What’s your favorite HGVC resort?

[dayooper]

Saw something like this in the MVC forum. Thought it might be fun for here.

Mine? Ocean 22. I’ve been at limited resorts, but this one stands out for location, value (the view from a standard 2 bedroom is awesome) and accommodations. I think my boys would be happy going there every year. Hoping Elara next year will be as good as Ocean 22!

 

[ljmiii]

Saw something like this in the MVC forum. Thought it might be fun for here....

HHV - On the beach in Waikiki with all the amazing culture and food of Honolulu a short drive away. And the view from a Lagoon Tower OF room is amazing. We're not as fond of Waikiki as we once were - most of what was charming or quirky has been blown up and replaced with stores you can find in Anyrichtown USA - but you can still find places like a soba shop that handmakes its noodles every morning with buckwheat brought in from Japan.

McAlpin-Ocean Plaza - location, location, location. Right across the street from the beach at Lummus park, surrounded by amazing architecture, museums, and restaurants (and a few tourist traps). I can't imagine spending a week here but we loved our 4 night stay.

The Bay Club - Waikoloa is perhaps our least favorite town on the Big Island...but it *is* the Big Island. The resort is relaxing by itself for a day or three and Hapuna Beach is just to the north and quite lovely. Hawi, Waimea, and Kailua-Kona are fun and not too distant and if you get too bored buckle yourself in and drive - coffee, volcanos, green sand beaches, telescopes, waterfalls, and orchids all await.

And yes...those of you who follow the MVC forum might notice some overlap ;-)

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Great topic...in order

W57 - It's NYC on Billionaires Row near everything - some rooms have views of Central Park - great lounge and friendly staff - need I say more?

HHV - Lagoon Tower OF. Not the Ritz but the view is stunning.

Elara - Love the location, pool and vibe.

Borgo Al Vigne - Italy...

 

[JohnPaul]

My favorite is W 57th St. however I am biased as the only reason we own HGVC is for New York.

I’m sure there are lots of other great resorts but we will probably never see them as our HGVC points go to New York.

BTW. We own lots of other timeshares do still seeing a lot.

 

[brp]

W. 57th
followed by

Bay Club

Never done Oahu with HGVC and generally have little interest in that island compared to the other 3 main islands.

Cheers.

 

[GT75]

Valdoro Mountain Lodge, Breckenridge, CO. We love the resort and the people who work there and the town of Breckenridge. We normally go there 2 to 3 times a year in both winter for skiing and summer for biking/hiking.

Ocean Oak, Hilton Head Island. We also love this resort and have been going 2 times per year since it has opened. We go for the biking/ocean/pool.

 

[alwysonvac]

updated my post with some additional information.

The only reason we own HGVC is for Waikiki and most of our points go to HHV. Within HHV, my favorites are Lagoon Tower (oceanfront and ocean view) and Kalia Tower (ocean view). The other two towers at HHV are nice as well but require too many points for a decent ocean view .

My first HGVC purchase was in 2003.
Here are the HGVC resorts I’ve visited over the years (some are in my Flickr album (link))

1. Hilton Club New York
2. West 57th Street (2010 thread)
3. The District by Hilton Club (2018 thread)
4. Tuscany Village (International Drive)
5. McAlpin-Ocean Plaza (South Beach) (2013 thread)
6. Paradise (prev las vegas hilton)
7. Boulevard (las vegas strip)
8. Grand Islander, Grand Waikikian (2015 thread), Kalia and Lagoon Tower @ HHV (2012 thread)
9. Kings' Land Resort (2013 thread and HWV Pool thread)
10. Elara (1st visit coming April 2020).

Here are some of our favorites in the other timeshare systems.

• Disney’s Aulani (2012 thread)
• Westin Maui (2012 thread)
• Marriott Ko Olina (2017 thread)
• Marriott Aruba Surf (2013 thread) - returning again in October 2020

 

[PigsDad]

My favorite so far has been Ocean Oaks. Beautiful, new, quiet and great location.

Second would be Sunrise Lodge, Park City. Fantastic, large rooms, great views, and lots to do in the area.

The ones I use the most are Valdoro (2 hour drive) and Charter Club (the free water activities make it great -- sailboats, paddle boards, kayaks).

With this said, I have never been to any of the Hawaii locations, so that could change my opinion after visiting those.

Kurt

 

[brp]

Second would be Sunrise Lodge, Park City. Fantastic, large rooms, great views, and lots to do in the area.

We are off to Utah for a ski weekend at Alta. For the future, we would definitely look at Park City and even now I see good availability in early April, which is great skiing in Utah, especially during General Conference

Cheers.

 

[GregT]

I love HHV and Kings Land -- those are great properties and I want to return as many times as possible. I've stayed at Lagoon and Grand Waikikian and prefer Lagoon. Kings Land (preferring Phase 1) is a favorite of mine as well.

In all candor, the only other property I've stayed at is Flamingo which wasn't a favorite of mine -- more because I'm not a Vegas guy.

I think we should recognize an advantage that HGVC has over Marriott -- you can buy it cost effectively on the resale market and have unrestricted access to the entire network. If not visiting your home week, point systems are superior (IMO) to pure week systems and HGVC has great properties and great access. The fact that I can access HHV and Kings Land almost any time of year for any length of time is pretty remarkable. Marriott is much more inflexible in my ability to exploit it on an economic basis. Interesting stuff.

Best,

Greg

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I would add that FA Cabo would have been on my list but now with mandatory AI, this has now fallen off. Amazing property. Looking forward to checking out the new HGVC Cabo when it opens.

 

[mjm1]

Interesting reading this thread and will follow it for additional owner insights.

We are new HGVC owners and will have our first experiences at HHV Lagoon in June (4 nights) and Marbrisa in August (6 nights). In both cases combining our stays with time at a Marriott resort. I agree that the flexibility is a great feature. We are looking forward to our first-hand experience of staying in units using points.

I should add that we have used open season at Elara and enjoyed the resort and location. We will also be staying at Trump International using open season right after April 15. While the rates aren’t as good as they used to be they are still pretty good compared to renting from Hilton.

Best regards.

Mike

 

[GT75]

Some observations:

• One can only evaluate those resorts one has been too. For example, I haven't been to any of the Las Vegas nor Orlando resorts. Obviously, I will not have any of them on my list.
• I am glad that we all don't like the same resorts. If we did then it would make a select few very difficult to book.
• Just because I like a particular resort doesn't mean someone else would. For example, Valdoro Mountain Lodge is located in Breckenridge, CO at 9600 feet. If you have altitude sickness issues, then you aren't going to like being there. If you also don't enjoy outside activities in the mountains, then you probably aren't going to enjoy going to that resort.
• Enjoy reading the favorite HGV resorts of TUG members and why. I use this information when I am planning future trips.
• Enjoy the comparisons from TUG members such as @GregT who also own in other TS systems.

 

[MikeinSoCal]

What's is surprising to me is how many (or I should least) locations people have stayed at. I've been a member since 2012 and I've only stayed at 8 different properties with aspirations to stay at many more different locations.

 

[Panina]

This should be no surprise to any of you that know me. My favorites are eagles nest and surf club on Marco Island. Not the fanciest or largest but great location and right on the beach.

 

[dayooper]

updated my post with some additional information.

The only reason we own HGVC is for Waikiki and most of our points go to HHV. Within HHV, my favorites are Lagoon Tower (oceanfront and ocean view) and Kalia Tower (ocean view). The other two towers at HHV are nice as well but require too many points for a decent ocean view .

My first HGVC purchase was in 2003.
Here are the HGVC resorts I’ve visited over the years (some are in my Flickr album (link))

1. Hilton Club New York
2. West 57th Street (2010 thread)
3. The District by Hilton Club (2018 thread)
4. Tuscany Village (International Drive)
5. McAlpin-Ocean Plaza (South Beach) (2013 thread)
6. Paradise (prev las vegas hilton)
7. Boulevard (las vegas strip)
8. Grand Islander, Grand Waikikian (2015 thread), Kalia and Lagoon Tower @ HHV (2012 thread)
9. Kings' Land Resort (2013 thread and HWV Pool thread)
10. Elara (1st visit coming April 2020).

Here are some of our favorites in the other timeshare systems.

• Disney’s Aulani (2012 thread)
• Westin Maui (2012 thread)
• Marriott Ko Olina (2017 thread)
• Marriott Aruba Surf (2013 thread) - returning again in October 2020

Love your Flickr albums! I love looking at the different albums for different resorts! Between the Tug reviews and the photo albums that are posted on this forum, it makes it easy to pick what resort we are going to book! It's one of the reasons we booked Ocean 22 last year was the great photo album in the sticky above. The Tug reviews were really good too!

We want to book Elara for next year. We were going to go back to The Boulevard (we need a 3 bedroom), but @dougp26364 picture album made us think twice and the TUG reviews sealed the deal!

 

[dayooper]

This should be no surprise to any of you that know me. My favorites are eagles nest and surf club on Marco Island. Not the fanciest or largest but great location and right on the beach.

Just curious, what's your favorite HGVC resort that's not one of the SW Florida affiliates? (If you have one)

 

[Panina]

Just curious, what's your favorite HGVC resort that's not one of the SW Florida affiliates? (If you have one)

There are a few I like. Ocean Oaks in Hilton Head inches out, followed by the Plantation at Indian River in Hutchinson Island and Ocean 22 in Myrtle Beach.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

@GT75 is correct. It is hard to judge resorts that we haven't visited. We've been to 12 different HGV resorts in 5 years but we haven't visited SC or Florida coast.

We haven't stayed at a bad HGV resort yet. Resorts that didn't make the list were lower for other reasons. For example, I like staying at Blvd - pool is nice. Parking is easy, rooms are nice (standard HGV layout) however it is not walking distance to the strip so it fell below the others.

 

[ljmiii]

We haven't stayed at a bad HGV resort yet. Resorts that didn't make the list were lower for other reasons...

Same here. HGVC Tuscany Village was perfectly fine...but Orlando timeshares that aren't DVC are pretty commonplace. To us Tuscany Village was much nicer than MVC's Grande Vista but not quite as nice as MVC's Imperial Palms.

 

[Azdro716]

Valdoro Mountain Lodge, Breckenridge, CO. We love the resort and the people who work there and the town of Breckenridge. We normally go there 2 to 3 times a year in both winter for skiing and summer for biking/hiking.

Ocean Oak, Hilton Head Island. We also love this resort and have been going 2 times per year since it has opened. We go for the biking/ocean/pool.

Did you buy direct from Ocean Oak? Never any availability now. I may sell my SW 7K week and buy Ocean Oak once those start hitting resale market.

 

[GT75]

Never any availability now.

To me it is easier to book that some units at HHV such as in LT, but you do need to book exactly when club season booking opens at 276 days. Also suggest “walking the reservation”. It would of course be better/easier if you owned there.

 

[GTLINZ]

This is somewhat subjective but I would say HGVC Tuscany village in Orlando.
- Ocean Oak is the second nicest place we stayed at and has a beach but the water is brown from the Savannah River. I have seen the Miami area ...
- Harbourview villas (difficult trade) is the nicest place we stayed - Captiva is amazing (walk the north point, best pool view ever) - the amenities all included
- McAlpin Miami was very interesting and the beach spectacular - no pool or onsite parking - I like my amenities
- Valdoro was great, as was Breckinridge - we don't love the cold but a great place to visit
- Eagle Nest/Charter Club/Sunset Cove were very nice, beach is decent. food is great - Sunset Cove the nicest but away from the beach
- Indian River plantation was so close to the beach you could hear the waves crashing at night from the lanai - water not quite Miami beautiful - unit surprisingly nice but area and building felt worn - but oh that lanai
- SeaWorld was ok - the original buildings have nicer units
- Parc Soleil was too European (modern, no warmth)
- Tuscany Village - at least 2-3 times a year and 30+ visits - never got old, home away from home

 

[alwysonvac]

Love your Flickr albums! I love looking at the different albums for different resorts!...

Thanks
I love looking at TUG Member albums too. They’re all very helpful. And the fantastic ocean view photos on the HGVC balcony thread has put additional HGVC locations on my list of places to stay .