hello! i want to start researching resorts in aruba. we are honeymooning in july, so from what i've read, aruba may be a good choice as it is out of the hurricane belt. can anyone recommend all inclusive resorts? we want to stay for 7 days, be right on the beach so we can snorkel right off the shore, need american-type food bc i am very picky, we want to keep the total cost under $3000. i look forward to your suggestions. ~lacey
ShortBride
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Re: aruba
We got back a little while ago from our HM in ARuba, it was great. They don't have a lot of all-inclusives, b/c the restaurants there are so good. The Divi is all-inclusive and it seemed to get mostly good reviews from www.tripadvisor.com I don't think Aruba really has snorkeling from the shore at hotels except at Baby Beach, but there are inexpensive excursions or you can drive around to other rocky shore areas...
Katie33
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Re: aruba
The Wyndham also has an all-inclusive plan. It is in the high-rise section. The Divi is in the low-rise. It all depends on what vacation style you have. The low-rise is more laid-back and less crowded... The high rise is busier and has more to do. We stayed at the Wyndham in July (did not do all inclusive) and its a great hotel. Even though there are great places to eat in aruba, we would probably do AI next time. Drinks and lunch at the pool would cover the price. Plus, you have to eat at pago pago at least once. It has a surcharge, but with AI, youll pay $20 as opposed to $200.
itslaurie.
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Re: aruba
we just booked our June 06 Aruba trip this week.
We are attending a DW at the Wyndham Aruba - we are staying there as well. We chose to do the AI plan, because as the previous poster said... lunch and drinks alone are covered with the extra expense of it. We are staying from Sat to Wed and the total with airfare from JFK and transfers in Aruba, came out to 2,784.50.
We booked through Travelocity, which had the best prices we found. Another good site was Apple Vacations.
hope that helps.
JPC1125
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Re: aruba
reconsider all inclusive....aruba has some great restaurants and you wont want to lock yourself into a plan that you cant explore all that Aruba has to offer
also, look into low rise hotels....those high rise ones look like such a pain to haul stuff down to the beach or pool
That being said - Aruba is gorgous...you will love the weather and the friendly people
lacey&mark
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Re: aruba
thanks girls for all your suggestions! i figured all inclusive would be cheaper than paying for 3 meals a day, no? we are trying to stay under $3000, and we don't want to have to worry about $ when we are there. a liw TA vendor will be getting back to me this week with some quotes. hopefully i will have something booked in the next few weeks! thank ~lacey
JPC1125
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Re: aruba
we usually had breakfast at our hotel for about $15....lunch by the pool was about $15 too
Dinners varied between $20- $60 depending on how fancy.
so we averaged about $70 a day for food but we also took advantage of supermarkets and bought snacks and drinks for the pool and our room there to save $
jonspenguin11552
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Re: aruba
Aruba is great I was there a few years ago but for 3K you can do soooo much more for that money in teh great country of MEHICO! I love Mexico though so I guess i biased (sp) LOL..
I have done Cancun Rivera Maya Cabo and Acupulco..
Good Luck!
JPC1125
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I've heard Cancun and Riviera Maya are still reconstructing after the Hurricane.
Most hotels should be up and running by March but Im sure the beauty of the area will take a while to return
MrsD06
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We're going to Aruba for our honeymoon and looked into AI but decided against it b/c many places that had it got inconsistent reviews at tripadvisor.com ..not necessarily the hotels but often the food did. We were also looking at the low-rise hotels, which supposedly have a less crowded beach and we wanted no kids! I also wanted to try all the great restaurants. In the future we would probably do AI in Aruba but for our honeymon, we wanted to splurge a little...we've never been on a real vacation together! Another AI hotel I haven't seen mentioned here is the Manchebo. The food there is supposedly very good. It's next to where we're staying and is supposed to have great dinner deals so we're planning on eating there a few nights. We would have stayed there but we wanted a fancier hotel. btw, we ended up choosing the bucuti.
girlygrl33
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Re: aruba
Posted by JPC1125
reconsider all inclusive....aruba has some great restaurants and you wont want to lock yourself into a plan that you cant explore all that Aruba has to offer
also, look into low rise hotels....those high rise ones look like such a pain to haul stuff down to the beach or pool
That being said - Aruba is gorgous...you will love the weather and the friendly people
you have it backwards, its the low rise hotels that you have to CROSS the STREET to get to the beach, the HIGH RISE YOU ARE ON THE BEACH.
as for the AI, we got it and all though we ate out 8 nights of the 10 we were there, I would still highly rec it! the breakfast is very expensive in ALL hotels, the drinks too and like at the Wyndham where we stayed they have 4 restaurants to choose from and the best one was the beach dining! and like someone else mentioned Pago Pago- YUM! but yes you will be eating out a lot too but its def worth to have the AI.
pigs222seal
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We are also going in June for our HM and we are staying at the Wyndam...what dates are you going?
girlygrl33
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For all the Wyndham Brides upgrade and get a corner suite!!!!!! the rooms are HUGE and you get 2 HUGE balconies facing each corner of the ocean! It cost me for 10 nights around 1k but after seeing the room they had us in we ran to the suite! they had me on the left side if you are facing the building, the right and left side depending on where the balcony is you have to turn your head real hard to see the ocean, for my HM def didnt want that and see if the construction for the parking garage is done. If you are on the right side that is your view! yes they are all balcony rooms but not such great views. you want to be at the very end of each floor towards the ocean if you dont upgrade to a suite.
edited to say we stayed in suite room 900. when I go back I am requesting that room again or any of the corner suites!
JPC1125
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Re: aruba
Posted by girlygrl33
Posted by JPC1125
reconsider all inclusive....aruba has some great restaurants and you wont want to lock yourself into a plan that you cant explore all that Aruba has to offer
also, look into low rise hotels....those high rise ones look like such a pain to haul stuff down to the beach or pool
That being said - Aruba is gorgous...you will love the weather and the friendly people
you have it backwards, its the low rise hotels that you have to CROSS the STREET to get to the beach, the HIGH RISE YOU ARE ON THE BEACH.
What I meant was that if you get put on the say 10th floor of a highrise, its more of a pain to haul your beach stuff down 10 flights in an elevator than it would be to walk across the street from the ground floor. Our room opened right by the pool and we walked across the street 2 min to the beach.
girlygrl33
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Re: aruba
Posted by JPC1125
Posted by girlygrl33
Posted by JPC1125
reconsider all inclusive....aruba has some great restaurants and you wont want to lock yourself into a plan that you cant explore all that Aruba has to offer
also, look into low rise hotels....those high rise ones look like such a pain to haul stuff down to the beach or pool
That being said - Aruba is gorgous...you will love the weather and the friendly people
you have it backwards, its the low rise hotels that you have to CROSS the STREET to get to the beach, the HIGH RISE YOU ARE ON THE BEACH.
What I meant was that if you get put on the say 10th floor of a highrise, its more of a pain to haul your beach stuff down 10 flights in an elevator than it would be to walk across the street from the ground floor. Our room opened right by the pool and we walked across the street 2 min to the beach.
I was on the 9th floor on my hotel and had no problem, I walked into the elevator, got off , walked out the door, passed the pool, bar and then hit the beach. In a matter of 3-4 minutes? I think its a pain to lug your stuff to cross a street and walk to the beach than being right on the beach. at least when you are on the beach if you wanna leave your stuff on the beach and go to the pool you can or run up to your room you can. You cant do that on the low rise, its a nice little walk and to cross the street is a pain. everyday we passed the low rise to go to baby beach DH and I were saying what a PIA that you have to cross a street that gets busy too, and lug your stuff and walk another 300 feet to hit the beach. at least on the high rise you are on the beach, IMO no comparison at all. all of your anemities are right there, no walking or lugging things around , you can leave your towel, stuff on chair by pool or beach and enjoy both and not worry about strangers touching or taking your stuff. the beach across the street the locals use too by the low rise. Not on the high rise though and there is a ton of security on the high rise as well on the beach. we felt very safe!
JPC1125
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Re: aruba
what street were you crossing that was busy? LOL JE Irasquin Blvd was always empty
Cant we just let bygones be bygones and you can like you high rise and ill stick with my low rise. which was in fact very safe
girlygrl33
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Re: aruba
Posted by JPC1125
what street were you crossing that was busy? LOL JE Irasquin Blvd was always empty
Cant we just let bygones be bygones and you can like you high rise and ill stick with my low rise. which was in fact very safe
Im not getting this post? was there a problem with my post regarding what I experienced from my honeymoon trip? and yes JE Irasquin was pretty busy, I would know since I drove it for 11 days back and forth everyday. Plus if you feel safe with having locals hanging out on the beach, bbqing, which we saw when we stopped so that I can take pics of the bimini trees , frankly I didnt feel safe there at all and to leave my stuff on the beach unattended, hence if you went into the water, no thanks since I know for myself in my bag would be along with lotion cash- if I wanted to purchase drinks at the bar on that beach and not so cheapie sunglasses. Overall I felt safe on the island itself but I prefer non public beaches at resorts. and I am not implying that the low rise wasnt as nice as the high rise either, how you are making it sound- I simply was stating that I disagreed with the lugging of stuff from a resort/hotel that is on the beach as oppose to having to walk off the property and cross the street to walk to the beach.
JPC1125
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Re: aruba
There was no problem with your post, its just obvious you and I had 2 very different experiences on the island. I was simply trying to give mine
girlygrl33
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Re: aruba
Posted by JPC1125
There was no problem with your post, its just obvious you and I had 2 very different experiences on the island. I was simply trying to give mine
Posted by JPC1125
what street were you crossing that was busy? LOL JE Irasquin Blvd was always empty
Cant we just let bygones be bygones and you can like you high rise and ill stick with my low rise. which was in fact very safe
this is simply trying to give your experience? You are not making any sense- your post was about how you felt staying on the high rise was a PIA lugging too much stuff to get on the beach- did you stay at a high rise to 'experience' that? my post was to tell you that in fact its easier to walk right out of your hotel/resort onto the beach than to leave the property- cross a street- to get to the beach if you are on the low rise- since I 'experienced' that.
I feel that for girls trying to plan their trip- should be given the correct information! Its obvious if your hotel is on the beach , its on the beach and even if you have to get on an elevator who cares you are ON the beach. that is the point I am trying to make here, that its NOT a PIA to lugg stuff on an elevator.
Ladies to clarify this ridicoulous ponder - the low rises are nice. Its quieter as there are no shops over there and the beach is across the street. On the high rise you are ON the beach and across the street are shops and great restaurants and you can walk to them all. If you are on the low rise its a very far walk. there are 2 good restaurants by the low rise furthest away going towards the airport on the same side Le Dome- highly rec it and the Chalet- didnt go there but heard its great too. there is also a dunkin donuts all the way up too but again its a far walk, you def need a car or taxi. I know that island inside and out if anyone has any questions dont hesitate to FM me!
MrsD06
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Re: aruba
ok, I don't want to cause any problems but I am really confused. Are you saying all the low rise hotels are across the street from the beach? There are plenty of low-rise hotels that are directly on the beach.
