Way back in 1994 I bought into the idea that Timeshare wasn't too bad an idea. I went to a few presentations in the UK and came away thinking that if I had had £1500 to spare I might have bought one. It seemed Tenerife was the hot ticket...
Zoom a few years later to 1997. A friend of a friend was in some financial straights (straits?) and was trying to sell as much as he could to stave off the bailiffs. I stress at that time he hadn't been bankrupt or in any way unable to legally sell his flat, cars (including a nice MGC), two motorcycles and a timeshare week. I bought the timeshare week from him, for a pittance. And that's where we are heading in October.
Not to the actual apartment as that's in Tenerife as well, and I have never been there. I have however banked and exchanged it for places in Europe and the US many times. I won't go into the process of all that but suffice to say that owning and exchanging isn't the cheap "holiday for life" that was portrayed back in the 90's.
Since buying a motorhome we have let my brother use "the week" a few times and a friend used two unused weeks for a trip to South Carolina. In 2024 I have "the week" to use before 31st December. Use it or lose it. Where to go?
We plan to travel in "Molly in the Moho" and so on the exchange site I looked for apartments where, the chances of it being warm and sunny in October, that are dog friendly and are driveable. So that ruled out Finland and Sweden in the warm category. That left Spain or Italy.
Italy had a few but inexplicably only had half-board in the more northern regions and only one in the south. So Spain it is.
Where? For October, which fits in with our plans and other pressures, there were only three possibilities.
1. Roquetas de Mar. A massive multi-storey block. I stayed in Roquetas in around 1977 with the previous Mrs Devall when there was bugger all there. The block wasn't inspiring.
2. Salou. A smaller block with underground car-park. We stayed there in 2001 on a bike trip on the 1250 Bandit. It was so wet that the beach was washed away. The underground car-park in accessible on two wheels due to the slope being tiled....
3. Alcoceber. We stayed here in late November into December. It was okay and we had a ground floor apartment overlooking the pool. We had a problem on day one with las cucarachas! But free parking for the Moho right outside.
So, which have we chosen?
Alcoceber is a pleasant town with plenty of bars and restaurants but the area where the apartment is is somewhat lacking in anything actually open when we went before. Even the reception is closed during the handover day - Saturday! In October things ought to be different.
Here endeth part one.
Zoom a few years later to 1997. A friend of a friend was in some financial straights (straits?) and was trying to sell as much as he could to stave off the bailiffs. I stress at that time he hadn't been bankrupt or in any way unable to legally sell his flat, cars (including a nice MGC), two motorcycles and a timeshare week. I bought the timeshare week from him, for a pittance. And that's where we are heading in October.
Not to the actual apartment as that's in Tenerife as well, and I have never been there. I have however banked and exchanged it for places in Europe and the US many times. I won't go into the process of all that but suffice to say that owning and exchanging isn't the cheap "holiday for life" that was portrayed back in the 90's.
Since buying a motorhome we have let my brother use "the week" a few times and a friend used two unused weeks for a trip to South Carolina. In 2024 I have "the week" to use before 31st December. Use it or lose it. Where to go?
We plan to travel in "Molly in the Moho" and so on the exchange site I looked for apartments where, the chances of it being warm and sunny in October, that are dog friendly and are driveable. So that ruled out Finland and Sweden in the warm category. That left Spain or Italy.
Italy had a few but inexplicably only had half-board in the more northern regions and only one in the south. So Spain it is.
Where? For October, which fits in with our plans and other pressures, there were only three possibilities.
1. Roquetas de Mar. A massive multi-storey block. I stayed in Roquetas in around 1977 with the previous Mrs Devall when there was bugger all there. The block wasn't inspiring.
2. Salou. A smaller block with underground car-park. We stayed there in 2001 on a bike trip on the 1250 Bandit. It was so wet that the beach was washed away. The underground car-park in accessible on two wheels due to the slope being tiled....
3. Alcoceber. We stayed here in late November into December. It was okay and we had a ground floor apartment overlooking the pool. We had a problem on day one with las cucarachas! But free parking for the Moho right outside.
So, which have we chosen?
Alcoceber is a pleasant town with plenty of bars and restaurants but the area where the apartment is is somewhat lacking in anything actually open when we went before. Even the reception is closed during the handover day - Saturday! In October things ought to be different.
Here endeth part one.
