The only thing better than chocolate or a timeshare vacation might be enjoying them both at the same time in Hershey, Pennsylvania timeshares.

Finally there’s some good news about the food we eat. If you are like me, in your lifetime, you have heard many foods once touted as good for you, demoted to the ranks of unhealthy. The food police seem to have condemned everything from steaks grilled over charcoal to grandma’s homemade yeast rolls as something you should eliminate from your diet.

So I was really pleased to read recent studies that say, in moderation, dark chocolate and other foods rich in cocoa, may help lower blood pressure. Health Day News (http://www.healthday.com) quoted Dr. Dirk Taubert, senior lecturer in pharmacology and toxicology at University Hospital in Cologne, Germany as saying, “Based on our analysis, regular consumption of polyphenol-rich cocoa products like dark chocolate may be considered a part of a blood pressure-lowering diet, provided there is no total gain in calorie intake.”

And it only seems logical to me that if chocolate can lower your blood pressure, and we already know how beneficial a week of r & r can be to your health, then a week in a timeshare unit at Hershey, Pennsylvania ought to be just what the doctor ordered. The city of Hershey is home to the Hershey Company, manufacturer of all those Hershey products we enjoy, including the classic Hershey® bar, Kisses®, Reese’s® Peanut Butter Cups, and even Jolly Ranchers®.

If you’ve ever traveled to the city of Hershey, you know that throughout the town, the aroma of chocolate fills the air. In this chocolate-themed town, even the streetlights replicate the chocolate company’s most famous product, the foil-wrapped Hershey’s Kiss. Hershey is also home to Hersheypark®. This 100-year-old theme park was built as a gift from one of America’s greatest philanthropists, Milton Hershey, to the workers employed by his company. Theme park aficionados appreciate Hersheypark because it offers a great mix of rides and attractions to appeal to adults and even the park’s youngest visitors. You can buy or rent Hershey timeshare at The Suites at Hershey Resort, or perhaps choose a Pennsylvania timeshare resale in nearby locations that make it easy to also enjoy historic Gettysburg Battlefield Park and all the charms of the Pennsylvania Dutch countryside.

Here are a few of the timeshare resales you may want to check out in addition to The Suites at Hershey Resort:

• Villas at Tree Tops timeshares
• Mountain Laurel Resort and Spa timeshares
• Galleria at Split Rock timeshares
• Willowbrook at Lake Harmony timeshares
• Shawnee Fairway Village timeshares
• The Villas at Fairway timeshares
• Gettysburg Battlefield Resort timeshares
• Wolf Run Manor at Treasure Lake timeshares

Hilton timeshares and Waldorf-Astoria fractionals under construction at the famed Reflection Bay golf course.

New Las Vegas timeshares and fractionals are in the plans for Henderson, Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas. The Hilton Hotels Corporation has announced that they will build 250 timeshare units at Lake Las Vegas Resort. Two hundred of the units will carry the brand of Hilton timeshares, while another fifty will be branded as part of the Waldorf-Astoria Collection. Currently Waldorf-Astoria Collection timeshares or fractionals are available at La Quinta, California; Phoenix, Arizona; Maui; and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Many of the timeshare units in the new Hilton and Waldorf=Astoria, will face the 17th hole and the 18th tee of the famous Reflection Bay Golf Course.

Reflection Bay Golf Course is the first public course Jack Nicklaus designed in the state of Nevada. It is also home to the Wendy’s Three-Tour Challenge, where each year, stars from the PGA, LPGA, and the Champions Tours tee it up in a fan-favorite golfing showdown. Five golf holes play alongside Lake Las Vegas, and the course features three waterfalls. But if your game isn’t up to that much water, play the forward tees and you will completely take the water out of play.

Because Reflection Bay is a public course, even if you schedule your Las Vegas timeshare vacation at the last minute, you still have a good chance to get on this incredible golf course. Also there are always great deals available in Hilton timeshare resales and Hilton timeshare rentals.

The Natadola Resort and Timeshare promises to be spectacular—but a few problems threaten to delay its opening.

At a cross point in the Pacific Ocean, between the Melanesian and the Polynesian Islands, you will find the 300+ isles of Fiji. Approximately 80 percent of Fiji’s population lives on the main island of Viti Levu or a second island, Vanua Levu, leaving the remainder of the land as unspoiled nature reserves. Throughout the islands, the lush tropical landscape and dramatic mountains sloping to white sand beaches make this the perfect location for building an upscale tropical retreat and timeshare resort.

At least this was the plan when PGA Tour superstar Vijay Singh added his name to the project under development by Asia Pacific Resort International Limited (known as APRIL). The plan’s overall design calls for 275 hotel rooms to be managed by InterContinental Hotels and Resorts, the brand behind Crowne Plaza, and Holiday Inn. There will also be an ocean-view championship golf course designed by Singh, residential homes, villas, a timeshare resort, marina, a convention center, and other recreational amenities.

But on March 16, 2007, the Fiji Times online edition released an article on the resignation of Louis Gerard Saliot, APRIL’s chief executive officer. Saliot’s past, it seems, includes two years jail time in Monaco in 1992 for breach of trust, and in 1993, a three-year sentence for breach of trust, complicity of bankruptcy, forgery, and use of forgeries. Saliot violated Fijian law when he failed to divulge this information at the time he applied for a foreign investor’s license.

However problems with Saliot are only one of the issues surrounding the Natadola Resort and Timeshare project. Only three days after breaking the news of Saliot’s resignation, the Fiji Times reported that a technical evaluation of the project revealed, “Much of the structural design for the Natadola Resort does not meet Fiji and New Zealand building code standards relating to earthquakes.”

With difficulties like this, it is not surprising that the project funder, the Fiji National Provident Fund, stepped in to prevent APRIL from completing the hotel and timeshare resort. But here’s where the problems grow even more complex. Vijay Singh has 31 PGA Tour victories and 22 international tournament wins, including the 2000 Masters, and the 1998 and 2004 PGA Championships. Singh, who serves as Fiji’s Ambassador for Sports, is arguably the most famous and influential native son of the Fijian islands. When the project’s problems became apparent, Singh quickly went public and said, (quoting the Fiji Times) “I am not happy with attempts to remove APRIL from its role as project developer/manager”.

Singh then went on to say that if Saliot was not in place at the helm and APRIL was not involved with the project, he would withdraw, “his name, his design for the golf course, and the proposed golf academy from the project altogether”. He added that he would seriously consider also resigning as the Fijian Ambassador of Sports.

I hope, for many reasons, this problem is soon resolved and construction of the hotel and Fiji timeshare resort is quickly back on track. Timeshare resorts are really beginning to gain popularity in Australia, New Zealand, and other Pacific islands—and why not? These are some of the most beautiful destinations in the world and ideal locations for buying timeshare resales or enjoying timeshare rentals.

Vijay Singh is not simply the best professional golfer from Fiji; Singh is the only successful professional golfer from Fiji. Singh has made it clear that he wants to build his golf school so that the children of Fiji have an opportunity to learn and play the game, and perhaps even the chance to grow up and compete on an international level. Singh’s reputation as one of the hardest working players in professional golf is something to respect, and I’d like to see this Fiji hotel and timeshare resort succeed.

…I’ll keep you posted as the story unfolds.

The Ultimate Cyclist Vacation Club is a good idea that might be an excellent match with timesharing.

I ran across the idea of the Ultimate Cyclist Vacation Club on an interesting blog: www.fatcyclist.com. The writer (who seems to go only by the name, Fatty) has an idea that I think sounds great.

An avid biker, Fatty suggests what he calls, “The Ultimate Five-Day Trip,” which he would host in his home area of Utah. His plan calls for inviting other cyclists (he suggests a group of seven) to join him on a five-day ride, where he would choose the trails, the places to eat, and generally coordinate all the details of the trip. He compares his role as host to that of Mr. Roarke, from the old television show, Fantasy Island. And then suggests that other bikers would follow up by hosting trips in their favorite biking territory.

Fatty describes the highlights of his proposed Utah bike trip like this: the ride would take in the epic views of Tibble Fork, the natural waterslide at Hog’s Hollow, an 80-mile section with 9000 feet of climbing called the Gauntlet, and then drop down into southern Utah to Gooseberry and Little Creek Mesa.

For housing, Fatty suggests accommodations at the local Marriott, but I have another suggestion: timeshares!

Think about how comfortably seven people could stay in a 3-bedroom timeshare or a couple of 2-bedroom timeshare units? The average 2-bedroom timeshare unit is usually designed to sleep between six and eight people, while 3 and 4-bedroom units may sleep up to ten. There are some spectacular Utah timeshares, and even more spectacular deals on Utah timeshare resales and by-owner timeshare rentals. And when you split the cost 7 ways, these great deals get even better.

The more I thought about the options, the more exciting I thought it was. A group of cyclists could purchase a timeshare resale jointly, then use their exchange privileges to help them plan annual bike trips to all parts of the country. Or they could just take advantage of a timeshare rental, and with no other commitments, pick a different place to go every year.

And for less adventurous bikers, many timeshare resorts have excellent bike trails in place, perfect for both adults and children to enjoy, often without leaving the security of the resort property. Bike trekking and timeshare resorts are a new combination, I’d never considered, but when you think about it, the opportunities are endless.

Here’s a link to a great page of Utah mountain biking video. Please remember that these videos are the copyrighted material of UtahMountainBiking.com.

biking video download link

Here is also a great You-Tube Video of biking Gooseberry Mesa.