Discussion
Afternoon,
Me and the other half have been looking at holidays for September 2011 and have found a few nice looking places in Aruba. It's not really somewhere I've read much about before, has anyone been and had previous experience?
Advantages seem to be that it lies outside the hurricane belt, and is therefore an all-year-round destination.
Cheers
Me and the other half have been looking at holidays for September 2011 and have found a few nice looking places in Aruba. It's not really somewhere I've read much about before, has anyone been and had previous experience?
Advantages seem to be that it lies outside the hurricane belt, and is therefore an all-year-round destination.
Cheers
Wife and I had 15 days in Aruba in 2001, great tme (made rather interesting maybe by 9/11 happenoing shortly after we arrived). We have regularly thought of going again, especially as there are now some direcrt flights from the UK.
Accomodation is in two areas: the high rise, typically US franchised busy hotels in the north (avoid?), and the low rise typical european style hotels towards ths south and nearer the capital. We stayed at Bucuti Beach Resort, perfect for us.
Some great restaurants eg Madame Janette's.
An island of two sides: the north east is rugged and very few people there, so rugged that if you hire a car you may be prohibited from taking it there. It is spectacular though. The south west is where everything else happens, great beaches etc.
Aruba is, as you say, south of the hurricane zone so good to go September - November. It is always windy there though!
Also, Aruba is almost crime free so you feel very safe.
R.
Accomodation is in two areas: the high rise, typically US franchised busy hotels in the north (avoid?), and the low rise typical european style hotels towards ths south and nearer the capital. We stayed at Bucuti Beach Resort, perfect for us.
Some great restaurants eg Madame Janette's.
An island of two sides: the north east is rugged and very few people there, so rugged that if you hire a car you may be prohibited from taking it there. It is spectacular though. The south west is where everything else happens, great beaches etc.
Aruba is, as you say, south of the hurricane zone so good to go September - November. It is always windy there though!
Also, Aruba is almost crime free so you feel very safe.
R.
We went in September 2001. Although the hotel was reasonably busy, it never seemed busy, partly because their beach is huge: have a look on Google satellite and you'll see they are located on a point of the island which gives them a very large triangular beach. We had loads of beach space to enjoy all the time, especially the afternoon's habitual vanilla milkshake with a very large shot of dark rum, a personal favorite of mine! September is also a reasonably quiet time at Aruba, in fact this seems to be true for most of the Carribean from our experience.
I do know that since we went Bucuti Beach has built an up market apartment block near their restaurant and closer to the beach. I don't know if this will affect the ambience in any way.
We fixed the entire trip ourselves. In 2001 it was not possible to fly UK to Aruba direct so we had to go early from Heathrow to Schipol and then pick up KLM's flight to Lima, Peru, which stops to refuel at Aruba. Interesting that maybe 20 people got off the 747!
R.
I do know that since we went Bucuti Beach has built an up market apartment block near their restaurant and closer to the beach. I don't know if this will affect the ambience in any way.
We fixed the entire trip ourselves. In 2001 it was not possible to fly UK to Aruba direct so we had to go early from Heathrow to Schipol and then pick up KLM's flight to Lima, Peru, which stops to refuel at Aruba. Interesting that maybe 20 people got off the 747!
R.
I quite like Aruba, it's Caribbean with an unusual dutch influence, especially in the capital.
The big town Oranjestad is mainly a cruise ship port (like many towns in the caribbean) with some duty free shops and some weird odd cloggy-carribean architecture.
Go if you want a mainly beach holiday with nice weather and some places to explore. I suppose it looks a bit like Barbados geographically in that it has an exposed east cost with not much there, it's much less developed than Barbados though.
As said the big tourist area is to the north and some other accommodation down the west coast. Ive only ever stayed in Oranjestad so can't comment about the other hotel area other than having seen where it is on the way in.
The only slight drawback is the long flight. You usually fly over the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico on the way in and still have a bit to go.
The big town Oranjestad is mainly a cruise ship port (like many towns in the caribbean) with some duty free shops and some weird odd cloggy-carribean architecture.
Go if you want a mainly beach holiday with nice weather and some places to explore. I suppose it looks a bit like Barbados geographically in that it has an exposed east cost with not much there, it's much less developed than Barbados though.
As said the big tourist area is to the north and some other accommodation down the west coast. Ive only ever stayed in Oranjestad so can't comment about the other hotel area other than having seen where it is on the way in.
The only slight drawback is the long flight. You usually fly over the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico on the way in and still have a bit to go.
Edited by el stovey on Tuesday 25th October 21:19
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