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Who's been to Aruba?

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Wife and I honeymooned in Aruba, all-inclusive resort, back in 1990. Great place, one happy island if you will. I don't know what in the hell Taos is talking about. Neither of us got sick nor had any infections. The people are extremely friendly also.

If you like hiking, the middle of the island has a "mountain" (a big hill), that you can climb to the top of....IIRC there are steps you can take to the top. Great view from up there. We rented mopeds to take there.

We took a tour to one side of the island (the non-beach side), where the waves are much bigger....that side is more rugged. Neat natural bridge there as well.

Oranjestad is a neat town to spend some time in as well. While the all-inclusive stuff was nice, sometimes you have to break away and try some local restaurants. Oranjestad had some nice places to eat.

Some of the resorts have casinos as well...at least they did in 1990.

Report back how it was.....I am thinking of booking a get away for mrs. buckiprof and myself as we celebrate 20 years this August, and heading back to our honeymoon spot is my 1st choice.
 
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In my travels I never stayed at an all inclusive. This probably exposed us to more "bugs" than if we had stayed in one place the whole time. But for us it was the adventure of the thing and we went to places many won't go to and eat with the locals at local places. Sure, it's a lot more chancy but you get to mix with Euro tourists and locals. See more of a place like Curacao and Bonaire(Aruba).
I never developed a taste for goat stew! :tongue2:
But the beer/frozen margaritas and company were generally great!
If you never do any thing/go any where you're not gonna get sick. (or at least less likely)
Go, have a great time but get out a bit and see and do things that you don't normally do! Have fun!
YMMV!
 
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We're back, and it was great!

I used to like hiking, but I am not in good enough shaped to hike in that heat, so we didn't attempt.

We went on one of the long jeep tours, and had a great time. We were able to take in a large portion of the island, see the natural bridge (which unfortunately partially collapsed in 2005...still an incredible view), snorkled in the the natural pool, and did some pretty strenuous off-roading in the Land Rovers. Seriously, if you have back problems, then the jeep tour may not be the right choice for you...extremely rough driving/riding.

We went for some more snorkeling on Friday. The boat anchored at three different spots. The shipwreck was the only really cool snorkeling, but I had never gone snorkeling before, and I think that some of my enjoyment may have been taken by my lack of familiarity with the equipment, and the fact that it actually rained most of that morning. Again...Aruba is a desert island, the amount that it rained Friday morning, and amount of time that it rained was very odd.

We stayed at the Tamarijn on Eagle Beach, and not the high-rise hotels on the more famous Palm Beach. Our room was only 50ish feet away from the water, and we had an awesome view. Many of the restaurants in the area were highly rated and charged a lot more if they were ocean view. Our buffet-style restaurant, and many of the specialty restaurants were on the ocean/carribean sea, and they came as part of the package. So we only ate outside of the resort once, and that was just appetizers and a couple of drinks at Moby Dick's.

I don't think that we ever went into Oranjestad, unless the Palm Beach mall area is considered to still be in the city.
 
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