The Armed Forces Vacation Club is an inexpensive vacation option for veterans and their families. The Armed Forces Vacation Club (AFVC) is a collection of time-share condominiums that are rented out to veterans and qualified military members at incredibly low prices.
As with staying at military lodging facilities or vacationing at one of the Armed Forces Recreation Centers (AFRCs), you have to have an ID card to take advantage of this benefit. That means you have to be a military member, retiree receiving military retired pay, Medal of Honor holder, 100 percent disabled veteran, or a dependent.
These lucky veterans and family members can rent luxury condos at more than 3,500 locations around the world for the low cost of $329 per week. That comes out to $47 per day!
What are Armed Forces Vacation Club Condominiums?
Thousands of timeshare condos are located throughout the world. Often, someone buys a timeshare and then doesn’t have an opportunity to use it. These unused timeshare weeks are sometimes rented out by the condo’s management association, instead of allowing them to sit empty.
The Department of Defense’s Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Service has made a special deal with many of these management associations to offer unused timeshares to military members and eligible veterans and family members for the unbelievable price of $329 per week.
The AFVC has listings for virtually everywhere, including all states, Europe, Australia, the Bahamas, Africa, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, India, the Pacific . . . pretty much anywhere you want to go.
Claiming an Armed Forces Vacation Club condo
Using the AFVC to locate and reserve a luxury condo for your next leave or vacation is simplicity itself. If you’ve never used the AFVC before, you must first call the club at 800-724-9988.
The hours of operation are Monday through Friday 0700 to 2400 hours (7 a.m. to midnight), Saturday 0900 to 2000 hours (9 a.m. to 8 p.m.), and Sunday 0930 to 2000 hours (9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.; all times are eastern time).
When you call the first time, the kind folks at the reservation center will issue you an account number and password. Write this down and keep it somewhere safe. You can then use this information to log onto the AFVC website and make your reservations online.
If you prefer not to use the Internet to make reservations, you can use the website to locate available condo rentals, and then reserve the condo by calling 800-724-9988.
Condos may become available to AFVC members anywhere from 2 to 365 days in advance of the check-in date. As soon as they become available, they’re listed on the website and can be reserved. After a reservation is made, the unit is taken out of the available reservation pool and the unit is yours. The reservation is guaranteed.
Reservations are made on a first-come, first-served basis, so a high-demand location may be available in the morning but gone by that afternoon.
Some resorts in Mexico or the Caribbean are all-inclusive resorts. This means the resort provides all meals, beverages, entertainment, and sometimes day-trips, just like on a cruise ship. Anyone who stays at an all-inclusive resort pays a per-person fee for this service (in addition to the $329 per week rental fee). At some resorts, this is optional. At others, it’s a mandatory fee.
Even condo owners at these resorts must pay the fee when they stay in their own property. This fee can be very high, sometimes up to $1,000 for the week. All-inclusive conditions and rates are set by the resort, and the AFVC has no control over them.
These resorts are well marked on the website, and vacation counselors will point out these fees if you make a reservation over the phone.