So I'm hitting europe in April-May of '06 for my first time. I'll be doing Greece>Italy>France>UK. My gracious mother has offered me her timeshare for a week while I'm over there. :worship: She's part of one of those clubs where you can trade your timeshare for one somewhere else. My question is where should I get this puppy? It should be in a place that is central to a lot of other "day trip" destinations. Right now I'm thinking Rome, Paris or London. Any suggestions? ANyone gonna be in Europe next April or May who wants to room with me?

~Scott

No shame in timeshares, as long as you're not the sucka buying them! ;)

(No offense to your mother, she's a dear, sweet lady.)

Backpacking isn't necessarily some punk/DIY ethos where you have to do everything the communal way. It's about making the most of your trips with the least resources, right? So if you have the chance to save a couple hundred bucks on lodging for a week and put it toward other stuff (read: booze), then why not?

My friend works for one of those timeshare exchange companies, and she hooks me up with places to stay all the time. I'd rather stay in a hostel where it's more social and fun, but some places are expensive, or you might just want a little more luxurious break in the middle of the trip. Hell, I even used a timeshare week during this year's TP meet-up for Coachella.

One thing you can do is book the week, and stay a night or two at a hostel as well. That way you can make friends there, but you'll always have a nice place to go back to when you feel the need. (Not to mention you can, uh, bring someone back to your own digs... ya dig?)

As far as selection strategy goes, find out which place has the most expensive/poorest selection of hostels, and use the timeshare there. From your list, London's the most expensive (and a lot of the timeshares on exchange there are niiiiiice) but Paris probably has the paltriest selection of good hostels.

BTW, I'm tentatively going to be in London the first week of April, so if our paths cross, we'll definitely have to :cheers:

Hey, there's a good possibility I'll be in Europe next year as well, from about March or April until...well, the money runs out :)

Omisan already covered the most important points...so as he said, you can choose to get the timeshare week in either a place that's most expensive or has the paltriest selection of hostels.

Thinking about it, my family owns a timeshare too (I know Omi, I razz my parents every now and then for buying it, but this was in '94 before the internet spread the word of just how bad timeshares can be...all truth, it's served my family well). Perhaps we can tentatively make an arrangement to share accomodations - whatever city you book, I'll book another...just a thought. PM me if it sounds like something you'd be interested in. :cheers: