Thinking of placing an OGS for Southern California and have been looking at reviews in these two areas. Can you compare them for me and let me know which one you would choose and why. How far is PS from PD and what would be best time of year to travel? Any help would be most appreciated. Thank you
My favorite time of year to be there is probably mid October through mid April. There are a few events that create a high demand in March and April (BNP Parabus tennis, Coachella Jazz Festival and Stage Coach). But Nov and December are easy months to reserve and I love the weather at that time of year.
If you are a Marriott owner you get preference on a request to their four properties (DSV1, DSV2, SR vill, SR enclave). I think that Westin and Embarc may be similar. You may want to consider requesting all of the Marriotts, the Westin's, and Embarc. They are all very good and all rated as elite (top tier in Interval) resorts with Interval. Welk (in Cathedral City - - another suburb of PS) is rated premier (a notch down from elite), but I think that this rating may be a bit of an overstatement. I stayed there and liked it, but I was told that it was a converted apartment complex. The floors were a bit "springy" - - probably due to the wooden frame construction. I recall that there were not laundry facilities in the unit but available (free) at the clubhouse. But the units seemed to be reasonably maintained.
If you exchange in RCI, only DSV1 is available in Marriott. I'm not sure about the other top rated resorts.
The Palm Springs TS are either select rated (silver) or no rating. That is, a step down from the others.