Perhaps your dream timeshare unit is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom villa on a sparkling white beach overlooking a turquoise sea. You are not alone in this idea; the large majority of timeshare owners choose beachfront timeshares as their home resorts for the simple purpose of returning to them year after year. The lapping surf, the warm sunshine, the endless array of water sports, the steel-drum music at the tiki bar, the freshly cracked conch chowder on the resort's restaurant menu — it all combines to make for a family vacation that many timeshare owners want to experience again and again.

If you are among this large (and ever-growing) group of timeshare owners, you will want to get right to the task of making the most of every minute that you own at your home resort unit. Whether you have purchased a fixed week, a floating week, or enough points to buy a week at the beachfront resort of your choice each year, there are things you will need to do if you want to be sure your timeshare vacation is as stress-free as possible.

Register Early — for Everything

Whether you own a fixed week, a floating week, or points-based rights to a timeshare unit, you almost always will have to register well in advance of your vacation to ensure that your unit will be available to you during a given week of the year. With floating weeks and points-based systems, you do run the risk of not getting into the resort of your choice during the exact week of your choice, but registering as early as possible will greatly enhance your odds. Sometimes, you can register as much as a year in advance according to resort policy — and sometimes, you will need to register that early or even earlier if you want to get a prime unit during a high-demand week of the year.

If you own timeshare-usage points, you usually can check into your timeshare resort on any given day of the week. On the other hand, if you own a fixed or floating week, you likely will have to stick to checking in on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, depending on which weeks schedule your resort uses. Check out the calendars in Appendix B to see which weeks fall on which dates for the next several years.

In addition to registering early for use of the timeshare itself, you also should consider registering early for things like boat and Jet Ski rentals, spa treatments, golf tee times, restaurant tables, and children's activities. As timeshare resorts are vacation properties, these amenities should be available to you even if you do not preregister — and sometimes, you will not be allowed to register before checking into your unit for the week — but if the option for early registration exists, take it. You certainly will be happy you spent a few extra minutes on the telephone back in January when you arrive at your timeshare resort in September and already have reservations for the best golf lesson times, the restaurant tables with the best views, and the Swedish massages given by your favorite in-demand masseur.

Make Specific Room Requests for Handicapped Travelers

If you are traveling with someone who is physically challenged, you should make a specific request for a room that is outfitted to meet that person's needs — and you should make that request as early as possible, just as you do with every other request that is important to ensuring your vacation goes smoothly.

Thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act, which took effect in July 1992, pretty much every newer resort in the United States has at least a few rooms with specially outfitted bathrooms, wider doorways, and furniture layouts that are meant to make life easier for people who use wheelchairs. Your best bet is to find out exactly which units these are — 712A, for example, versus knowing simply that there's one on the seventh floor — and make sure the unit number is written into your timeshare contract with a clause explaining that you are demanding that unit specifically because you have a fellow traveler who requires the special design features inside. Carry a copy of that written contract with you during your reservation and check-in processes, just in case there are any questions or problems.

Resorts built before the 1990s — and many resorts overseas, no matter their age — have no such rooms, or have one or two rooms that are called handicapped accessible but that really are just retrofitted regular rooms that lack the kinds of amenities you might require. Again, asking questions before making your reservation is key to getting the right room for your needs — and reserving that room early is paramount, especially if there are only one or two in the entire resort that you can use.

The Interval International resort directory, for instance, defines resorts as wheelchair-accessible if they have at least one unit that can access an elevator or ramp, has wide entryways, and has bathroom handrails. Imagine the demand for that single unit during peak travel times for grandparents! Reserve early, for sure.

Check the Checklist

Most timeshare units have some sort of kitchen facility, be it a small kitchenette or a full-on gourmet galley. This is usually the place where you will find the inventory checklist for everything in the timeshare unit, from towels to dinner plates to DVD remote controls. Items will usually be listed by quantity (three rolls of toilet paper, one bottle of dishwashing detergent, etc.), and they usually will be categorized room by room if you have a two- or three-bedroom unit.

One of the first things you should do upon arriving at your timeshare unit is to find this checklist and make sure that everything listed on it is, in fact, inside your unit. If you find something listed that is not really there — such as a set of bed sheets or two or three steak knives — you must immediately report the missing items to the resort's front desk. If you wait until checkout time, you may be forced to pay for the missing items, which the resort can assume that you lost or even stole during your vacation stay. These can include anything from inexpensive hair dryers to top-of-the-line DVD recorders — none of which you want added to your bill at the resort's discretion.

If your original timeshare contract lists items that will be inside your unit upon your arrival, bring a copy of that document with you, as well, and use it as a secondary checklist when going through the items the resort has provided. Again, if you find any discrepancies, call the front desk immediately and have the problems remedied right away. Then, you can get to the important business of unpacking and beginning to enjoy your vacation stay.

Pack Wisely

Packing for vacation, to most people, is an exercise that builds both the imagination and the muscles. First, you try to envision every possible outfit you might need, and then you try to jam pretty much every piece of clothing you own into a suitcase that is meant to hold about half as many items. Nine times out of ten, you end up lugging along a bunch of clothes that you do not wear at all during your vacation, and your aching arms remind you that you will once again want to try a bit harder to pare down the load the next time around.

When packing for a vacation in a timeshare unit, you will face the added responsibility of having to supply items that you might want to use in your home-away-from-home, things that you would not be likely to pack for a cruise-ship or regular hotel vacation. Some of these items may include:

• DVDs and CDs that you can use in your timeshare unit's players

• Favorite spices for cooking in your kitchen or kitchenette

• Laundry detergent and fabric softener for use in your private laundry area

• Juice boxes, snack packs, and other kids' foods for your refrigerator

• Wines and liquors to store in your unit's entertaining area

The trick to saving yourself from lugging an entire grocery cart's worth of items along on your vacation is to determine what you absolutely, positively must bring from home — versus what you can get from the resort's store or a nearby shopping center after you arrive and settle in.

For instance, while you are likely to need laundry detergent during your vacation, you certainly do not want to lug a five-pound or larger bottle of the stuff from your home laundry room all the way down to your beachfront paradise. If you want to save money by buying in bulk at home, try buying small cardboard boxes full of detergent (they are the same size as individual cereal boxes and often come in family-size packs). These weigh far less and are therefore easier to transport, and you can even break down the family packs to carry just enough for the three or four loads of wash you anticipate doing during your vacation.

Be Friendly, but Firm

Sometimes, you will encounter problems caused by other timeshare owners or users. This is an inevitable part of any vacation, right? There is always a jerk lurking around, and he tends to pop into your world just when you are settling in and starting to relax.

If you have a dispute that you need to resolve with someone else in the resort, you can of course first try to take it up with that person directly. Say your neighbor is throwing rowdy, late-night parties in the room adjacent to the one where your youngest daughter is trying to sleep. A simple knock on the door, or a room-to-room telephone call, may be all you need to fix this problem. Heck, the rowdiness may be the fault of some teenagers whose parents are unaware of what is going on. Your complaint, phrased politely, may even make you some new friends.

On the other hand, you may find yourself in a situation where resolution of a dispute requires third-party intervention. In this case, your first call should be to the timeshare resort's front desk. Simply making this telephone call puts the burden of solving the problem onto the shoulders of the resort, which can call for in-house security or even local police if necessary.

Should you require further, long-term dispute resolution, you can also work with your resort's homeowners' association (in which you may have become an automatic member when you bought your timeshare unit). Most homeowners' associations have grievance procedures for handling a variety of complaints, everything from usage concerns to maintenance issues. Check with your resort if you do not know how to contact your homeowners' association, and keep the number handy in case future problems arise.