Marriott Vacation Club just announced a new travel option for people who like the Marriott timeshare experience and, most importantly, vacationing on the Big Island in Hawaii.
On Sept. 7, MVC announced the opening — next May — of its newest Hawaiian resort, the 112-unit Waikoloa Ocean Club, a one- and two-bedroom suite complex which will be co-located on the island of Hawaii with Marriott’s existing Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa. It represents Marriott’s newest “mixed use” property where hotel and timeshare guests share the same facilities and amenities.
“The Big Island has been the only Hawaiian island missing from our resort portfolio,” said Stephen P. Weisz, president and CEO of Marriott Vacations Worldwide. “We are excited that our owners and guests will get to experience its diverse landscape and rich culture.”
That landscape includes black sand beaches and Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, which spits fumes and smoke daily and, since the 1983, sends hot lava tubes down the mountain into the ocean. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is a must-see day trip from the Waikoloa area, but it’s not the only attraction for visitors. The Big Island is easy to navigate by car and full of wide open spaces with a population of 175,000 people (compared to Oahu’s 905,000, Maui’s 131,000 and Kauai’s 63,000). The resort areas in Waikoloa and along the Kona Coast are just as spectacular as any resorts on the other islands — but they offer more rocky coasts and fewer beaches than, say, Maui. If you like to see molten magma, up close and personal, this is the only place to find it in Hawaii.
Marriott owners can call owner services immediately to start booking reservations, starting May 5, 2017, as part of Marriott’s Destinations Exchange program (meaning, using Destination Club points to book stays). Between now and then, Marriott will continue upgrading the grounds and rooms to make sure the new timeshare resort — which is a conversion of part of the existing property, similar in scope to Marriott’s Kauai Beach Club conversion — lives up to the standards Marriott has already tried to create at its five other Hawaii-based timeshares in Oahu, Maui and Kauai. Significantly, the company has already added a sales gallery to the complex for future timeshare presentations. As with the other Marriott timeshare resorts in Hawaii, the complex will offer everything visitors might want to do — from beaches and golf courses to spas and restaurants, all within walking distance.
The Big Island is just that, nearly twice as big as all the other Hawaiian islands combined. It offers 10 of the world’s 14 different climate zones due to the massive elevations of its most famous volcanoes: Maunakea is the tallest sea-mountain in the world — bigger than Mt. Everest; Maunaloa is the world’s most massive mountain and covers half of the island. While big and rugged, the Big Island is also a baby, since it’s the youngest island in the Hawaii chain at 800,000 years old.
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Additional resources: Marriott Vacation Club Resort DirectoryAbout the Big Island