Canadians who timeshare

[geist1223]

When we are in San Jose del Cabo, BCS, Mexico during January or February it seems like everyone else is from Canada.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

When we are in San Jose del Cabo, BCS, Mexico during January or February it seems like everyone else is from Canada.

Same in PV - Canada , Wisconsin , Minnesota etc.

REAL winter will do that .

 

[Finntastic]

Thanksgiving vacation Plans

We are heading to the cottage Friday night ( or Saturday morning). Weather looks so so. Colours very pretty in Northern Ontario. I will actually welcome cooler temps this week end so we can light the wood burning stove.

Keep calm and gobble on!

 

[gnorth16]

I live in Northern Ontario. We are about 7 hrs north of Toronto. We only use our timeshare right now in the winter for one week. While the Canadian dollar right now is a factor in travelling we still have to pay our MF so may as well use the week and enjoy it. We spent very little money while we were there. We went to South Carolina and had a great time. In the summer we generally only vacation in ontario. We have a cottage( or camp as we call them) in Northern Ontario 45 min from home. We also like going to southern ontario about every other summer and Ottawa in a new regular vacation place now as our son (17) is moving there in September and one lived their for 6 months this yr. I do plan on taking one or two day trips into Michigan this summer regardless of the dollar because I love Michigan!

With the CAD/USD, we gave away one TS, have another on the Bargain Deals and have one listed for rent to offset costs. That being said, flight costs out of major cities are relatively inexpensive, especially like Cabo that was subsidized after Hurricane Odile in 2014.

I am an exchanger, as we like to try different resorts and areas. We used to go to Orlando for a week with a week on the coast to unwind after Disney every year, but as the kids got older, we needed a change. Now, I like a week in Vegas or Phoenix with buddies for golf or whatever and a 1-2 weeks in Mexico with the wife and kids.

Cabo is a favorite - easy availability to exchange, cheap flights, nice resorts, still have amenities like home (Coscto, Walmart) but still have some local culture if you know where to look for it. Kids are happy to chill by the pool, play board games/cards and relax, so the costs down there are minimal.

P.V/N.V is nice, Cancun less so -but its still Mexico! Loved Colorado in the summer, Hawaii is nice - it's just far and expensive...

A direct flight is nice, one stop okay, two or more is doubtful and I will not travel for 20+ hours to go on vacation by plane and will avoid Chicago O'Hare at all costs!!! Not many within a days drive, but have driven to Clear Lake, MB, Beaver Creek Colorado, Wisconsin Dells WI and Invermere BC.

Wish list: Victoria BC, Oregon, New Orleans, Florida Keys, San Diego, San Francisco.

 

[Finntastic]

We have driven to Wisconsin dells. We really enjoyed it. Did a water park. This year we are doing cruise out of Miami. Got excellent deal on flights through spirit. I have not done any exchanges. Limited with vacation time at present.

 

[falcon]

There are a lot of good points here. We too have a U.S. account and U.S. credit card. That has been a life-saver! I feel the same about lack of Canadian timeshare options. Most often, if driving, we will go to New England, Myrtle Beach, Florida or Tennessee. We have coordinated flights and timeshare to the nicer Carribean islands such as St. Maarten, Bermuda and Barbados and it was much cheaper than doing a package. I find with Dominican/Mexico...it's not the same, probably better off with an all-inclusive package. Interval has some resorts in Muskoka but the only time I've seen them available is off-season. Carriage Hills at Horseshoe Valley is where we own and it is truly lovely. Very quiet and peaceful. For an owner, it's very flexible because it's a two-bedroom lock-off that we can use as a studio, 1 bedroom OR 2 bedroom. I agree that Quebec is a great city to visit. We have stayed at a resort outside Tremblant YEARS ago, that was pretty run down even then. Calabogie Resort is about an hour from Ottawa and supposedly really nice. Going east there is also one in Nova Scotia, but again, I'm sure availability in peak time is tight.

 

[Ironwood]

We are in central Ontario and have booked our two exchanges this year through RCI in Eastern Canada.....driving trips. The US/CDA exchange rate has made stateside trips just too expensive....and the CDN $ is down a cent and a half in the last two days. We'll wait until we get back to the 90 cent range before we head south.

 

[moonstone]

When we are in San Jose del Cabo, BCS, Mexico during January or February it seems like everyone else is from Canada.

We are in Corozal Belize for the winter and keep meeting more & more Canadians here along with many Americans. I think there are almost as many visitors & expats here than there are locals!
We are driving a little north of town this afternoon to a community started in the 80's by a Canadian (from Kitchener, ON) & the whole subdivision seems to be Canadian & Americans with a few Europeans from what we saw there last year.

Guess we aren't the only ones fed up with winter! As mentioned above our dollar makes it nearly cost prohibitive to spend the winter in the south of the USA. We are using our timeshare week in Florida on our way home this spring then will probably book some ON or PQ weeks for later in the year to use up our points.


~Diane

 

[raygo123]

We are in Corozal Belize for the winter and keep meeting more & more Canadians here along with many Americans. I think there are almost as many visitors & expats here than there are locals!
We are driving a little north of town this afternoon to a community started in the 80's by a Canadian (from Kitchener, ON) & the whole subdivision seems to be Canadian & Americans with a few Europeans from what we saw there last year.

Guess we aren't the only ones fed up with winter! As mentioned above our dollar makes it nearly cost prohibitive to spend the winter in the south of the USA. We are using our timeshare week in Florida on our way home this spring then will probably book some ON or PQ weeks for later in the year to use up our points.


~Diane

Ummm, are you also from America?

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[Jan M.]

We have driven to Wisconsin dells. We really enjoyed it. Did a water park. This year we are doing cruise out of Miami. Got excellent deal on flights through spirit. I have not done any exchanges. Limited with vacation time at present.

If you didn't purchase your bags when you booked your flight, do it now. If you wait until you get to the airport to pay for your bags they are extremely expensive. Checked bags (40 pounds) are cheaper than carry on bags and the only thing that is free is the personal item that fits under the seat.

We use Spirit a lot and purchased Lucas wheeled under the seat bags as meet they dimensions for the personal item with Spirit. You can fit a surprising amount of stuff in them and we have gotten a great deal of use out of ours. I think I ordered them from either Luggage Pro or eBags. We have had them for about 5 years and they still look like new despite the heavy use. I made 7 round trip flights with mine in 2015 and 8 round trip flights in 2016. And we usually take at least one of them on the 6-8 trips a year here in Florida that we drive not fly.

 

[Ty1on]

Ummm, are you also from America?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Huh?

 

[raygo123]

Huh?

Isn't Canada in America

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[Ty1on]

Isn't Canada in America

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Oh, nice!

We 'mericans have sort of co-opted the America name, haven't we?

 

[moonstone]

Oh, nice!

We 'mericans have sort of co-opted the America name, haven't we?

Most of the Canadians I know do not consider Canada as being America, in North America yes. We refer to citizens of the USA as Americans and citizens of Canada as Canadians.


~Diane

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

But in Mexico - we are all " gringos "

In the best sense of the word

 

[Ty1on]

But in Mexico - we are all " gringos "

In the best sense of the word

Or the worst. It's all about context.

 

[Ironwood]

We are in Corozal Belize for the winter and keep meeting more & more Canadians here along with many Americans. I think there are almost as many visitors & expats here than there are locals!
We are driving a little north of town this afternoon to a community started in the 80's by a Canadian (from Kitchener, ON) & the whole subdivision seems to be Canadian & Americans with a few Europeans from what we saw there last year.

Guess we aren't the only ones fed up with winter! As mentioned above our dollar makes it nearly cost prohibitive to spend the winter in the south of the USA. We are using our timeshare week in Florida on our way home this spring then will probably book some ON or PQ weeks for later in the year to use up our points.


~Diane

Diane....we used to live just off line 6 and could see the slopes of Mt. St. Louis from our back deck, but downsized and moved back to the edge of the metropolis just south, a little over 3 years ago. We are in the midst of a mild spell, but it won't last. Winter is far from over back home.

 

[moonstone]

Diane....we used to live just off line 6 and could see the slopes of Mt. St. Louis from our back deck, but downsized and moved back to the edge of the metropolis just south, a little over 3 years ago. We are in the midst of a mild spell, but it won't last. Winter is far from over back home.

We look at (on the internet) the weather back home often ( & laugh!) - that's why we wont be home (just off the 7th) until the middle of April!


~Diane

 

[daddy2kids]

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[PaddyMac]

Hello from Southern Ontario...

We have owned at Sheraton Vistana in Orlando since 1993, up to 3 weeks there now. Lots of good advice here about getting US credit cards and using point cards to maximize your value. We have gone through expensive exchange rates (1.60CDN:$1USD) and almost parity. Whenever the pendulum swings to the expensive side we usually try other locations outside the US.

With Sheraton's 19 resorts it's helped spread our stays around and we have also exchanged with RCI and II. With SPG points we have also stayed in hotels in Europe for some great value. With the exchange swinging back to expensive, it's not just the MFs it's also the other expenses that go with it, airfare, food, activities. Our schedule over the next two years looks like this: Orlando, Vancouver, Mexico, Bahamas, New Orleans and East Coast of Canada.

It's been a great journey so far and looking forward to the next 20 years of vacations wherever our TS will take us.

 

[Mosescan]

We also have 2 small children so flights can get expensive. It doesn't help that we are on Vancouver Island so that adds extra cost and connections to any flight. Believe it or not, I like Las Vegas for march break/spring timeframe. Much warmer that California. We own with HGVC and the Flamingo HGVC property has a heated pool that is open even when the Flamingo pool is not open for the season yet. Renting a car is cheap, parking is free and there are lots of great places to visit. Red rock canyon, hoover dam, grand canyon, lake Mead. Lots of golfing. Some of the Casino exhibits are fun for the kids like Sigfried and Roys tigers and the aquariums at some of the Resorts.

The downside is that you can't really enjoy the night life with 2 young kids in tow, but if you're content to go on a few hikes and sit by the pool then it's not too bad of an option.

My wife would definitely disagree as she is not a big fan of Vegas. LOL! Lots of places in the States that you can drive to for a great vacation. Just pick one and go for it.