Here’s a post I made in the Craigslist travel board, which I peruse often, to a person asking about time shares

my experience – long 06/06 09:57:41My partner and I were GIVEN a time share by a family member, which includes a week in Mexico in either Mazatlan, Cancun, PV and a few other cities.The maint. fee is $265 a year, which split between us isn’t bad for a week’s stay anywhere in these cities. The one in Mazatlan is older but a quick bus ride to town. I recently stayed in Cancun, (actually it’s between Playa DC and Cancun), and THAT one highlights all the NEGATIVES of time shares I’ve found:
Many are remote, away from the towns, requiring expensive cab rides or a bus trip.

TOO BIG!!! The one near Cancun is the size of three Vegas casinos. The walk from the room to the pool is literally about 1/2 mile from some rooms, big enough they have golf cart shuttles.

EXPENSIVE. Meals AT the time shares cost $7-8 bucks if not more. Drinks $3-5. I’ll take a small taco shack and some Pacificos on the beach any day.

Too many people. If you’d rather just chill in town with a mix of tourists and locals, a time share isn’t for you. Too many enormous floral printed t-shirts and slow moving people. — some times shares resorts are like a huge cruise ship, and they’re constantly under construction due to a loophole in Mexican law about taxes being paid.
If you want the SAME experience everywhere you travel, and want perfection, full service, and don’t mind the expense, do a time share or all inclusive resort.

If you don’t mind a few surprises, (most of them GOOD suprises), meeting new people who aren’t there just to bring you drinks – it’s a much more rewarding experience – and of course theres lots of places in between full service resorts and hostels.

It requires being a bit more resourceful (with e-mail and internet it’s easy) and low maintenaince, but worth every bit of it.

You CAN put your time share in a bank like RCI, in which you can trade yours for other cities (some have cool apartments like in Buenos Aires and Berlin), BUT that’s another $100 a year – and requires many phone calls of coordinating INTO RCI, etc etcCompare that to a place I recently stayed at in Merida, Yucatan:

www.luzenyucatan.com/

I found it online in 30 seconds, checked some reviews, made ONE call to the owner and said “hey your place looks great, got a room for May 8-9″? She said “yes, see you then” and I was done. 10 rooms, a more intimate experience. This was in the city, but there’s plenty of smaller places along beaches which you can find, book, and enjoy.

By the way the place we own is part of Mayan Resorts – the most recent one we did was the www.thegrandmayan.com/riviera/

Even though we had it for a week we did a few days there and spent the other half of the week in merida / Valladolid.

So if you like luxury, all inclusive vacations, and being catered too, a time share isn’t bad, but every time we went INTO our resort, it was like leaving Mexico and I might have well been in a gated community in Denver with a beach (along with everyone that lived there).

BUT most folks here, especially with the internet, are capable of finding a decent place through referrals or reviews, and making a reservation themselves without any hassle.

I’ve found THAT’S CHEAPER than even a FREE time share – based on the above.

If you want the SAME experience everywhere you travel, and want perfection, full service, and don’t mind the expense, do a time share or all inclusive resort.If you don’t mind a few surprises, (most of them GOOD suprises), meeting new people who aren’t there just to bring you drinks – it’s a much more rewarding experience – and of course theres lots of places in between full service resorts and hostels.

It requires being a bit more resourceful (with e-mail and internet it’s easy) and low maintenaince, but worth every bit of it.

all the best – holy crap i wrote a long post.