When Forbes Magazine published its most recent list of America’s top tourist attractions, we couldn’t help but notice that there are great opportunities in timeshare resorts at or near all of these destinations. That means if you own timeshare in these popular areas, you also have a natural market for timeshare rental should there be times you can’t use your timeshare yourself or don’t choose to use it as timeshare exchange.

Here’s a look at only a very few of your timeshare resort options for these favorite tourist destinations:

#3. National Mall and Memorial Parks, Washington, D.C., with 25 million visitors

• Wyndham Old Town (Alexandria, Virginia)
• Wyndham Resorts National Harbor (Ft. Washington, Maryland)

#2. Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada, with 29.1 million visitors

• Las Vegas Timeshare Resales and Las Vegas Timeshare Rentals
• Hilton Grand Vacations Club On The Las Vegas Strip Timeshare
• Marriott’s Grand Chateau Timeshare

#1. Times Square, New York, N.Y. with 37.6 million visitors

• New York City Timeshare Resales and New York City Timeshare Rentals
• Manhattan Club Timeshare
• Hilton Club New York

People are often surprised to learn that timeshares are not just limited to the beach and ski resorts. There are locations available to enjoy urban timeshare worldwide, offering you the convenience and savings that go with owning timeshare.

Travel + Leisure Magazine recently tracked down the top-ten best hamburgers in the US; fortunately, you can plan your timeshare travel to enjoy them all.

Burger Joint in San Francisco took the honors for the numero uno best burger. Burger Joint is a 1950’s-style restaurant that boasts an old-fashion burger made from hormone- and pesticide-free beef.

Recommended San Francisco timeshare to accompany your Burger Joint hamburger is: Shell Vacation Club’s The Suites at Fishermans Wharf timeshare resales and rentals, where you are just a cable car ride away from Chinatown, Ghirardelli Square, The Cannery, and Pier 39.

Dyer’s Burger in Memphis took second place honors with their thin-patty burger, fried in oil in a cast-iron skillet. Once you order this burger, you might as well go all out and add Dyer’s famous chili cheese fries and a deep fried Twinkie for desert.

An ideal destination for a Memphis timeshare vacation is just 30 minutes away in Robinsville, Mississippi. The Westgate Tunica Resort, designed to look like an anti-bellum southern mansion, is centrally located for enjoying the hot jazz and cool blues of Memphis as well as the casinos, golf, and southern charm of Mississippi.

Duchamp’s Burger in Chicago is no greasy diner, yet this restaurant proves it still knows how to cook a burger, serving an eight-ounce ground chuck special on a Czech cottage-cheese-and-dill bun.

You may decide to day trip into the city for your Duchamp’s burger while spending your timeshare vacation in Silverleaf’s Fox River Resort timeshare, located a little over an hour away in Sheridan, Illinois. There you can choose between waterskiing, boating, hiking or picnicking in the peaceful rolling hills, or grab your sightseeing gear and head for Chicago, famous for its museums, shopping, and dining.

Timeshares at Every Top Burger Destination

Here are the next seven (NYC scores two great burger destinations, turning the top ten into an actual count of eleven) destinations for world-famous burgers…and a few of the outstanding timeshare vacation destinations that will get you there:

Lüke in New Orleans, LA., where you can vacation in a Chateau Orleans timeshare resale or rental in heart of the French Quarter.

Quinn’s Pub in Seattle, WA, when you are enjoying a WorldMark Seattle timeshare resale or rental at The Camlin.

Ranch 616 in Austin, Texas, where you can stay in Austin timeshare resales and timeshare rentals in a city known for its live music and western fun.

Kua’Aina Sandwich Shop in Hale’iwa, Hawaii. You know Hawaii timeshares are outstanding, so just pick an island and pack your Hawaiian shirt and your flipflops.

Kemble Park Tavern offers you and excellent dinner spot during your Washington, DC timeshare resale or rental vacation.

Back Forty and Black Iron Burger Shop in NYC. Two great burger destinations only a few blocks apart and both worth visiting during your Big Apple New York City timeshare stay.

Murphy’s on the Green in Hanover, NH, where you can enjoy New Hampshire timeshare resales or rentals, here in our own headquarters home state for Sell My Timeshare NOW.

Considering that Sell My Timeshare NOW has been blogging since shortly after our company was founded, you’d think we would have included a blog roll as part of The Timeshare Authority blog before now. Well, better now than never, so this week, The Timeshare Authority blog rolled out (pun intended) the first blogs to be listed on our blog roll.

These blogs represent some (but certainly not all) of the best reading out there on travel, tourism, theme parks, timeshares, and the timeshare industry. We’ve included blogs that deal with travel to specific cities, states, regions or countries, including the California Beaches Blog; 1001 Things to Do in NYC; Canadian Tourism Blog; Happy Happens San Diego; Orlando Vacation Blog; and Tourism Central Florida — all popular destinations for timeshare owners or vacationers who rent timeshare.

Some of the excellent blogs we’ve added to The Timeshare Authority blogroll focus on theme parks, either in general or a particular park because almost anywhere you find great theme parks you will also find great timeshares. These blogs include: Disney Parks Blog; Mousekingdom Blog; Sea World San Antonio Blog; The Disney Blog; and Theme Park Rangers.

Timeshare Blogs, Timeshare Industry Blogs, and Travel Blogs

Included on our blog roll you will find Marriott on the Move; The Timeshare Blog; and VacationBetter.org; these are all blogs about timeshares and timesharing. Other blogs we’ve listed are travel and adventure blogs, including: Absurd Adventures; National Geographic Adventure Blog; Intelligent Travel; or travel industry blogs such as: The Tourism Research Blog; and The Travel Mole.

Finally, The Timeshare Authority’s blogroll includes some blogs that just fit into a niche all their own: Cruise@ddicts Blog; Get Outdoors; Hotel Check In; and The Mindful Tourist.

We’ve added this list to our timeshare blog because we want to share with you resources that you may find as helpful as we do. But we’ve only just begun with this travel and timeshare blog list. The internet is rich with fascinating and informative information, much of it brought to you in the form of blogs, so expect the list to grow and change as Sell My Timeshare NOW and The Timeshare Authority continue to expand this list of valuable resources for timeshare buyers, timeshare sellers, renters, and anyone interested in travel and vacation ownership.

By the way, if you haven’t already found it, our new blog roll is located on the lower right hand side of this page.

Planning a trip to New York any time soon? You may want to use your New York timeshare and schedule to be in NYC for the 2010 “Idiotarod.”

No, that is not a misspelling or major lapse in our understanding of geography. The New York City Idiotarod is not to be confused with the famous Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race©, during which, early each March, mushers seek to drive their team of dogs from Anchorage to Nome, arriving ahead of their competitors.

Instead, the appropriately named Idiotarod is a comical urban answer to dogsled racing. The Idiotarod involves teams of five humans pulling modified shopping carts through the city streets. None of the carts may be motorized, although the carts can be decorated, embellished, or taken apart and put back together in unique and unusual ways.

The original Idiotarod shopping cart race was held in 1994 in San Francisco, with Toronto, Phoenix, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and New York City all having served as event host cities in the past. While attending the Iditarod in Alaska is sure to be the adventure of a lifetime, being part (participant or spectator) of the 2010 Idiotarod should be tremendous fun as well. Plus, for this urban event, you won’t need to own a sled or trained team of sled dogs. Five friends and a shopping cart all your own (begged or borrowed) is all you need.

And at the end of a long shopping cart race day, there are few things you and your team will appreciate as much as the convenience and comfort of a Manhattan Club timeshare, New York timeshare resale or New York timeshare rental.

This year’s Idiotarod is scheduled for January 30, 2010.

Select Westin and Hyatt Resorts are improving the experience for anyone who would like to incorporate a good run as part of their resort stay.

At Westin Resorts in 30 cities, a “running” concierge is available three mornings each week to lead guests on a three-mile jog. And more than 100 Hyatt Hotels and Resorts are now providing their guests with running route maps and GPS armbands. At both Westin and Hyatt, the services are free.

While many timeshare vacationers look forward to putting their feet up by the pool, others are enthusiastic about getting involved in the sports and recreation activities that are available at most timeshare resorts. Jogging trails, biking trails, and even on-property or nearby by hiking and horseback riding are frequently available at many timeshare resorts.

Runners, not already familiar with MapMyRun.com, will find the website to be a valuable tool whether jogging at home or during travels. MapMyRun offers some 775,000 US jogging routes, which you can save to your GPS. Besides introducing you to a vast online community of runners, this website helps you track your training and even count the calories you have burned. And while all of these benefits for runners are free, City Running Tours is an excellent paid service you may want to learn more about.

The Timeshare Authority told you about City Running Tours last year in a post we did on New York City timeshares. City Running Tours offers you longer runs and run tailored to your specific requests, as well as runs along preset routes designed to maximize the experience for you both as a runner and as a sightseer.

Whether you are vacationing at a Hyatt timeshare, a Westin timeshare, or any of the many beautiful timeshare resort worldwide, don’t forget to pack your running shoes.

The magic of Disney Vacation Club timeshares is now on display in Long Island, New York at Disney Doorway to Dreams. Located inside the Roosevelt Field Mall, Disney Doorway to Dreams includes a full size, two-bedroom timeshare model that is based on the Disney Vacation Club Bay Lake Tower in Orlando.

A photo wall, videos, and touch-screen interactives, help give visitors to the timeshare showcase a fuller sense of the magic of becoming a Disney timeshare vacation property owner.

Howard C. Nusbaum, president and CEO of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) says, “Disney Vacation Club has always been both a leader and an innovator in the timeshare industry. Offering full-scale model vacation villas in a mall setting is uniquely Disney and this new Disney Doorway to Dreams location makes it fun and exciting for families to learn about new and memorable ways to vacation.”

Click here to learn more about opportunities in Disney timeshare resales and rentals.

Disney already maintains a Doorway to Dreams timeshare showcase property in Chicago, Illinois at the Woodfield Mall, that you preview on this video:

Last week, Sell My Timeshare NOW released the HOT 100 List for timeshare resales and timeshare rentals. Let’s take a closer look at some of the trends the report reveals, especially about the HOTTEST 10 timeshare resorts – those popular ten at the very top of the list.

For the second consecutive year, WorldMark by Wyndham timeshares rank number 1 in the number of offers received to buy or rent. These timeshares are multi-destination ownership, meaning that your WorldMark by Wyndham timeshare gives you a choice of nearly 60 luxurious timeshare resorts in the US (including Hawaii), Mexico, Canada, and Fiji.

Marriott timeshare (Marriott Vacation Club International) claimed four spots on the HOTTEST 10 list. Marriott’s Aruba Surf Club in Palm Beach, Aruba was number 2; Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas, Newport Coast, California was number 3; Marriott’s Grande Vista, Orlando, Florida was number 8; and Marriott’s Maui Ocean Club, Maui, Hawaii was number 9.

One of the few changes in the HOT 100 List, this year over last year, is that Marriott’s Grande Vista in Orlando is new to the HOTTEST 10, while Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club in Oahu, Hawaii, was number 10 on last year’s list but slipped to number 11 on this year’s list.

By geographic destination, Orlando timeshare dominated, including the Marriott property already mentioned, and two other popular Orlando timeshare resorts: Orange Lake’s West Village, which ranked number 6, and Hilton Grand Vacations Club at SeaWorld International Centerdo, new to the list at number 10.

Rounding out the HOTTEST 10 timeshare resales are: the Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas in Maui, Hawaii, number 4 on the list, the Harborside Resort at Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas, number 5 on the list, and the always popular Manhattan Club, in New York City, moving up from last year’s number 9, to be number 7 on this year’s list.

For the ten resorts making the HOTTEST 10 List, Sell My Timeshare NOW received 23,317 offers to buy or rent in 2008.

Click here to view the entire HOT 100 List for Sell My Timeshare NOW timeshare resales and timeshare rentals.

And if you are interested in comparisons, this link will take you to information about last year’s HOT 100 List: Sell My Timeshare NOW Releases HOT 100 List for 2008.

Sell My Timeshare NOW has released its annual HOT 100 List, which shows the top 100 timeshare resales and timeshare rentals advertised on www.sellmytimesharenow.com. The list is based on the number of inbound offers to buy or rent timeshare.

This year’s HOT 100 List reveals some interesting trends, most notably a 56 percent increase in the number of offers to buy or rent timeshare on the HOT 100 List, compared to the previous year. The total number of offers for the HOT 100 List was 70,700.

The report also shows remarkable consistency from last year to this year in the timeshare resale and timeshare rental resort properties that make the top of the HOT 100 List — those on the Top 10. The timeshare resorts that made the Top 10 received 23,317 offers to buy or rent.

Here’s the HOTTEST Timeshares of the HOT 100, the Top 10:

• WorldMark by Wyndham, Multi-Destination Resorts (Number 1 for the second year in a row.)
• Marriott’s Aruba Surf Club, Palm Beach, Aruba
• Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas, Newport Coast, California
• Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas, Maui, Hawaii
• Harborside Resort at Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas
• Orange Lake’s West Village, Orlando, Florida
• Manhattan Club, New York, New York.
• Marriott’s Grande Vista, Orlando, Florida
• Marriott’s Maui Ocean Club, Maui, Hawaii
• Hilton Grand Vacations Club at SeaWorld International Center, Orlando, Florida

The full report on all 100 HOT timeshare resales and timeshare rentals is available here: Sell MyTimeshare NOW HOT 100 List, and our official press release is available here: Timeshare Resales Offers up 56 Percent on HOT 100 List as Americans Seek Vacation Savings

Before Sell My Timeshare NOW releases the new HOT 100 List next week, I want to remind you about the favorite timeshare resorts that made the top ten on last year’s list. For anyone who is considering buying timeshare, or who wants to sell timeshare or rent timeshare, comparing this year’s list with the favorites from last year could provide interesting and helpful insights. The timeshare properties that made the Sell My Timeshare NOW HOT 100 List are those that were advertised on our website and received the greatest number of offers to buy or rent.

Marriott timeshare had four resorts in the top ten last year. Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club was number 10; Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas timeshare was number 7; Marriott’s Maui Ocean Club timeshare was number 6; and Marriott’s Aruba Surf Club timeshare was number 4.

The Manhattan Club, a signature urban timeshare, was number 9. Harborside Resort at Atlantis in the Bahamas, a unique resort that combines elements of a casino, water park, and beachside timeshare, was number 8.

Hawaii timeshares, always popular, accounted for three of the top 10 spots, including the already mentioned Marriott’s Maui Ocean Club, Diamond Resorts Ka’anapali Beach Club timeshare, which was number 5 on the HOT 100 list, and Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas, which was number 2.

Orange Lake’s West Village, now under the umbrella of the Holiday Inn brand, was HOT 100 timeshare number 3, while all the fabulous multi-destinations resorts of WorldMark by Wyndham timeshare ranked at the very top, having received the greatest number of offers to buy or rent.

The new HOT 100 list has seen a few changes although several of these well-liked timeshare properties remain at the top. I think you may be surprised by the INCREASES in both the number of offers to buy timeshare or rent timeshare on the top 10 list and across the top 100. When you see the numbers, you may think twice about whether we are in an economic recession or not. What the numbers validate is the timeless interest in timeshare. No matter the economy, timeshare resales are an opportunity with a global market and are widely recognized as offering great vacation value at your favorite destinations.

The Illinois Bureau of Tourism (IBT) has expanded its ongoing “Presidential Trails” campaign and launched a new component dedicated to the life of President Barack Obama. Stops for vacationers and tourists on the recently developed “Obama Trail” include the current Capitol in Springfield; the Old State Capitol; the University of Chicago Law School, where Obama taught constitutional law; and Grant Park in Chicago, where he gave his famous victory speech after the election.

The state of Illinois already has trails to honor Presidents Lincoln, Grant, and Reagan, each of which is considered to be typically a three-day getaway to explore and follow in the footsteps of history. But the US is not the only country planning to profit from vacation and timeshare travel linked to the life of President Obama.

Somak Holidays is one of several tour companies to have launched tours honoring Barack’s African heritage. Already since the election, Somak Holidays has seen an 8 percent increase in bookings to Kenya in December alone. But visiting Chicago and Kenya, isn’t enough if you are intent on visiting all the places connected to Barack Obama.

According to MSNBC, “… to see all the places connected to Obama’s life story, you’d have to visit three countries, six time zones, and six states. Obama grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, has roots in Kansas and Kenya, and went to school in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. He and his wife have raised their girls in Chicago, where tourists are already seeking out Obama haunts.”

So what about timeshare opportunities in all these places? Here are only a few of the possibilities:

• New York Timeshare resales and timeshare rentals
• South Africa Timeshare resales and timeshare rentals
• Honolulu Timeshare resales and timeshare rentals
• Illinois Timeshare resales and timeshare rentals