What should I buy?

[kendres]

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? No if so where?

2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time? Trade more than half the time

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations? Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, Europe, Hawaii

4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself? 2

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule? Anytime

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance? Yes

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time? Yes

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars? 4

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing? $10K

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year? $2,500

11) Are you a detail oriented planner? Yes

12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do? Yes

Based on the above criteria I was looking at purchasing a 1BR platinum week at the Elara. It has 11,200 points. MF ~ 1034 and purchase price = $5000. I don't plan on using the week at Elara very often if at all. My main criteria was to keep the yearly MF low and give me enough points for 2 weeks per year during Gold weeks. Thoughts?

 

[Hindsite]

4* Can be optimistic, for most timeshare locations, depending on what you consider 4*. If you haven't already rented to test out what locations you can get to with your Elara ownership, do that first to ensure that you are going to get the experience that you want for your money.

 

[iftravel]

I think it’s a solid plan. I approve this message.

Compare to many 4* hotels, the main difference is the lack of restaurants and daily room service, but you get more space, kitchen and in unit laundry. I will still consider it 4* for the latter.

You will be a bit disappointed with 3) as choices for Caribbean and Europe are lacking but Hawaii is strong with HGVC. And you will find more choices when you have RCI coming with HGVC, especially Mexico.

 

[StarSailer]

Just pointing out that 11,200 points maps to a 2BR Platinum week. Also $1026 might be just the operating fee. The maintenance fee thread shows total MF at $1372 with taxes and reserve fees included: [Edit: Never mind, not all platinum/gold weeks use same point chart]

When budgeting don't forget that club dues will bump that to ~$1300. It looks like HGVC has has limited locations for Caribbean/Europe and nothing in Central America so ~$1600 if adding an annual RCI exchange fee to a location where HGVC isn't. That said your plan still seems to be solid and well under your $2.5K budget.

 

[RebelR]

Just pointing out that 11,200 points maps to a 2BR Platinum week. Also $1026 might be just the operating fee. The maintenance fee thread shows total MF at $1372 with taxes and reserve fees included: ~$1600 with club dues. It looks like HGVC has has only one location each for Caribbean/Europe and nothing in Central America so ~$1900 if adding an annual RCI exchange fee to a location where HGVC isn't. That said your plan still seems to be solid and under your $2.5K budget.

That's weird, I was looking at something similar and the points chart on the HGVC website says a 1BR grand platinum season is 11,200 points, 11,200 points is a 2BR plus in gold season. This may account for the discrepancy in MFs also as the one the OP posted seems right for the 1BR grand platinum deed. I am a new owner but I love the flexibility of the HGVC system and think it's a great entry point into the timeshare game if you want to play it. That deed also won't be hard to get rid of if you decide you don't want it anymore and you should recoup at least some of your original 5k outlay

 

[jp10558]

I don't think it makes that much sense for you to get HGVC to be honest. The only place you'd use it is Hawaii. And trading HGVC for RCI is both usually a step down to 3* (below what you want) and a waste of money, except in so far as you need to get some usage out of your HGVC points.

In reality, the closest thing for the locations you want would be IMHO an RCI Points account, probably from Grandview. But you'd have to be OK with 3* locations (and research to weed out 2.5*). I'd look for 122K RCI Pts if you can find it given you're willing to pay to get it.

 

[chosshaul]

You just have to figure out if HGVC has enough destinations to fit your needs. If you plan on going to Hawaii there aren’t a lot of gold weeks except April and October time, 11,200 could get you 10 days in a platinum 1 bedroom though in some of the locations and more in a studio.

Europe is very limited in options and none of them in the cities— Portugal, Scotland, and Italy.
I travel to Europe every year and still haven’t bothered trying to go to a timeshare. Eventually I will check out the resorts on the coasts of Portugal and Spain though.

The Carribean has one location in Barbados.

Mexico has La Pacifica

I think Craigendarrac Lodges is around the same cost for 11,200 pts as Elara and includes access to DEX. I’d search through all the threads here about CL. It is becoming quite popular a choice on this forum. With DEX there is an exchange fee though, but it is worth it for all the expanded options.

 

[StarSailer]

That's weird, I was looking at something similar and the points chart on the HGVC website says a 1BR grand platinum season is 11,200 points, 11,200 points is a 2BR plus in gold season. This may account for the discrepancy in MFs also as the one the OP posted seems right for the 1BR grand platinum deed. I am a new owner but I love the flexibility of the HGVC system and think it's a great entry point into the timeshare game if you want to play it. That deed also won't be hard to get rid of if you decide you don't want it anymore and you should recoup at least some of your original 5k outlay

My mistake. I was looking at a generic point chart saved from an Ocean 22 presentation. Will edit original post.