, free and clear. Frankly, for us, I think it was a great purchase and will serve us well in the long run. Since we purchased ours, several friends have purchased as well.

braidsL

Like volcam, I also own at Westgate in Orlando. My ex-husband and I bought week 52 of the year back in 1987. When we broke up it had been paid for and he gave it to me. My now 19 year old son and I have alone and with friends gone to some very interesting places we might have never seen otherwise. Although we travel a lot internationally, the only places out of the country I have traded to were in the caribbean. Now that my son is older I let him and his friends use it and make sure they contribute towards the maintenance fee. It has worked out well for us. How else would we ever have gone dog-sledding in Wyoming?? Lorraine

regc

bve very careful, we won a time share inm orland, vistana which was bought by starwood and so far we will be going to puerto rico end of july on points from starwood but from what i gather the hotels that starwood bouhgt are out of the way, not inner city and from comments on other websites not the best of services. starwood is not too helpful in gettin gme what my membership should entitle to me as they say it is the policy the hotel, rules, etc. so be careful, amnd ask a lot of questions.

Califaloha

I bought my first timeshare a number of years ago on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai. I've never looked back! Since then, I've gotten married and convinced my husband, who is a Real Estate Broker, that, if done correctly, timeshares can be wonderful. I bought my timeshare with the idea of having a nice place to stay every year and not with any delusion of using it as an investment (no matter what the salespeople tell you). We now own another week at the same resort on Kauai (Kaui Beach Villas), a week on Maui (Embassy Resort Vacations), a week on the Big Island (The Bay Club) and a week in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico(SolMar). Two of the weeks we bought from the developer and the other 3 on the resale market (each has it's advantages and disadvantages). The only problem that I have faced is getting the time off from work to be able to enjoy all of those weeks! Fortunately, I've recently cut back to part time (70%) which gives me more time to play with. Also, you have to be in a job where you can get the time off approved several months if not many months in advance, so that you can "book" your week at your resort (or trade it with RCI or II, as "the early bird catches the best location/resort). We have traded some of our weeks in the past and gone to Spain, Portugal, London, & Paris and had a wonderful time. Advise: buy your 1st from a reputable re-sale market, follow the advice of many before me here, and be sure to find out your yearly maintenance fees up-front and the corporation who owns & runs the resort has a solid financial backing; be sure the unit you're buying is top quality (GoldCrown in RCI terms) with a "Red" week in a very desirable area with few timeshares left unused. Best to buy where you want to stay most of the time, but it is nice to have the highest trading value you can get when you're ready to wander. Patricia

artlover

We bought a Marriott resale in Palm Desert with the intention of locking out our week and using it with II for 2 weeks. Sometimes this has worked--when we went to Marriott in Costa del Sol in Spain and another timeshare in Mougins, France, but sometimes it hasn't. This year we went to Italy and Spain and requested Venice for May in July and couldn't get our request. So we're going to S.F. for a week in Nov. but Europe was really expensive without the timeshare this year (but still worth it to me.)

Yes, check out tug2.com and from what I've heard it's good to get a resale in a high demand area with a top rated resort.