Drive to vacations are problematic

[Polly Metallic]

I wonder if anyone else shares the same issues. While it is good advice in many instances to buy a timeshare that you can drive to, drive-to type locations don't consistently interest us. We don't need to take vacations during school holidays. It's so nice in our area during the summer, and there is so much to do here, that we seldom take vacations in the summer. I suppose we could have bought somewhere within driving distance and used it solely for exchange, but it's nice to own somewhere that you like to travel to.

Generally, we want to vacation in the winter, and perferably we want to swim when we get there. We live in New York State. There are no driveable locations that fit that description. Not even Florida, as it's pretty cold in the ocean in February, and Florida is much farther than we want to drive, anyway. We tend to go for a week or two in the winter, and we often take one week off during mid October to mid November. It seems we have already exhausted most of the drive-to locations for our Fall trips.

The rise in airfares to warm winter locations is problematic, but that doesn't change my mind about giving up winter vacations and settling for places we can drive to. We just came back from Myrtle Beach (was going to drive but knuckled under and flew as it would be 14 1/2 hours to drive there), and it was fun, the ocean was warm, and we had a good time, but it was 88 to 97 degrees with high humidity every day, and I have no desire to repeat that experience any time soon. We would much rather go to that type location in February, but the air temps would be rather cold, and it would definitely be too cold to swim.

Does anyone else find that owning/vacationing at resorts that you can drive to just doesn't work with your vacation expectations?

 

[e.bram]

When I fly someplace I've never been to i like to tour the area. With price of gas($10.00 /gal Europe) it does not make sense to return to the same place every day. Tses don't do it for practicality. driving a short distance to get a break in a home away from home on the ocean makes sense. If I could afford year around home on the ocean then TSes would not be for me.

 

[silverfox82]

We own 2 consecutive weeks in the keys and we drive. why? Its an easy 2 day drive to st augustine where we stay with friends for a few days then a 5 hour drive to see my father in law for an overnight and then on to the ts. I bring my fishing rods, a super sharp knife, kitchen stuff that the ts doesnt have, used books for the book store which we trade for others etc, etc. can't do that if you fly

 

[silvib]

We bought our t/s specifically to have a very easy drive, none of your 2 day trips - we get there in 3 hours. We've stayed there 3 times I think and this summer have exchanged into an even shorter drive from where we live. I think the reason I like the idea of the (short) drive, was that we can just throw our golf clubs in the back, as many or as few clothes as we want as well as anything else that takes our fancy. It's fair to say we've also had short trips between using our t/s to the Domican Republic.

 

[icydog]

We don't own at the Marriott Seaview in Absecon but I trade all 3 of my platinum Marriott Manor Club weeks for the Seaview in the summer. This year two of our kids took a week each in July and we are going down next week. My niece will take the weekend with her husband and then we'll stay from Mon to the following Saturday. Where else can you stay at the Jersey shore for my maintenance fees in such a nice place? We love it there. My doctor's family goes there to golf. They own there and split their weeks so they can get the best use of it with his busy schedule.

We, on the other hand, are retired so we go down as much as five times a year. We often share the week with our family or friends. They take a couple of days and we take a couple. (We are going in Sept again with our friends when they take a promo tour. We will be their guests this time)

In fact it is the only timeshare near us that we would go to. It is a little diamond at the Jersey Shore-- and we love it.

Hey, and it is only 1.5 hours from our house, door to door:whoopie:

 

[pcgirl54]

Polly

We live 1.5 hours away from our Cape Cod July week bought when we had school age children and close to home for a family of 5.

Northern waters are much too cold for me to swim and some of the beaches are so very crowded.

I posed the question to DH about using it next summer, no airfare, no luggage fees, a tank of gas,take the beach chairs and just relax.

He said when he vacations he wants to walk from the resort to the beach in 5 minutes and he wants to swim in warm water period.

We travel shoulder season now and Hilton Head remains the favorite place to swim in warm water spring or fall.

Does this answer your question?

 

[John Cerra]

Marriott Seaview

We don't own at the Marriott Seaview in Absecon but I trade all 3 of my platinum Marriott Manor Club weeks for the Seaview in the summer. This year two of our kids took a week each in July and we are going down next week. My niece will take the weekend with her husband and then we'll stay from Mon to the following Saturday. Where else can you stay at the Jersey shore for my maintenance fees in such a nice place? We love it there. My doctor's family goes there to golf. They own there and split their weeks so they can get the best use of it with his busy schedule.

We, on the other hand, are retired so we go down as much as five times a year. We often share the week with our family or friends. They take a couple of days and we take a couple. (We are going in Sept again with our friends when they take a promo tour. We will be their guests this time)

In fact it is the only timeshare near us that we would go to. It is a little diamond at the Jersey Shore-- and we love it.

Hey, and it is only 1.5 hours from our house, door to door:whoopie:

We bought a resale at the Seaview (actually Fairway Villas) and would agree that it's easy drive from the NYC area and great amenities make it an excellent value. Its 100 miles door to door, and we book Sunday to Sunday in the summer to avoid the Jersey Shore traffic.

 

[caribbean]

I have yet to buy at a location where I plan to drive. That's not where I want to vacation. As you might guess from my "name", my choice of location is the Caribbean, obviously not in driving range from anywhere. Other than that we also frequent the Tampa/Sarasota are and NYC. Ocassionally we drive to Tampa, but only if we are going for more than one week. But that is about it. We own in NYC and Sarasota, but our other ownership was bought and is used exclusively for trading. As flights go higher, we are just cutting back elsewhere. Last two trips we rented a car for a couple of days rather then the entire 2 week trip. A few more meals in at night. We make it work.

 

[jehb2]

I wonder if anyone else shares the same issues. While it is good advice in many instances to buy a timeshare that you can drive to, drive-to type locations don't consistently interest us.

I always wondered if this was a regional thing. I live in central Texas. I can drive for a long time and still be in Texas. When I go on vacation I want to feel that I am really away on vacation. That's probably why we own several TS in Hawaii. So the idea of buying where you can drive to just never worked for me.

 

[ausman]

I think that mantra has been overdone a little also.

However, it is good basic advice for the majority. I think.

Until recently, our family of 5 on fly to destinations would have been financially irresponsible. Now, with me not having to pay the full load, things have changed. Seems to be the two of us now.

I'm still not eager to add additional dollars on to vacations and we will probably keep doing what we have been doing with an ocassional treat.

 

[Laurie]

I have yet to find a resort that I want to own, use and drive to every year - though I wish there were one. (Well, one that I can afford, anyway! I can think of a couple I wouldn't mind returning to annually, but I wouldn't even want to pay their maintenance fees, let alone their purchase prices.) So far I'd still rather spend most of that money on exchange fees and transportation costs to places I've never experienced before.

At some point perhaps I'll get over the wanderlust, and really tired of the expense - but the advice (to own where you want to go every year, and can drive to) doesn't apply to me yet, and I don't give that advice - it really depends on the individual.

We have owned a resort within driving distance that gave us really inexpensive bonus time off season (Myrtle Beach in fact - which is actually much more pleasant off season than mid-July, we've done that too), and we did use and enjoy that for many years - it was easy to just throw stuff in the car spur of the moment and take off for a weekend. But mostly we preferred to trade our actual week, and go somewhere new, that usually has involved flying.

We've tried to minimize travel costs by taking back-to-back weeks whenever possible, 3 to 4 at a time if we could manage. Guess we'll see what happens as these costs get more and more painful, I could have a whole new attitude about this.

 

[rhonda]

Does anyone else find that owning/vacationing at resorts that you can drive to just doesn't work with your vacation expectations?

We are hugely fortunate to enjoy vacations of many types using drive-to locations. Not only do we have lots of activities offered -- we have plenty of flexibility from our timeshares to enjoy short weekend stays, multi-hop roadtrips or longer stays as needed.

 

[Phill12]

I wonder if anyone else shares the same issues. While it is good advice in many instances to buy a timeshare that you can drive to, drive-to type locations don't consistently interest us. We don't need to take vacations during school holidays. It's so nice in our area during the summer, and there is so much to do here, that we seldom take vacations in the summer. I suppose we could have bought somewhere within driving distance and used it solely for exchange, but it's nice to own somewhere that you like to travel to.

Generally, we want to vacation in the winter, and perferably we want to swim when we get there. We live in New York State. There are no driveable locations that fit that description. Not even Florida, as it's pretty cold in the ocean in February, and Florida is much farther than we want to drive, anyway. We tend to go for a week or two in the winter, and we often take one week off during mid October to mid November. It seems we have already exhausted most of the drive-to locations for our Fall trips.

The rise in airfares to warm winter locations is problematic, but that doesn't change my mind about giving up winter vacations and settling for places we can drive to. We just came back from Myrtle Beach (was going to drive but knuckled under and flew as it would be 14 1/2 hours to drive there), and it was fun, the ocean was warm, and we had a good time, but it was 88 to 97 degrees with high humidity every day, and I have no desire to repeat that experience any time soon. We would much rather go to that type location in February, but the air temps would be rather cold, and it would definitely be too cold to swim.

Does anyone else find that owning/vacationing at resorts that you can drive to just doesn't work with your vacation expectations?

We own in Lake Tahoe and its a three and a half hour drive from our home.

This is great because we love Lake Tahoe and no matter how much gas is it only cost us couple tanks for the week.

I always tell people to buy their timeshare some place they love going to and if you exchange or rent then great but you always have your resort to use.

Some people buy thousands of miles away and others like us by closer to home and if we want to travel we can exchange our unit.

Vacations are to get away and relax and have fun and the distance shouldn't have anything to do with you enjoying your vacations.

 

[DeniseM]

I think the best of both worlds is to have at least one fly-to timeshare and at least one drive-to timeshare. We fly to Hawaii every year and love it, and we drive to Tahoe 4-6 times a year and love it, too. I wouldn't want to just have one or the other.

 

[laura1957]

I am very lucky - I live about 5 - 5 1/2 hours from Massanutten, where I own my weeks. And I do love to return year after year, numerous times per year.

But I also love Mexico, Florida, the Outer Banks, Pennsylvania.....
and have taken exchanges/last calls to those locations. For owning - I like mine within driving distance.

 

[Lisa P]

We own in a points system for the variety and it's definitely one of our favorite timeshares. But we also trade around our fixed/floating weeks a lot and they were primarily purchased as traders. We don't regret that one bit. Owning at most of the resorts where we like to stay would be helpful, less complicated. But trading is fun and for us, it's often more economical than owning at all those places.

TUG members recommend buying near home, at a resort you like, for several reasons, to reduce the risk of later disappointments as interests change, trade power changes or exchange fees increase.

• no exchange fees if you use or rent your own week
• easier to rent out in the local paper or among coworkers
• if trade power drops off, you may use/rent the week rather than trading
• may offer day use privileges or discounted rental nights in offseason
• travel/transportation costs won't become a deterrent to vacationing

I generally agree with this advice, especially for first time buyers who may not know specifically how they want to vacation with timeshares. It's a good starting point. However, this advice is primarily about minimizing risks and we are also interested in reducing other risks. So for trading, we bought...

• reasonably priced resales, of course (under $2K/week)
• good weeks - red, desirable to more people than just us
• in the mainland U.S., within a few hours' drive of population centers
• outside of areas at high risk of hurricane or flood damage (assessments!)
• 2BR weeks at established, well-managed resorts
• non-branded, with lower MFs without the high-cost branded managment

We've followed the conventional wisdom with some of our purchases and not with others. Our weeks are NOT winter ski in/out and NOT at the beach - again, away from conventional advice, mostly because of the maint fees and assessment risks at those resorts. You just have to do what works for your family's vacationing style.

 

[linsj]

I don't like driving anymore; give me an airline ticket and I'm gone. There's no place within driving distance of Chicago that I want to go to every year, so there's no point in owning close to home. Except for Hawaii once a year, I want to go somewhere new. There's too much of the world--including a few states--I haven't seen yet.

 

[Passepartout]

I guess it depends some on how you feel about driving. Is 2 days too far? What do you want to take along? What activities do you enjoy?. Maybe a points-based TS mini-system like Wyndham where you can try other locations- especially in off-season- would be better for you.

On the other hand, if sky high (pun intended) airfares aren't a worry, what the hey- don't sweat that your TS isn't in driving range.

We like that Sedona is a (long) day's drive- Vegas a little closer- S. Cal 2 days. We fly to just about everyplace else.

Jim Ricks

 

[UWSurfer]

One of mine is a 90 minute drive from home, & Vegas is a 5 - 8 hour drive depending on traffic. The only one I must fly to is Maui (every other year), although depending on my mood & pricing I might fly to Vegas now and again.

The nice thing about the HGVC's (points system) we have in Vegas is they are the entre to traveling to other places should we opt to...but we can always drive to Vegas.

San Clemente Inn was selected specificially for it's location and is always a get away even though it's not that far away.

 

[Polly Metallic]

I have yet to buy at a location where I plan to drive. That's not where I want to vacation. As you might guess from my "name", my choice of location is the Caribbean, obviously not in driving range from anywhere. . . .As flights go higher, we are just cutting back elsewhere. Last two trips we rented a car for a couple of days rather then the entire 2 week trip. A few more meals in at night. We make it work.

I think this response most typifies our viewpoint. I'd rather make other concessions and continue to fly to the majority of our vacations.

Our winter vacations have to be fly-to vacations. Yes, we could conceivably drive from New York to Florida, but it's too long of a drive, and there's no way that braving blizzards half the way there is my idea of enjoying a vacation.

Our Fall or Summer drive-to vacations are OK, but as we said to ourselves this year while in Myrtle Beach, "it's just not an exciting vacation." We'd enjoy a similar setting so much more in the winter, when we could get away from the cold, and when it wasn't quite so sweltering hot at our vacation destination. We think of driving vacations as a necessary evil, as they are the budget component of our vacation schedule. We've had fun at all of our drive-to vacations, but they just aren't terribly exciting to us. We don't find ourselves talking about the fantastic time we had there five or ten years later as we do with destinations that seem more exotic. Our more memorable vacations are Cabo San Lucas, Key West, Grand Cayman, Cancun, Hawaii/Maui/Kauai, Puerto Vallarta, Sedona, etc. even Orlando. I hate feeling we are "making do" with a vacation that was selected mainly because it was within driving distance.

I am not knocking anyone who is fortunate enough to thoroughly enjoy destinations within driving distance, but the combination of location and the season during which we like to travel most, just don't lend themselves to driving vacations.

 

[pcgirl54]

It's more exciting because the culture or surroundings are so vastly different from our daily lifestyle and the surroundings we know.

I just came back from our first Maui/Hawaii trip. I will never forget it.

 

[DanM]

I own two timeshares that I could drive to, and I would like to visit both of them someday. I am just not in any hurry to do so. They are on the list. Where I go depends more on when I can get away, who is coming with me, and what's available than the specific weeks I own.

 

[jjking42]

we prefer to keep drives under 8 hours but have stretch that to 16-18 hours lately

from DFW it take 8 hours to branson
13 hours to Florida pan handle
16 hour to Colorado
18 hour to Orlando

There is nothing close except
San Antonio 5 hours


next year we are going to try to drive to cocoa beach

You guys on the east and west coast are lucky
I used to live in the D.C. area we would drive to the beach one weekend and the mountains the next
Plus 4 nice season a year

In Texas we have long summers
Summer= April to September
Fall = October to December
Winter = January and February
spring = march

 

[summervaca]

We do not have many "resort" style timeshares to visit near Minneapolis either, but it is so gorgeous here in the summer and so darn cold here the rest of the year (I am a heat person), that it doesn't make sense to most people to take off during the summer. For that reason, I have no problem flying OR driving somewhere warm in the spring. Our kids at this time are 12, 11 and 9 and we have taken many loooong road trips with them. We have some of our most interesting conversations while trapped in the van together or most comical moments at some horrible little restaurant along the way. So far that is working for us. I actually kind of look forward to the drive.

Timewise, a flight to either coast or down south is usually around 3 hours no matter which direction you're flying

 

[icydog]

I have yet to buy at a location where I plan to drive. That's not where I want to vacation. As you might guess from my "name", my choice of location is the Caribbean, obviously not in driving range from anywhere. Other than that we also frequent the Tampa/Sarasota are and NYC. Ocassionally we drive to Tampa, but only if we are going for more than one week. But that is about it. We own in NYC and Sarasota, but our other ownership was bought and is used exclusively for trading. As flights go higher, we are just cutting back elsewhere. Last two trips we rented a car for a couple of days rather then the entire 2 week trip. A few more meals in at night. We make it work.

Do you have RHC weekly contracts that get you two weeks in NYC. That's how my husband and I go all the time. We take two weeks at the Affinia and rent one out. It is a great way to stay at an upscale apt-hotel on Manhattan's East Side. And in a one bdrm Presidential suite to boot.