Vacation

Summer is just getting started at many great vacation destinations.

For US and British travelers, summer is officially over. Children have returned to their schoolbooks, and in many places fall is in the air. But for timeshare owners, it’s always vacation season somewhere!

As the leaves turn from shades of green to gold and russet, and cold weather begins to nip the air, it is easy to forget that in the southern hemisphere, spring is just getting started. And since South Africa and Australia offer some of the best opportunities on the planet to buy timeshare, this may be the right time to start planning your next vacation.

South Africa and Australia are currently great locations for buying timeshares, but let’s look more closely at why. First, you have the climate. Cape Town, South Africa and Sydney, Australia (coincidently both located at 33 degrees 55′ South latitude) are just about the same distance south of the equator as Phoenix, Arizona is north of the equator. This translates to year-round sunshine, with seasons reversed from the way they occur in the northern hemisphere. Both locations are beautiful seaside cities, yet serve as gateways to incredible countryside where you can still easily travel into the bush veldt to see nature unspoiled.

Just as importantly, there is the matter of international currency and an excellent exchange rate. While the rates fluctuate daily, in general terms of today’s economy, every Australian dollar you spend costs you only seventy-five cents in US dollars or about sixty cents in Euros. In South Africa, the dollar return is even more dramatic. The South African rand (which slumped to a three-year low this past week) costs you a mere thirteen cents in US money or about ten cents in Euros.

Think of the possibilities!

You can travel to wonderful destinations like Cape Town, the Drakensberg Mountains, and the KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, or Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane in Australia. While you are there, enjoy dining, entertainment, golf, safari adventures, or snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef. You’ll be paying your expenses with discounted dollars. Even better, if you buy South Africa or Australia timeshares, and arrange to pay for them in the prevailing currency, you could reap dramatic benefits from the currency conversion alone.

South Africa timeshares and Australia timeshares…they might just be the start of an endless summer vacation.

Like using the internet while you travel? I’m addicted, both for business and personal reasons. But finding a way to log in to email, etc. while at a timeshare has been a challenge. Now we’re getting somewhere, though.

5G Wireless Communications, Inc. has entered into a service agreement with ICOA, Inc., a national provider of wireless broadband internet access and network services to high-traffic public venues. The agreement provides for state-of-the-art Wi-Fi service and support to timeshare resorts across the United States.

Wi-Fi stands for wireless fidelity. It’s a way to connect with the internet without a direct, wire plug-in. You need a special device in your computer, phone, or PDA (most come with them these days) and as long as you are in close proximity to a “hotspot” or wireless access point, you can hop on the internet and check email, change your plane reservations, buy theatre tickets, share your vacation photos with friends and family, or even order pizza delivery. Many cafes, like Starbucks, offer this around the world.

ICOA, Inc. reports that presently fewer than 25 percent of timeshare properties offer Wi-Fi capabilities, yet 37 percent of vacation travelers bring their laptop computers with them during vacation and timeshare travel, and that’s a number that increases all the time.

Once the new services are in place, timeshare owners or renters will typically be able to access Wi-Fi services on a daily, three-day, or weekly subscription basis. As an internet user, you should expect to see branded sign-on pages for each resort, and be able to easily access many convenient features including online payment for use of the service itself.

ICOA Wi-Fi services are currently used at Trump Hotels, Ramada Inns, and numerous campgrounds, airports, and hotspot locations across the country.

Special terms apply when canceling bonus timeshare

Earlier this week I mentioned the incredible values offered by RCI through bonus time. The same types of great timeshare deals can be had from Interval International, and in many cases, through your resort itself. Timeshare bonus time represents some of the best-priced vacation opportunities available on any terms and with timeshare vacation pricing this good, you can’t complain about the cancellation fees. You do, however, need to realize that cancellation penalties exist and that the rules are different for changing last minute timeshare (bonus time) than they are for changing your regular timeshare weeks or points.

As an example, look at the cancellation policies for Resort Condominium International. RCI’s current policy is: cancel within 24 hours of confirming the reservation and as long as the start date of the reservation is fifteen days or more in the future, you receive a full refund on your payment. You receive 50 percent refund if you cancel between 15 and 60 days of your start date and 70 percent refund if you cancel 61 days or more before the first day of your confirmed start date. However, if you cancel after 24 hours of making your timeshare reservation, and it is within two weeks of your scheduled reservation start date, you receive zero refund.

Know the policy before you buy and then take advantage of incredible vacation pricing as often as you can.

Make the most of your timeshare ownership by taking advantage of bonus time opportunities

Until you own a timeshare, you may not fully appreciate bonus time. The term bonus time means deeply discounted vacation rates offered either by a timeshare resort, a group of resorts, or through a timeshare exchange company.

Resort Condominiums International, for example, offers two types of bonus timeshare to its members. Extra Vacations are the available days created when RCI members trade their timeshare points or weeks for another travel product, such as discount airfares or a cruise. The result is extra timeshare inventory in certain resort locations and great deals for RCI members. Members can purchase Extra Vacations for a period of one-week and use them for themselves or give them to someone else through a gift certificate.

Last Call is RCI’s clearance-priced bonus timeshare. Last Call timesharing is truly last minute planning, but the prices are incredible. Currently RCI Last Call reservations for studio units are $129 per week; one bedroom units at $179 per week; and two bedroom units priced at $219 per week – discounts well worth making a last minute effort to enjoy.