Original Message:
An alternative viewpoint regarding "the best"... (by KC):
adolphe wrote:...based on location the top 5 places in accordance to value: 1) Hawaii 2) Vail 3) Aspen 4) Hilton Head Island 5) Florida Keys, this is the list so why not take advantage.
Personally, I define what's "best" as being where one can easily afford to buy (resale only, of course, with no loans) AND where one can afford (and be comfortable with paying) the annual fees --- AND where one will (and can afford to) annually go and use. Buying ANYWHERE just to "trade" is increasingly just a fool's errand, in my opinion, in view of ever-worsening exchange company shenanigans regarding "deposits".
Timeshares generally do NOT accrue in value. They are NOT good "investments" in a "financial" sense. More often than not, a seller is lucky to sell for somewhere around what was paid in in the first place (...and that's resale). With developer-direct purchases, that "investment" usually decreases in monetary value by 90% (or more), before the ink on the contract paperwork is even dry. Sad, but true.
That all said, the fundamental problem with the above location list is that while they are certainly all GREAT places, they are all ALSO places where the purchase prices (particularly Vail and Aspen, HHI to only a slightly lesser extent) even resale (...and please don't forget those hefty annual maintenance fees) are consistently somewhere between very high and outright OBSCENE. To Hawaii, add in the factor of continually escalating airfares and fewer and fewer available airlines (...no one can drive to Hawaii--- and it's much too far to swim).
Personally, I gave up my ownership of a prime winter week at a (mediocre, not at all high end) Florida Keys timeshare when the annual maintenance fees first hit $1000. I can RENT at nice (and different each visit) places in the Keys virtually any time I want for well under a few hundred dollars per night, so why on earth would I want to continue to pay $1k per year to "own" one specific, particular week at a mediocre facility, (even if it WAS a prime week)? It made no sense.
Just my two (maybe three) cents' worth....