ARUBA
The Captain, aka my dad, decided that he wanted to take a trip once a year with me and my brother. My dad and brother are fun, side splitting, can’t catch your breath fun. So I was all too happy to oblige the suggestion of spending more time together. For our inaugural trip, we headed for warmer waters and a new coast.
Aruba is a postcard come to life, with amazing food and people to complement its white sand and turquoise water. I am sure by now if you didn’t know where it was before, you’ve googled Aruba and found it is in the Caribbean Sea. If you are like me, you have even gone one step further and learned the difference between a sea and an ocean. If you didn’t make it down that worm hole, let me just say that according to google, a sea is just a small body of saline water. Did your heart just feel a little bad for seas? Yet another reason to head to the Caribbean and check out Aruba.
The flights to Aruba, for all of us were fairly easy and inexpensive - way less than any of us were expecting. I fully support going slightly off season to most destinations like this, which we did, and let me tell you, it was awesome.
I want to say that we learned that something like 90% of the economy of Aruba is based on tourism, which is why the beach is primarily made up of either private land or hotels. We decided not to rent an airbnb or a chain hotel (not that there is anything wrong with them), instead we stayed just off the beach at the Boardwalk Hotel Aruba. Because we are all adults, we needed a place that kept us together but still offered us each a door. It also had an impressive kitchen, and while we didn’t end up using it once (just couldn’t say no to the amazing restaurants in the area), it was really nice to have the option.
A few suggestions, should you ever make your way to that plot of land in the Caribbean Sea:
Go deep sea fishing with J-String. My brother normally gets sea sick but didn’t have even a moment to think about that because we were just reeling in Marlin right and left. The guys who run the operation are super nice and are fun to hang out with for a few hours.
Get up early, way too early for vacation hours, make your way to the lighthouse and check out the sunrise. Every minute you could have been sleeping is rewarded with a shade of pink, purple, gold and blue.
Go to the Aloe Museum, it’s really impressive and smells amazing.
Attempt to go to the Tres Trapi Swimming Cove. The water was too high when we went but it was wroth the view.
Golf the Divi Village Golf Course and enjoy the larger than normal iguanas (or what looks like iguanas) roaming the course.
Eat at: Nos Clubhuis , Pinchos Grill and Bar, El Gaucho, and Eduardo’s Beach Shack
Get up early or pay a service to get up early for you and grab a solid spot on the beach, it’s worth it because honestly, that’s where you’ll spend most of your time.
Walk the beach from one end to the other and get delicious drinks all along the way
Don’t expect to see flamingos walking the beach as google might have you think - they are only found on a private section of land and you have to pay to see them. Also they aren’t native to Aruba, they were brought in by the hotel as a tourist attraction.
