Hotels, B&Bs, or Time Shares?
October 11, 2008 by Karen Weideman
Filed under travel
My hubby and I have worked a very long 10 days straight. We’re ready for some rest and relaxation. He found us a B&B on the coast, not too far from where my parents live. We’re taking the kids to my parents’ house today and then we’ll head to our relaxing destination.
For our family, timeshares just don’t work. The fees each year cost more than we typically spend on a hotel. Along with their fees, you have to pay around $10,000 for the property, rights, whatever they’re called.
So I’m curious . . . do you have a timeshare? Do you prefer to book your own room at a hotel or do you use a travel camper? What are your travel arrangements?
So funny that this is today’s topic! Just last night my husband and I finally took the plunge and purchased a membership with a vacation club. We have looked into timeshares, etc. because vacations are becoming so expensive and we refuse to give up vacations, so we were looking into alternatives.
The vacation club membership is a much smaller initial investment (under 4000 if you wheel and deal) and you have the membership forever (and can pass it on to kids) and you have access to thousands of condos for a week or more for a small processing fee (less than 1 night in a hotel) throughout the world. There is a yearly “activity fee” but the nice thing about the membership we bought is that if you don’t go on vacation, you don’t pay the activity fee. That is what I didn’t like about the timeshare scenario we looked into.
We are planning on going to Hawaii, so I figure if we are going to spend 3000 anyway, we might as well invest in all our vacations for the future. We shall see . . .
Last year I went on a hike in Scotland. Mixed camping with hostels and at the end a B&B. Stateside, when my wife and I can get the same time off (work for me, school for her) we’ve booked a hotel room on the Gulf Coast. We also have our daughter with us.
Don’t have much use for timeshares or vacation plans. In my line of work, I can never really get vacation when I want (or need). More of a matter of when work can spare me. But, I work a 10 off 20 on schedule, it allows me some downtime.
These days, it’s very easy to find cheap hotel prices at decent hotels. Which leaves money left over for dinner and amusements. And if you shop smart, airfare for the extra special trip.
I find when you have more time between vacations that you can take together, they mean more to you and the memories you take back mean more.
I wish you would have let me know. Our exlusive online vacation membership that GMan and I do as a part time business gives free vacations. I could have hooked you up! Our membership is relatively inexpensive and we are loving the benefits!
Yes, well we had definitely not planned on making this purchase in advance- we had just gone to the presentation for the free Mexico vacation! They were very convincing salespeople! I’ll keep you posted if it is everything it is cracked up to be . . .