Great place to visit - just bring SPF 45+
Written: Jul 04 '02 (Updated Jul 04 '02)
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Pros: Always sunny, friendly people, great restaurants, not that long of a plane ride
Cons: Extremely strong sun, helps if you know Spanish
The Bottom Line: Aruba is a great place, just don't forget the sunscreen.
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| hanksmith's Full Review: Aruba |
My wife and I just came back from the island of Aruba. Below I will explain all of what we did and some recommendations on what not to do:
GETTING THERE:
We took a nonstop flight from Newark to Aruba. The flight went just fine, landing was "interesting". Aruba is very windy and when we landed we got somewhat blown to the right, everything worked out.
GETTING AROUND ARUBA:
You can rent cars in Aruba, but I would not suggest it. Read below on how we rented a car for one day. We took taxis everywhere, which there are plenty to take all around Aruba. The rates are as follows: Airport to Hotel $17.00, Hotel to Town $9.00, Hotel to Restaurant $8.00. It seems that all of the cabs are independently run, all of them had A/C, which was a good thing.
WHERE WE STAYED:
We stayed at the Hyatt. My wife and I have stayed at two Hyatt's previous to this one, both of which upgraded us to a better room. We had reserved a Partial Ocean/Garden View Room. I asked the front desk if there was anyway they could upgrade us, she then went to the back of the front desk area for about 15 minutes, leaving us just standing there, I thought this was very odd. She then came back and said that she could upgrade us to a full ocean view room, which both myself and my wife thought was great. Our room number was on the second level, so then I thought how will it be an ocean view room on the second level. The design of the Hyatt would only allow the suite rooms views of the ocean from the second level. So we took the access keys and walked to the room. Sure enough it was a Garden/Pool View Room and the ocean was only visible if you leaned over the balcony to see it. I thought this was pretty lame. If they didn't have any upgrades available that would of been fine, but she got our expectations so high and then dropped them so low. I didn't want to complain, so we kept the room. Overall this is one of the worst Hyatts I have been at, which isn't saying much since I have only been at two others.
RESTAURANTS:
First Restaurant we visited was Ruinas Del Mar. There was an extra wait of 20 minutes to sit outside near the swans and what have you, but we were hungry so we sat inside. The food was excellent, I had the veal chop, my wife had a chicken entree. The salads were also very good. The price was reasonable for the food and service that we received.
Second Restaurant we visited was Madame Janette. This was a great experience. The service was great and the food was different. The salad was the usual iceberg lettuce, but just various types of leaves and corn, which was interesting. I had the rack of lamb, not that much meat, but still very good. The desserts were ok, not great, but still good. The only complaint, and this would be for almost all the restuarants, was the price of wine. We were going to get a bottle of Luna Di Luna Pinot Grigio, normally in the states it would cost $8.00 at the local wine store and maybe $20 at a restuarant. Here is was $30.00, so we had Diet Coke's. Overall Madame Janette was very good for the price. Unfortunately while we were there an elderly women needed an ambulence, just for note it took them 14 minutes to get there. She seemed ok, but both my wife and I felt bad.
Third Restaurant we visited was La Dolce Vita Ristorante Italiano. Both my wife and I got the Chicken Parmigna. The service was excellent, very friendly. But the food was ok, not the greatest, and the salad was very bad. The price of wine again was very high. This was in walking distance to the Hyatt that is why we went there.
Fourth Restaurant we visted was Chalet Suisse. I ordered the veal cordon bleu. Excellent service, actually the best service we ever received on Aruba. The food was good, but not great, still would visit them again. For dessert we shared the fruit chocolate fondue, this was awesome. Overall a great restaurant with extremely good staff.
Fifth Restaurant and last we visited Ventanas Del Mar. The views of the golf course and the lighthouse were great. The food was very good. I ordered the Creole Steak, cooked just right. We shared a bottle of KMV Chardonnay, not the greatest wine. The service was alright, not the greatest.
Out of all the restaurants we enjoyed Madame Janette the most. The prices ranged from $80.00 to $130.00. A 15% service charge is included in every meal, except Madam Janette. The 15% breaks out as the following: 12% for the waitor and 3% for the busboys and other service areas of the restaurant.
WHAT TO DO:
Visit the town of Oranjestad. There are two malls that we visited. Didn't buy that much, but if you want a watch this seems like the place to get it. One funny story was that we went to Subway for lunch. I looked up at the prices it was like $14.00 for the combo, I was like this better be the best Subway sandwich ever, it was in Florins though, so it worked out to be like $7.00 US.
Horseback riding was fun and interesting. We took the sunset trip with Notorious Ranch. These horses don't just walk but they gallop a good part of the trip. Don't forget jeans, as I did, my legs didn't look so great after the trip. Plus but my wife and I got mosquitto bites, so don't forget the OFF. Overall this was a good time, but safety didn't seem to be a high issue, there should always be a trailing cowboy, but it some cases all three of them were up front.
We did the snorkeling cruise on Red Sails. There were about 20 people on the boat and 2 crew members. I thought it was interesting that they said if you get into trouble wave your hands and only snorkel in the front of the boat. Meanwhile they were always in the back of the boat, dancing at some points while people were snorkeling. I guess their idea of safety and mine differ. The visibility was horrible, maybe 10 feet. The crew said it was more windy then usual that particular day.
Rent a 4x4, drive around the island. This was a great time. Both my wife and I had sunburn from the snorkel cruise, so we didn't get out of the vehicle all that often. In fact my wife was very close to sun poisoning, get into that later. We visited the lighthouse, natural bridge, and baby beach. Overall I had a ball driving off road it our little Jimny.
We also did the usual hangout at the pool and beach, which was relaxing.
Here is a huge recommendation, bring at least SPF 45+. I usually never get sunburned, but did only on our third day there, and my wife came real close to sun poisoning. This made the following days very hard, since we didn't want to get burned more. If you have fair skin make sure to bring a high SPF and reapply every 2 hours or if you go in the water. I lost count of how many people I saw badly burnt.
We went gambling at night at the Hyatt's casino. Overall lost like 200 bucks, but still had a great time.
I think that is about it. My wife and I most likely will not go to Aruba next year, but maybe in a few years, and be armed with some high SPF sunscreen. Overall had a great time.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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Epinions.com ID:
hanksmith
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Location: New York
Reviews written: 26
Trusted by: 6 members
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