By Bill and Jane Betts, Weiser, ID

We have owned 4 weeks of time-share for almost 15 years. This last summer, we spent three weeks in Hawaii and we thought some might benefit from our experiences.

We initiated our RCI search in January with a request of two weeks at one island and one week at another. Within a few weeks, RCI offered us Banyon Harbor in Lihue on the island of Kauai. I was so worried about requesting so late, that I said yes even though Banyon has a Wednesday check in date. As time went on, I realized that this detail would cause us some problems. Because of the logistics, I eventually accepted another week in Kauai at the Cliffs Club and was left with a three-day gap in between the two places. ENDLESS VACATION magazine carried an ad for a 3-day stay at a place called Embassy Resorts for only $149, so I called and booked that time.

RCI travel also provided us with a good buy on a rental car for our time on Kauai, but their prices on plane fares were several hundred dollars more than our local travel agent found for us.

We found Banyon Harbor to be as we expected from a first RCI offer after a request. Banyon is the oldest timeshare on the island, is not on the beach, and hasn’t much land around it. The staff was very friendly, however. We were fortunate to have a two bedroom, one and a half bath unit, which has been recently redecorated. We also had a large kitchen, two televisions, a small washer/dryer combo, and a small lanai. There was a good view of the harbor from our unit, and for landlubbers, that was very interesting.

We attended a morning orientation during which the staff thoroughly explained what to do on the island and offered to tell us about buying at Banyon. They also offered rental equipment for some water sports. There are steps to every unit, but some basement units would not have a harbor view and noise could be a problem. The outdoor pool and tennis courts are minimal.

The chief advantages of buying here would be cost and its central location. Since building is so extremely limited in Hawaii it is possible someone could come out on this, but we feel it would be risky. We were told that there was only one major development in the works on the whole island and few more were planned.

Our second morning in Kauai, we attended an all-you-can-eat breakfast island orientation and mini Polynesian revue at the Outrigger. The food and show were great, the presentation on what to do while on the island was very complete and their offer to do a timeshare sales pitch was low key. We even won a Hyatt Luau as a door prize.

We went ahead and signed up for a sales tour at the Pahio Resort because of the nice prizes and because we really did want to see some of the resorts on the island. We were very impressed. The resort is next to the hotel (very up scale) and all hotel services are available to the owners. The beach is lovely and the grounds are beautifully landscaped with lots of walking paths. We really liked the layout and decoration of the two-bedroom unit we viewed.

When we didn’t buy, the "manager" offered us a better deal and a special gift. When we still didn’t buy, the "gifts person" offered to sell us a prepaid vacation to come back within two years. The deal was to include a certain amount off if we bought during the second visit. When we still didn’t buy, everyone was very polite and there was no hassle over receiving our gifts. We will definitely consider buying at Pahio Resorts when we can buy more property, although we would probably buy on the resale market.

When we left the Banyon for the Embassy, we made a LARGE change in lifestyle. The Embassy is a top of the line Gold Crown resort next to the Hyatt, located on one of the most beautiful areas of the island. Our unit was ground floor with a small lanai and view of the ocean. There were two bedrooms, two bathrooms, dining room, living room, two TVs, full kitchen, and washer and dryer. The master bedroom and bath were very large and well decorated.

The large pool area (some sand) was decorated with ponds and waterfalls, and there was a health club. The staff was outstanding. Each morning, there was a breakfast and island orientation with many door prizes. Each evening, they hosted a Mai Tai party with snacks and good entertainment.

We toured this time as part of our agreement. We were offered lunch, given a nice tour and basically followed the same agenda as at the Pahio resort. We were told that Embassy did not have any units on the resale market because the developer bought them all back. We discovered that this was not the case.

The Embassy is offered, as were all five of the resorts we toured, as a fee simple (that means deeded) property. Of course, with a resort this nice, the cost was really high. However, if a couple wanted a destination resort in Hawaii, and wanted to be well taken care of, and be surrounded by luxury, this is the place. We didn’t buy, but had a wonderful three days. Our sixteen-year-old son was able to seriously work on his tan here! It seemed that a lot of the people staying there were also taking advantage of the RCI special. The price list on the room said $1,000 a night, but we figured $200-350 would be more accurate.

While we were staying at the Embassy, we went shopping at the Coconut Market Place and talked to a man at an island adventure booth about scuba diving. We ended up signing up for ONE MORE TOUR in order to get some pretty big discounts on a boat ride to the Napali Coast and scuba diving. Almost all booths on the island offering tickets to activities and adventures are also signing people up for timeshare presentations.

This time, we went to tour Lawai Resort, owned by Shell Development Corporation. It is across the road from a nice beach in the southern section of the island and has three sections. The pools and grounds aren’t as elaborate as Pahio or Embassy, but they sure beat Banyon’s. We met in a restaurant at a surfer beach, so enjoyed the view during the presentation. This salesman was the nicest of the lot and that is perhaps why we "fell" for the mini-vacation offer and signed up. When we got home and read the literature which had been sent to our house, we realized that we had agreed to pay $1300 for a week at the Lawai resort, a week of RCI extra resort supply, $500 worth of plane vouchers (which would be very difficult to use) and a one year Quest membership.

We could have asked more questions, but left Hawaii with the impression that the second week of vacation was guaranteed to be a RCI Gold Crown Resort similar to Lawai. I wrote and canceled the agreement although we did lose our initial deposit. If a couple did not already belong to RCI they possibly could feel they had made a good purchase. Lawai also offered to include some of that money on the purchase price of a unit if we had returned and bought within the two-year period. This time, our gifts didn’t quite balance out what we lost in deposit!

Our last week, we traveled north to the resort area of Princeville to the Cliffs Club. Cliffs Club was a better resort at one time, but is a little shabby now. We had a large master bedroom with wet bar and small bath, another bath, kitchen dining room, small sitting area, washer/dryer combo and two TVs, all located on the ground floor.

We did not have one of the newly remodeled units with a view of the ocean. It was a very noisy unit, as the pool and tennis courts were right outside. The staff parked in our spaces and there was a bad mildew problem in the kitchen.

They offered an island orientation too, so we went and we won a door prize there. We also agreed to listen to their sales pitch for some more gift certificates. The Cliffs Club has several phases, and only the newer section is Gold Crown. We felt that this designation might not be all that stable. Only one person talked to us here, perhaps because we obviously weren’t all that interested. He was very polite, however. We could see no reason why anyone would buy here. The prices were very high for what they were offering, the north of the island is very rainy, and it’s not a good central location for activities.

We fell in love with Kauai and were very glad that we were able to spend so much time there. We spent a lot of time getting to know the history of the area, met a lot of very interesting people and can’t wait to go back. We even got to watch the Hula championships on TV and learned a lot about the culture. Kauai had the perfect mix for our family: outdoor adventure opportunities, beaches, and shopping.

About the only activity we missed was a helicopter ride and we definitely plan on doing that next time. The only activity we wouldn’t do again would be the trip to the Fern Grotto, but it was good to see it once. We never ate at a bad restaurant, and the service was really superior.

We noticed that Hawaii seemed to have some very strict laws governing selling of time-shares, and we would feel comfortable buying a fee simple place there. We hadn’t exactly planned on attending five presentations, but we had the time, earned a pretty good hourly "wage" and learned a lot. We also found Hawaii to be not all that expensive a place to visit since we had kitchen facilities and followed the local advice for shopping.