WorldMark Road Trip

[cotraveller]

We returned home Wednesday from an almost 3 week road trip that involved 5 different WorldMark resorts. The itinerary looked like this.

• Friday - Leave Denver
• Saturday - WorldMark St George, 1 night
• Sunday - WorldMark Las Vegas Blvd, 1 week
• Sunday a week later - WorldMark Indio, 4 nights
• Thursday - WorldMark Phoenix, 2 nights
• Saturday - Green Valley, Arizona, 3 nights staying with friends
• Tuesday - WorldMark Santa Fe, 1 night
• Wednesday - Back home to cold Colorado

A 20 day trip with one night in a motel, 3 nights with friends, and 15 nights in WorldMark resorts. There is nothing too remarkable about the itinerary, WorldMark has always promoted drive-to locations. The unique thing about this trip is that it was done without using any WorldMark credits or incurring any separate housekeeping charges. Between an RCI Extra Vacation sale for the Las Vegas stay, WorldMark Monday Madness specials, and WorldMark Bonus Time all the bookings were cash deals.

Before we left there was an article in the Denver newspaper about a photographer who had taken photos of Colorado roads from his car. I figured I can do that, it's something to do when I'm the passenger, not the driver. The challenge was to get clear pictures from a moving car. Here is a slideshow showing the results. Be patient, it takes about 5 seconds for the slideshow to start. If the slideshow doesn't run you can click on the arrows to move through the pictures. Blur from car motion and bumps is evident in some of the pictures but overall I think it come out fairly well. It is definitely more interesting to take pictures rather than just sitting as a passenger when you aren't driving.

 

[presley]

Sounds great and is the type of thing I hope to do someday. Can you tell me more about WM St George, WM Las Vegas Blvd and Indio? Those are locations that I would likely stay sometime.

 

[slabeaume]

Great photos! WE're heading to St. George and Las Vegas---then Oregon in late August/Sept. Looks like we have some great scenery to look forward to!

Not that you seem to need it, but a hint for taking pictures from the car is to use a high ISO and fast shutter (of sports mode on a P&S).

 

[benyu2010]

Sounds great and is the type of thing I hope to do someday. Can you tell me more about WM St George, WM Las Vegas Blvd and Indio? Those are locations that I would likely stay sometime.

St. George, southern tip of Utah near AZ/NV border and short drive to Zions NP. Unit is typical WM units comparable to Palm Springs, Runnig Y in term of quality and square footage.

WM Las Vegas Blvd is located in extended south end of the strip, appx couple of miles to Bellegio and other casinos. Large resorts with multiple pools and a nice lazy river. Free strip shuffle.

Indio, east of Cochlea valley, large resorts and have better structure and landscaping than above two. Now, it is a shared resort with Club Wyndham. Proof course, lazy river and toddler pool etc and on site market.

 

[Dc3drivr]

trip

Sounds like a great trip!

 

[cotraveller]

Sounds great and is the type of thing I hope to do someday. Can you tell me more about WM St George, WM Las Vegas Blvd and Indio? Those are locations that I would likely stay sometime.

St George is one of our favorite WorldMark resorts. Large bright rooms, covered parking, two pools (we're not swimmers though). The deluxe rooms are a little nicer with vaulted ceilings and a jetted bathtub (regular size), but in my opinion they not really worth the extra credits.

The Las Vegas Blvd resort is large, 15 buildings (?). There is a parking garage for each building. Three swimming pools, lazy river, small store, spa, etc.

This was our first visit to Indio. It is another large resort and has some of the nicest grounds of the WorldMark resorts we have visited. We spent most of our visit in Palm Springs so I can't say too much about the resort.

Check the TUG reviews or the reviews and comments on the WorldMark web site for more info.

Great photos! WE're heading to St. George and Las Vegas---then Oregon in late August/Sept. Looks like we have some great scenery to look forward to!

Not that you seem to need it, but a hint for taking pictures from the car is to use a high ISO and fast shutter (of sports mode on a P&S).

If you are going west on I-70 there are several scenic pullovers in Colorado and Utah that give you nice views of the scenery. We have stopped at most of then at one time or another in our travels west.

I didn't put a lot of advance thought into the picture taking project. The camera was in full automatic program mode. If I do something similar in the future I'll try Shutter Priority where I can control the shutter speed. I don't like to push the ISO too high, on the Superzoom I currently have the quality takes a hit as the ISO rises. I'm looking at new cameras and that's one of the parameters I'm checking out. I've seen some of your pictures, you are a quite accomplished photographer.

 

[Sandi Bo]

Now that's my kind of road trip! Great pictures, thanks for sharing.

(Makes me think maybe I do need some WorldMark )