Ski the Beautiful Poconos

You don't have to travel to the Rockies for great skiing. The mountains of the Northeast -- Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut -- offer downhill runs every bit as exciting as those in Vail and Tahoe. Surprisingly, you'll find some excellent downhill and cross country skiing as far south as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, less than a day's drive from many Midwest and Eastern Seaboard states.

The Poconos are a true year-round vacation destination. From your Poconos timeshare, you can enjoy hiking, biking and boating in the summer. The views are breathtaking in the fall when the mountains erupt in a never-ending riot of color. And winter brings deep, powdery snows perfect for downhill and cross country skiing. You can enjoy everything the Poconos have to offer from your timeshare at Ridge Top Village or Ridge Top Summit in Shawnee, Pennsylvania (see photos).

Nestled in the forested hills along the scenic Delaware River, this 2,200-acre resort features exciting downhill runs, exhilarating cross country treks, even a ski school for those who need to learn the ropes or want to improve their form. The onsite recreation center includes a fully equipped exercise room, sauna, Jacuzzi and indoor pool to keep your muscles limbered up when you're not on the slopes. Snow tubing, ice skating, daily scheduled activities and a children's play area provide fun for the whole family.

Click the post title to preview other Poconos resorts. You'll find more Pennsylvania and New Jersey ski resorts at Timeshare Giant.

Tips for Traveling with Children

A globe-trotting UN diplomat has written a fascinating guide for parents who plan to travel to foreign lands with their children. But even parents who expect to stay closer to home will find the book packed with excellent advice and useful tips. The Rough Guide to Travel With Babies & Young Children (Rough Guides, $15.99) includes a wide variety of tips, including coping with road trips, plane travel, health concerns, entertaining kids on the road and cultural issues.

Written by UN envoy Fawzia Rasheed de Francisco who has advised 16 governments on health policy, the guide is the culmination of years spent on the road with her two young sons. She started traveling with her younger son when he was only two weeks old. Her older son had been to five continents by his first birthday.

Some of the cultural tips are fascinating:

• In India, have your children apologize profusely if they touch someone with their shoes, an especially offensive act.
• In Thailand, children are perceived to be well brought up if they make light of inconvenience.
• Patting children on the head is considered disrespectful in many parts of the world.

Even if your travel plans will keep you closer to home, you'll find plenty of useful tips for your next vacation:

• Give each child a shoebox to decorate before you leave home or after you get to your destination. At each stop on your journey, let them buy a postcard and have them write a brief memory on the back, along with the date and their age. They can put these and other trinkets they find along the way in their Travel Memory Box.
• Have each child keep a journal. They can write about things they do or see on the trip. They can also ask people they meet along the way to write a brief message. If you're in a foreign country, ask new friends to write in the local language or sign their names.
• Give each child a disposable digital camera to make a personal record of their trip.

Starwood to Open Luxury Ocean Villas in Kauai

Reservations are already being accepted for the April 2008 opening of a new Starwood Vacation Ownership luxury resort on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. The Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas will be the third Starwood property on the islands. Crowning a lush cliff along the north shore of Kauai, the Westin Princeville sits 200 feet above famous Anini Beach, providing spectacular views of the azure Pacific.

"Starwood has a long history in Hawaii, dating back to the early 1960s as Sheraton was the first major hospitality brand on the Hawaiian Islands," said Princeville general manager Denise Wardlow.

The spectacular oceanfront property commands 18.5 acres along the coast and is flanked by two world-class golf courses. Designed in the graceful style of a classic Hawaiian sugar plantation, the elegant resort will include 179 spacious two-bedroom villas, four sparkling pools, three relaxing whirlpools and a stunning two-story clubhouse with full-service restaurant, a well-equipped fitness center, and a general store where guests can pick up fresh produce or gourmet deli items. Particularly helpful will be the nightly rental option for guests desiring to lengthen their stay or in need of larger accommodations for family travel. Guests will enjoy all the luxurious amenities and full services typical at Westin resorts.

Each well-appointed luxury villa will feature all the comforts of home: a fully-equipped kitchen with full-size refrigerator with icemaker, microwave/convection oven, dishwasher, coffee maker, toaster, blender, cookware and dinnerware. Dine in the separate dining area or on the private lanai. Guests can also take advantage of the poolside barbecue grills. At night, sink into Westin's signature Heavenly Bed. Villas also provide a queen sofa bed, bath with whirlpool tub (and fluffy robes and towels), washer and dryer, LCD flat-screen TV with DVD player, Bose AM/FM Wave radio, two dual-line phones with voice mail and data ports and high-speed wired and wireless internet connections.

To keep up on new resort developments and the latest news on the timeshare industry, click here to visit Timeshare Giant.

Canadian Border Rules Tightened

Planning to visit the casinos on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls? Have the Toronto Film Festival penciled in on your calendar? Thinking of driving to Alaska this summer? If you haven't applied for a passport yet, better not put it off. It won't be long before a passport will be required for all travel to and from the U.S. This week security will get a little tighter for U.S. citizens traveling home from Canada. Starting Thursday, January 31, you'll need proof of citizenship to cross America's northern border by land or sea. Passports are already required for air travel.

Under the new law, all travelers, including children, who do not have passports must show proof of citizenship, either a birth certificate or naturalization certificate, at land and sea crossings to re-enter the U.S. from Canada. Travelers 19 and older must also show government-issued photo identification, such as a driver's license or state ID. Children under 19 can travel with just a proof of citizenship for the time being.

"If you don't have these documents, it's gong to slow down your border clearance," said Mike Milne of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "We won't take verbal declarations of citizenship anymore. You'll have to go into a secondary-clearance area and be asked more questions. Ultimately, a U.S. citizen will get back into the United States, but it will certainly slow down the process."

The new law ends decades of a laissez-faire border crossing policy with our northern neighbors in which oral statements were acceptable on both sides. Since the September 11 tragedy, the U.S. has been moving to tighten its borders. This is just the newest implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which regulates travel between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico and Bermuda. Passports were to have been required for travel to and from Canada sometime this June, but public outcry over processing backlogs caused Congress to move that date back to June 2009. Thursday's new regulations are an interim move.

Grab Hold of Your Life and Start Living!

Would, coulda, shoulda. Everyone has regrets. Regret is universal, spanning age, culture and socio-economic status. Our most common life regrets center on family, romance, career, education and self. For every choice we make, there are countless other possibilities we will never experience. We are forever tantalized by "the road not taken."

I have just read a fascinating article about regret in the current issue of The AARP Magazine. Written by David Dudley, editor of Baltimore's The Urbanite, the article suggests that America has entered an Age of Regret. (Click here to read the article.) Raised on the unobtainable idealism of the 1960s, Baby Boomers are having a harder time coping with life's regrets than previous generations. The explosion of options available for everything from choosing a cell phone to selecting a prescription drug plan is paralyzing our ability to feel satisfied with our choices. I found it interesting that fewer choices diminish regret and that the inability to undo a choice actually makes us more satisfied with our decision.

The number one regret most people have involves family: My spouse and I don't have enough time just to ourselves. I never have enough time for the kids. I'm missing out on my son/daughter's childhood. Family life is a perpetual blur of carpools, homework, activities and projects -- when do we relax and just have fun?

It seems to me that regret is about unfulfilled dreams. The most productive way to put our regrets behind us is to do something about them. Start fulfilling your dreams today. If you aren't spending enough quality time with your spouse or family, make an investment in your family's future. Buy a timeshare property and lock in a couple of weeks a year when you can focus on just being together and having fun. Stop thinking about all the vacations you haven't taken, all the things you haven't done together and put your regrets behind you. Invest in your family's future, invest in a timeshare, and start building some memories today.

New Fractional Ownership Properties to Open in Florida

Florida is the most sought timeshare vacation destination in the United States. The vacation ownership industry is responding to consumer demand with plans to build some fabulous new properties. Here's a peek at what the future holds.

Watson Island on Biscayne Bay off the coast of Miami will be the home of 105 new fractional ownership residences. Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts is in the process of developing a 10-acre site on the island with a 147-room hotel, suites and poolside villas. The Residences at Island Gardens (left) will be housed at the top of an impressive 39-story tower designed to resemble a stylized lighthouse. One- to four-bedroom units will be offered in 1/8 shares at prices ranging from $195,000 to $765,000 per fraction.

Designed by architects Eric Kuhne & Associates with interiors by renowned Piero Lissoni & Associati, residences will feature floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall windows with fabulous views of Miami's skyline and Biscayne Bay. Sangri-La's signature beds and bed linens, luxury bathrooms, wireless internet service and 24-hour butler service are among the planned amenities.

The Shangri-La hotel is part of the $480 million mixed-use Island Gardens project being developed by Flagstone Property Group. Expected to open in 2010, planned features include sophisticated shops and restaurants and a 50-slip super-yacht harbor in a galleried garden setting.

Hyatt Siesta Key Beach Residence Club will rise in place of the demolished Sea Castle motel on the beach of Siesta Key near Sarasota. Hyatt Vacation Ownership will break ground on the 6-story, 44-unit vacation ownership property this spring. Phase I of the Triton Companies development, with expected occupancy in 2009, will offer 11 luxuriously furnished residences of 1,600 to 2,600 square feet to be sold in 1/8 fractional shares at a cost of $200,000 to $750,000.

Like most Hyatt properties, the Siesta Key will offer hotel-like amenities such as full-time front desk and staff, concierge services, pool, fitness center, spa, massage and valet parking. Fractional owners will enjoy privileges at an adjoining beach club.

Explore the Everglades by Canoe

If you've always hankered to explore America's most famous swamp, this is the time to visit the Everglades. Unlike summer when the Everglades are sweltering, sweaty and a-buzz with mosquitoes the size of whale harpoons, in winter the swamp is not too hot, not too cold, not too humid and there's nary a mosquito in slapping distance. The conditions are perfect for a canoe or kayak trek through the primeval Ten Thousand Islands region of the Gulf Coast.

While most people visit the Everglades from the east side entrance near Miami, explorers will want to enter from Everglades City near Naples on the gulf side of the park. The small rural community of Everglades City is an active commercial and sport-fishing port and the jumping off point for most canoe and kayak excursions into the swamp. You'll find a number of full-service outfitters and a variety of guided tours available in Everglades City, including mangrove tunnels, sunset tours and moonlit paddles. A new GPS-marked paddle trail system through the Ten Thousand Islands area can lead you on a long, overnight trek from Everglades City to Goodland, but shorter day-trip routes are also available. Paddlers will also find fun and adventure cruising Collier County's new GPS-marked Paradise Coast Blueway. While you're paddling in the Everglades, watch for alligators sunning themselves, blue herons and egrets stalking fish in the shallows, and the amazing anhingas, a bird that dives and swims underwater to catch its darting, silvery prey.

After a day spent paddling through sawgrass, wandering the mangrove tunnels, exploring the cypress forest and enjoying the exotic wildlife in the swamp, head back to your luxurious timeshare in Naples on Florida's gorgeous Gulf Coast. The Charter Club Resort of Naples Bay (above, left) offers superb accommodations (right) coupled with excellent onsite amenities and a wide variety of area activities. For those who want to enjoy the flora and fauna of the Everglades more comfortably, the fabulous Naples-Caribbean Garden's Zoological Park, Rookery Bay, is located just fives miles south of Naples. And when you're not on the beach, you'll find plenty of charming boutiques and exciting eateries to explore in Naples. Click the post title to preview a complete listing of fabulous timeshares in the Naples, Florida area.

Advantages of Timeshare Exchange

Beach? Mountains? Desert? Big city? Where you like to spend your vacation and how you like to spend your leisure time are two of the most important factors driving the selection of vacation property. When people invest in a timeshare property, they choose one that will provide the leisure experience they crave. Location, climate, resort amenities, leisure activities and accommodations are at the top of the list when buyers shop for a timeshare. Most people look for a property that suits their interests and lifestyle and look forward to returning year after year, like visiting a dear friend.

But occasionally, everyone wants a change. Perhaps a change of scenery from mountain to beach, a change of pace from laid-back resort to flashy big city, or a change of activities from winter skiing to summer hiking sounds appealing. The advantage of timeshare ownership is that you can have it all through timeshare exchange programs.

You can experience an infinite number of vacation experiences through exchange programs. By joining an exchange service (RCI and Interval International are the two biggest), you can trade your week or interval for a new and different vacation at comparable resorts around the world. Many resorts also offer owners the opportunity to exchange their timeshare for another within the home resort's property portfolio. Exchanging through your home resort generally guarantees comparable accommodations and amenities.

Here's how it works: You place your property into the exchange company's pool of available resort weeks and choose an available resort and week from the pool. There's generally a rating system to assure parity -- that you get what you give -- but you can often arrange to upgrade your choice. Expect to pay an exchange fee and annual membership fee to the exchange company. Before you exchange, you'll want to notify your resort/property management firm to clarify any rules or regulations that may govern exchanges. When you buy your timeshare, ask about exchange policies. As a purchase incentive, resort developers often pay a new owner's first year membership fee in an exchange program.

You can also "bank" your timeshare. If you can't use your timeshare during your usual interval and don't wish to exchange it in the current year, you can place your timeshare in the exchange company's pool and use your exchange option in a different year. Some exchange programs will also let you exchange your timeshare week for airfare, hotel stays or rental cars.

How Timeshare Ownership Works

Timeshare ownership takes the stress out of vacations. You're not saddled with the mortgage and upkeep of a second home that you may use only a few weeks out of the year. When you purchase a timeshare property, you purchase just the time you need -- and you lock in future vacations at today's low prices. That's a considerable benefit with hotel rates on the upswing.

At a timeshare resort, units are divided into usage intervals, commonly one week. You purchase only the number of weeks you plan to vacation each year, typically one to two weeks. Owners pay an annual maintenance fee to cover maintenance and management of the property so that when you arrive for your vacation, you are guaranteed a care-free, relaxing visit.

Some timeshares are sold on a points system which places a point value on the size and quality of the accommodations as well as the desirability of each week in the year. For example, purchasing weeks at a Vail ski resort timeshare may cost you more during peak January/February ski months when demand is highest than during summer months.

Most timeshare purchases provide you with a deeded real estate interest in the property. In some programs, such as Vacation Clubs, your membership purchases the right to use, but not own the club's properties. (See our January 16 post for a rundown on different types of vacation ownership.) There may be financial and tax advantages to deeded ownership, but it is the desire to invest in leisure time that generally drives timeshare purchases.

A variety of accommodation factors affect the price of timeshare properties, including:

• Square footage of the unit
• Number of bedrooms and baths
• Luxury features such as fireplaces, hot tubs, whirlpool baths, etc.
• Resort amenities
• Location
• Season of use

Traditionally, when you purchase a timeshare property, you are purchasing the use of a particular size unit at a vacation resort for one week during a specific period or season. Points programs allow you to redeem the points at any number of resort locations, for a variety of accommodations and number of days, depending on the restraints of the program. Points programs are often linked to lodging and travel loyalty programs which can expand both your travel choices and purchasing power.

Next time: The advantages of timeshare exchange