It actually, took us a while to get there, as the first time I tried to book the trip, I waited too late.  At least too late to use the travel points I had.  More specifically, the air miles points I had with US air.  The airlines do restrict the number of seats on each flight to be used for points, and I needed to book five seats using my points.  I think I was booking maybe three months ahead of time, and there just weren’t enough seats available.  So, I had to wait to book for the next winter.  This time, I booked at least a year in advance.  I don’t remember exactly how long ahead it was, it may have been over a year.  Whatever it was,  it was the maximum earliest date the airline allowed for booking.  I had no problem getting the tickets this time.  The only problem was, knowing I had to wait a year to go on the trip!

Anyway, we went for two weeks, and I must admit, it was probably the best vacation our family ever took.  We spent lots of time around the pool, did some tourist site seeing, visited a butterfly museum, ate lots of great food, and I even got my scuba diving ticket.  My favorite restaurant, was a seafood one that was right on the beach.  We could walk there from our hotel.  There’s nothing cooler, then taking a moonlight stroll down the beach with beer in hand on the way to dinner.  The scuba diving was pretty cool to.  One night, the restaurant next door even had a fire dancer.  Lots of iguanas in Aruba as well.  They used to hang around the pool, as the staff would feed them lettuce.  Their mostly harmless, and the kids got a kick of them as well.  What the kids really enjoyed though, was the swim up bar at the pool, that served them strawberry smoothies.  I think it’s time to head back.

There has been a great deal of interest in timeshares of late (some individuals even using their Orlando investment property as a timeshare). You can get timeshares on houses, condos, villas and apartments which you can rent for a specific period of time. These allow you to enjoy luxury without having to pay a lot at costly hotels or settle for facility bereft cheap motels. You can have timeshares on different properties with varying dimensions. Some properties may be small enough for you and your spouse to enjoy, while if you have a large family you can get a larger property that has lounge area, patio, bathrooms and a few bedrooms. A number of people come together to own the timeshare that can be used by these people for a specified time at different times of the year.

If you want timeshare properties you can choose from deeded and non deeded properties. You generally purchases units of time which are in the form of week blocks where you can use the property during the period of existence of the timeshare according to the agreement. In non deeded timeshares, people buy a club membership where they can use the property for a specified duration each year for a pre-defined duration of years.

The cost of living and accommodation in vacation hotspots is what makes the cost of vacations so prohibitive. That is why if you have to go on vacation, you will have to count the cost. With timeshares where people come together and cooperate and collaborate, it is possible to get access to luxurious properties and amenities at fairly reasonable prices.

In some cases, the units could be on lease or perhaps part ownership where the person does not have property rights to the property. In some resorts it could so happen that two bedroom units may be in higher demand than a one bedroom unit, which in turn may not be the case with resorts that exist in other locations.

While it is quite true that timeshares are really not too lucrative when it comes to selling it, they do save on substantial costs when it comes to real estate prices and you also get the chance to stay at some of the best locations and accommodation arrangements. Beware that real estate agents can be rather difficult people to deal with when you want to sell the timeshare and you may get much lower than the correct value. Places like Florida, the Carolinas (especially Charlotte investment property) and Georgia are seeing a lot of real estate activity in terms of foreign buyers that want retirement properties. It is also possible that the baby boomers would cash out on their timeshares in the near future.