Distance to timeshare

[hangloose]

If the drive is 12 hrs or less, we choose to take a roadtrip via car. Given we have a family of four, driving allows for more flexibility and is also much cheaper than flying. It also allows us to take all of our 'gear' when going to resorts with a beach, etc. If over 12 hrs, we fly.

 

[TRAVELING FOOL]

The furthest timeshare trips we've taken were to Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Aruba. We take alot of 5 night trips to MOW and HHI, since they are within 5-7 hrs. Since we stay a few months during the Winter in Florida, we drive and stop off in HH on the way to and from. We've only been to the Williamsburg resort twice, which is only an hour away from us. Looking forward to Spain and France in the near future.

 

[oceanvps]

To those who live only 2-3 hrs from TS's do you use them alot for 3-4 day vacations?

i have worldmark, vi and mcv and we live in surrey bc canada
probably within a 4 hour / drive i have my timeshares in
whistler, bc
victoria, bc
pacific shores, nanaimo, bc

wm birch bay, wa
seattle, wa
discovery bay, wa
deer harbor, wa
leavenworth, wa
lake chelan, wa
ocean shores, wa
long beach, wa (5 hours)

i would say that we use them quite often - they're bookable for less than week stays so that makes it easier

we've driven to the oregon timeshares that come with my timeshares 6-8 hours
seaside, or
depoe bay, or

for the california ones we'd fly (and have)

i'm in my 40s so don't get enough time off to really make the most of the timeshares within easy driving distance however i think we do okay

 

[MichaelColey]

We generally won't even consider flying unless it's more than 6-8 hours (or if we get a really good fare). With 5 of us, those airline tickets add up, and then when you add parking (or transportation to the airport) and getting a rental car at the destination (especially on longer trips), it's far cheaper to drive for most domestic vacations. Plus, that "2 hour flight" is really more like 6+ hours when you factor in the drive to the airport, getting there early enough to make it park, get to the terminal, check bags, get through security, and get to the gate with plenty of time to spare, seemingly inevitable delays, getting bags at the destination, shuttling to the rental car center, and driving to the timeshare. Within 6 hours, driving is just as fast, and you can leave when you want to.

If it's more than about 12 hours away (the most we would drive in a day), we start looking much more seriously at flying. At 16-24 hours (2+ days of driving each way), we'll generally only drive if it's a very long trip (we've taken several 4-6 week trips).

It's also SO much more convenient to have your own vehicle. Especially with kids.

 

[myhrse11]

11 hours direct from Newark to Honolulu. We plan on much longer trips when we retire. We also like to drive. We will probably not due 24 hours straight anymore like we did when the kids were little but 12-14 hours is fine since there are 2 of us to split the driving.

 

[Finntastic]

When I retire someday I would like to do a MVC East coast vacation starting in Boston, New Jersey, Williamsburg, Mrytle to Hilton Head with hotels mixed in! I am 45 so retirement is a while away. Someday I would like to do some MVC's out west. We will fly to those, but not with 3 kids, or at least not on my dime!

 

[Sugarcubesea]

6 hours is my time limit in the care….I'm getting too old to go longer then that

 

[BocaBoy]

The farthest we have gone for a timeshare stay is London - but I know there are timeshares that are farther away than that, like in Asia.

However, even with timeshares within the continental US, I would never drive 18 or 19 hours, if I could fly instead. I won't even drive 6 hours if I can fly instead.

For us that depends on how long we will be staying. We spent 5 weeks in Hilton Head and a week in Williamsburg and several days in New jersey last January/February so it was convenient for us to drive 4 days to get there (we did not push ourselves for the 1400 or so miles). Driving saved us a lot in car rental expenses, not to mention avoiding the ever increasing risk of scam damage claims on a rental car. It was kind of fun to arrange to see a few things along the way, too.

For a 2-week stay I would agree 100% with you.

 

[ilene13]

We currently live in Western New York. We do not drive to any of our vacations--that is how we have become preferred US Air flyers. We are moving next week to Sarasota--we are driving one car down and shipping the other--I may never drive again. All kidding aside I can see driving to different Florida destinations for 2-4 day trips.

 

[Finntastic]

For us that depends on how long we will be staying. We spent 5 weeks in Hilton Head and a week in Williamsburg and several days in New jersey last January/February so it was convenient for us to drive 4 days to get there (we did not push ourselves for the 1400 or so miles). Driving saved us a lot in car rental expenses, not to mention avoiding the ever increasing risk of scam damage claims on a rental car. It was kind of fun to arrange to see a few things along the way, too.

For a 2-week stay I would agree 100% with you.

what is the weather like in hilton head in january. your trip sounds like what i would like to do someday but in reverse.

 

[Monykalyn]

Farthest is Cayman Islands-flew of course. We usually fly now since having kids-anything over 6-8 hours in a car with 3 kids (even though they are way past infant stage) and I'd rather stay home lol! Usually we can find good enough prices on flights and rental cars if needed anyway. Air tickets x 5 + rental car for 2 weeks in Orlando for our June trip ~$2000. Husband dislikes long drives now as he drives so much for work.

We got an extra accomodation certificate from our recent June exchange-limited areas/availability -is it crazy to think about using it for a weekend at Branson/SDC when we live ~45 minutes away? My employer gives tickets to employees/family once/year instead of doing company picnic-we get extra hours, special priced food etc. Might be "shortest" drive for an exchange instead of longest:rofl:

 

[Finntastic]

Farthest is Cayman Islands-flew of course. We usually fly now since having kids-anything over 6-8 hours in a car with 3 kids (even though they are way past infant stage) and I'd rather stay home lol! Usually we can find good enough prices on flights and rental cars if needed anyway. Air tickets x 5 + rental car for 2 weeks in Orlando for our June trip ~$2000. Husband dislikes long drives now as he drives so much for work.

We got an extra accomodation certificate from our recent June exchange-limited areas/availability -is it crazy to think about using it for a weekend at Branson/SDC when we live ~45 minutes away? My employer gives tickets to employees/family once/year instead of doing company picnic-we get extra hours, special priced food etc. Might be "shortest" drive for an exchange instead of longest:rofl:

i wish we had a time share near us. i would definately use the AC for someplace nice only 45 min away. it is a break from the everyday in beautiful surroundings! our camp is 40 min away and we go W/E's. its not like a TS though because we have always so much upkeep to do.

 

[sfwilshire]

We drive 1000 miles each way every year to our owned timeshare on Nantucket. We always try to add another week somewhere before or after, so we have gone as far as PEI and Nova Scotia, which added a few hundred extra miles.

The farthest we have flown for a timeshare vacation is the British Isles.

Sheila

 

[Myxdvz]

I have a family of 6, so flying is REALLY expensive for us.

I also live in the MIDWEST, there's only a handful of timeshares here that are under 8 hours, basically it's IL and Wisconsin Dells (I have Wyndham).

So we drive... and drive. For 4 day weekends, I think our maximum is 5 hours, though that really limits our options for TS. We've done 8 hours though (Minnesota) and will most likely not do it again.

We've driven to Toronto/Barrie/Niagara Falls, PA, NYC, Washington DC, Florida, Hilton Head Island, Branson.

We have a 12 seater Sprinter so we have the room now. We purposely bought it for road trips after doing the drive to Disney in a mini-van. For our 7 night stays, we normally use up the weekend before and the weekend after for a 9 day trip. Sometimes we even leave Friday afternoon to make it 10 days.

If we go to the West Coast, we fly. We flew to Seattle then drove to Vancouver for our Alaska trip.

I wish there are more TS's in the midwest within driving distance. Even upper Michigan Peninsula will take us 7-8 hours.

 

[Mamianka]

6 hours is my time limit in the care….I'm getting too old to go longer then that

Ditto us - both 65. We have each had enough joint surgery, bad backs, clotting issues, etc. that sitting ANYWHERE is not good. I heard a saying that "sitting is the new smoking"- so many diseases come from inactivity, and I am a big offender there. (I walked SIX miles a day on a recent trip in Europe - but there was ART and good pastry around each corner - carrot/stick.) We can drive to Boston and NJ timeshares from here in the Hudson Valley - and I am originally form Boston, and we went back there many years ago for grad work - but would only drive for a few days' stay to those TSs. We only fly Comfort or higher - and like another responder have a trip coming up all on points/miles - 5 nights Paris, 5 nights Vienna, free Business class on SkyMiles. For domestic stuff, we figure anything more than 500 miles - we are looking for a flight. We live between Albany and Newburgh, but seldom find flights we like there, or Westchester (and Stewart in Newburgh, long known for offering few flights, and mostly multi-stop ones at that, is going to change over to taking more freight - literally and figuratively, off the NYC airports) so we will drive down to JFK, LGA, or Newark - the car drives itself at this point. Are there some things about flying that can get annoying? Sure - but I get to my vacation sooner, so can *stuff* the bad memories, and only refer to them for future planning/avoidance. We willingly drive all over NYC, Boston, and other places that make people bug-eyed - but if you can plop me in a nice cushy seat with noise-canceling headphones - I am already in Vacation Mode.

Mamianka

 

[Finntastic]

Having fun rereading this old post instead of packing! Friday we leave for Hilton Head Island! We are doing 10 hrs our first day, 5 hours our second(going to enjoy the day in Charlotte, NC) then a short 3-4 hour drive to HHI. I try to think of it as quality time with the family. We play travel bingo, watch the snow melt and the temps climb above freezing and catch up on movies. On the drive home last yr we started planning this trip(last April/15). I need to go pack!

 

[Seadawg]

Lived out of Car/hotels for 50 plus days a couple times

My wife and I have lived out of car and hotels for extended periods... and we have it down to a science... sometimes airports are such a hassle when travelling with service dogs. (Point: If you fly out of gates D in Phoenix do not try and find relief area for dogs and make anything less than a 1 hour and 30 minute connection... will not happen)... so we can putter along and take "Squirrels" as they come.

Squirrel" : something we find along route and just want to explore.

Seadawg

 

[Finntastic]

We are hoping our day in Charlotte is sunny so we can do some sight seeing. We have no plans and can just kinda do what ever suites our fancy. Our days for Surf Watch are a little more planned because with only 6 days I think we will jeep pretty busy!

 

[Karenann]

Hawaii too far?

We went to Kauai last month. We hate the flight from Chicago-no direct flights-but we accepted the time in the air (9 hours or more) knowing that we would be in Kauai when we landed. We flew to Phoenix to catch the connecting flight to Kauai. Unfortunately, two hours into our flight to Kauai the pilot announced that he had some "bad news" for us. The engine overheating indicator had turned on and we had to return to Phoenix to see what could be done! He said he needed to "use up fuel" and lowered the landing gear and opened the flaps to create drag so that the plane used more fuel. So it was more than two hours back to Phoenix (all the time we looked out the window to see if the engines were smoking or on fire!). Landing in Phoenix, we were told there was another plane to take us to Kauai that day! (hard to believe, but true). The flight was to take off at 4 p.m. (When we should have been in Kauai). They gave us a $12 voucher for food and told us to be back at 4. Everyone returned, but the flight did not take off until 5:30. The point to this story is that I am not sure we would fly to Hawaii any time soon. If we could drive there, I would consider it! For all our trouble, the airlines gave us 6,000 miles.

 

[Finntastic]

Wow! That would be very disappointing to be two hrs into a flight and get turned around. What time did you arrive to HI. My husband and I flew to Mrytle Beach 2 yrs ago for a work conference(which is how this whole timeshare started) and r flights there and back were messed up! Husband and I doing a cruise next yr and will be flying out of Miami. Right now I am in the thick of packing and thinking again I am over packing!

 

[AlmostRetired]

When my kids were 2 to 8 we drove from LI to HHI every summer taking 3 days in each direction making mini vacation in the process. Christmas we would do the Florida thing in 2 days. I didn't mind but my wife did. So we started flying into Jacksonville and driving to HHI. JetBlue to Savannah saved the day.
Soon we had the 4 hour rule.....Washington going south and Boston going north we drive, all others we fly.

 

[dioxide45]

Wow! That would be very disappointing to be two hrs into a flight and get turned around. What time did you arrive to HI. My husband and I flew to Mrytle Beach 2 yrs ago for a work conference(which is how this whole timeshare started) and r flights there and back were messed up! Husband and I doing a cruise next yr and will be flying out of Miami. Right now I am in the thick of packing and thinking again I am over packing!

You are packing already for a cruise that is a year away?

 

[Lydlady]

My limit is about a thousand miles for driving. That means road trips to places in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. Planning a trip to Oregon in the next couple years. I could drive but am thinking about flying there and taking the train along the coast back home.

 

[ronparise]

whether its a three hour drive to Orlando or a 12 hour drive to New Orleans or 20 hours to DC, or a 5 hour flight to California, I figure at least the first and last day of my vacation is lost to travel, I hate the gittin there and gittin back part

I used to be able to do that 20 hours to DC on my own, now I have given that up to old age, and I do that trip with an overnight somewhere in between

Having said that Im planning a cross country road trip. this summer Two weeks there and two weeks back with 2 or 3 day stays at several of the Wyndham and Worldmark resorts along the way.

 

[moonstone]

We have been driving from north of Toronto to St Augustine FL (sometimes twice a year) for nearly 40 years. It is over 1200 miles / 20hrs of driving time each way, which hubby doesn't mind at all. Even our kids, when they were young, and now our grandkids (11 & 13), have no trouble sitting in the car for the trip. We usually do 15 or 16 hrs the first day so we have a short day the 2nd day and are there to hopefully check-in early, or at least have a look around town.

We have flown a few times but the airfare needs to be a real bargain for us to do that. When we fly anywhere we also need to add in the cost of a rental car for the trip. Gas, lodging (1 night each way) and food on the road isn't much over $500 for the 2 of us return - we'd never get 2 airfares and a rental car for 2 or 3 weeks for that.

Next winter hubby is seriously thinking of driving to Belize (3200 miles each way) so we have wheels here for the winter. I probably wouldn't mind so much if we didn't have to go through Mexico!

We always consider our vacation starting as soon as we pull out of our driveway. We love road trips!

~Diane