Which trip outside of Disney Resorts has been the best use of your points?

[igitur]

I'm looking at possibly using our points next year for a "non-Disney" trip and I was wondering if any of you had done any trips using points that you thought ended up being a great deal?

My thoughts were doing a trip to the Grand Canyon, maybe using points to stay at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix beforehand and then driving up to the Canyon area. I know staying at the Biltmore during summer months uses a lot fewer points (if you can stand the heat : )

We've already done a Disney Cruise so that's not part of the plan.

Just wanted to hear what others have done with their points...it might give me some ideas.

Thanks!

Deb

 

[CraftyMouse]

We used our points for a trip to Arizona last January. We flew into Phoenix and drove to the Grand Canyon where we spent two nights at the Kachina Lodge on the rim, paying cash. (If you are going to do the Grand Canyon then try to stay there. The rim lodges are as close as you can get and the view is breathtaking.) Then we drove to Sedona (BEAUTIFUL!!!) and spent a week in a 1-bedroom at the Los Abrigados Resort and Spa. It was terrific and I would highly recommend it to other members. It cost us 144 points for 7 nights. The 1-bedroom slept 6 with two queen beds in the bedroom and a pull-out in the living room. It had a kitchenette in the room and laundry services were elsewhere in the building, not in the unit, so that is a bit different than DVC but it was wonderful. We even had a view of the Red Rocks from our balcony. We did lots of day trips to other places in the area. Sedona was a great base for exploring the area and we are looking forward to returning there someday.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We used some of our points for Hawaii a couple years ago. Hawaii is our second favorite place to travel, so we figured we might as well use a few of our extra points for it. Had a great time at Kona Coast II resort.

 

[Merilyn]

We have traded to Washington, DC and Williamsburg, VA. We also took a trip to CA and stayed there on points. We have found ours trades to be very good except when we traded at HH to a Marriott. We thought we would be closer to the water but it was about a 15 minute walk to get to the water so we should have stayed at Disney HH. We usually trade for a Marriott because they seem to be closer quality to DVC. Hope to trade to HI someday.

 

[Mich Mouse]

My thoughts were doing a trip to the Grand Canyon, maybe using points to stay at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix beforehand and then driving up to the Canyon area.
Thanks!

Deb

We stayed at the Grand Canyon at the Thunderbird, in the Grand Canyon National Park. The view of the canyon from the room is not to be believed. The Thunderbird was recently redone and also has modern rooms, which is not typical of National Park lodging. Another poster mentioned the Katchina, which is right next to the Thunderbird. If you plan to go the GC, I highly reccommend booking one of these hotels. And, do it now because they can book up a year in advance, in fact, it may already be too late.

Here is the link.
http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/lodging-289.html