Travel Guide: ARUBA

First time Chad and I visited Aruba was in December of 2019. It was the last international trip we took before the world shut down. We had such an amazing time, we often reminisced about it during the lockdown and made plans to go back with our kids.  I think Aruba is one of the best places to vacation for couples and families! It’s a culturally diverse Dutch Caribbean island just off the coast of Venezuela. The weather is perfect year round (the island is outside of the hurricane belt) and it’s considered to be one of the safest islands in the Caribbean.  Violent crime against tourists is very rare and the locals are extremely friendly…Aruba really is One Happy Island!

The sunsets on Palm Beach are gorgeous!?

Where we stayed: 

Both times we stayed at two different resorts: the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino and the Renaissance Resort & Casino.  Chad and I are Hilton diamond members, so we tend to stay at Hilton properties wherever we go. The Hilton in Aruba is beautiful, we have enjoyed our stay there both times. The main reason we chose to book the Renaissance for part of our trip is because they own a private island where the FLAMINGOS are – and staying at that resort gives you access to the island any time you want.  Now I’m going to go into more detail about each resort.

Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino

The Hilton in Aruba is located along the beautiful Palm Beach.  The property is very clean, open, and designed in a way that is easy to get around.  This hotel is directly across the street from the main strip where all the restaurants and shops are, making going out and trying different places to eat super easy.  If leaving the resort is not your thing, Hilton has two great restaurants right on their property: award-winning Sunset Grille (our favorite) and Gilligan’s Island. 

Father’s Day dinner at Sunset Grille (June 2021)

My birthday dinner at Sunset Grille (Dec 2019)

Gilligan’s Island (Dec 2019) – you can sit down at the restaurant or you can order food right from the beach!

We had a beach palapa booked for every day of our stay.  I would recommend booking them early, that way you get the one you want.  Beach Palapas range between $35 -$55 per day.  The pool at the Hilton is split into two sections and is lined with plenty of chairs, sofas, and cabanas for rent.  We never had a problem finding a place to put our stuff, so renting a pool cabana wasn’t a necessity.  We spent more time at the beach than pool anyway.  Palm beach has calm, beautiful turquoise water, and the sand is silky smooth! Our kids were happy spending all day, every day on the beach, playing in the water and sand. 

Beach Palapa – Ocean front palapa $55/day (comes with 2 bottled waters and 2 containers of fresh fruit).

You can rent a float for $8 per day

The hotel has some sand toys available, you can pick them up where you get your pool/beach towels.

Iguanas everywhere!

The Hilton is home to beautiful parrots, easily accessed by resort’s guests.  The Bird Garden is open daily, and you are able to take pictures with the parrots starting at 11am. 

My swim cover up is on sale for only $14.95, straw hat is $17.50, and sandals are linked here.

On me: Romper, $128 (available in three colors)

Sandals, $79.95, (similar, $24.95)

Renaissance Resort & Casino

The Renaissance Resort and Casino is located right in downtown Oranjestad (very close to the airport). The Renaissance is divided into two properties: The Renaissance Marina Hotel (adults only) and Ocean Suites (for families).  In 2019, we didn’t have the kids with us, so we stayed at the Renaissance Marina Hotel.  It had a Miami/Las Vegas feel to it.  This year we stayed in the Ocean Suites.  The suites are a little dated but they come with a little kitchen, sitting area, etc.  We had the ground floor, which was convenient for kids to walk to the pool (and we could see them from our little patio). 

Pool area at the adults only hotel; nice ambience, DJ, very vibrant atmosphere.

Infinity pool during the day at the adults only property.

Ocean Suites (this is the view from our ground level suite, the patio had a table with two chairs and two lounge chairs).

There is a little beach area at the Ocean Suites but we didn’t spend any time there, instead we took a boat right over to Renaissance’s private island.  The water taxi transports guests back and forth every 15 minutes.  There are two departure points: one in the Marina Hotel  (next to a Starbucks) and the other on the pier next to the Ocean Suites. In order to access the water taxi, each guest must have their own room key (including children). There is a card reader at both departure points to verify that you are authorized to board the boat.  

Water taxi to the private island.

Their private island is AH-MAZING!!  It’s divided into two beaches: Flamingo beach (adults only) and Iguana beach (for families).   The flamingos are mainly on flamingo beach, kids have access to the adults-only beach (to see the flamingos) everyday between 9 and 10am.  If your kids sleep in and you miss the 9-10am visiting window, don’t worry! – the flamingos walk over to Iguana beach everyday around 3-4pm (I have witnessed people getting off the water taxi around 5pm, literally speed walk to flamingo beach only to find out that all the flamingos were hanging out on Iguana beach!) 

Flamingos walking over to Iguana beach.

If you’re following me on Instagram (and watched my Aruba stories), then you know I’m completely obsessed with flamingos!?? Seeing them so close and feeding them was an amazing experience! In 2019 we stayed mostly on flamingo beach, we loved seeing these beautiful birds walk around in the water, in between chairs, etc.

There are two vending machines where you can purchase “flamingo food” (Tip: bring quarters!)

This is Iguana beach around 5pm

Iguana beach around 5pm the next day. Most people clear out between 3-4pm and you have the beach and flamingos almost all to yourself! The last boat leaves at 6:45pm.

Iguana beach is beautiful. There are a lot of palm trees, free palapas (first come, first serve), plenty of chairs for everyone, and beautiful over-the-water cabanas for rent.  What’s really nice about the private island is that all the paddle boards, floats, snorkel gear, kayaks are included! No extra charge to use them!

We rented one of the over-the-water, private cabanas. It comes with two floats, snorkeling gear, 4 towels, a cooler full of goodies (two Voss still waters, two Voss sparking waters, sparkling wine, fresh fruit, and ice cream- your butler delivers the fruit to your cabana around 10:30am, and ice cream around 3pm) There is a personal shower to rinse off after your swim, and a nice shaded space to relax and enjoy! Our cabana experience was far more than what we expected. If you’re able to, then I would highly recommend that you treat yourself! Tip: If you plan on booking one, make sure you do it before your trip, they sell out quickly.

There are two restaurants on the private island. Papagayo Bar & Grill and Mangrove Beach Bar.  You can place an order with your butler and he will deliver food and drinks right to your cabana!

Tip: I would highly recommend that you bring water shoes! There are a lot of rocks on the bottom.

There is something worth mentioning: you do not have to be a guest at the Renaissance to visit the private island.  The hotel sells day-passes early in the morning between 7 and 7:30 am. I have heard some people go as early as 5:30am to purchase a day pass. The only downside is that there is no guarantee that you will be able to purchase one. If the hotel is full that day, they will not sell any day-passes.  If you REALLY want to see flamingos, then I would recommend staying at the Renaissance at least two nights (that’s their minimum).

The food at this resort is delicious. We ate at Fresco’s twice!

Fresco was super convenient. We could literally see our suite patio from our table!

The Renaissance burger is one of the best burgers I’ve had. Between this trip and the one in 2019, I had it 4 times!??

Where we ate:

The food in Aruba is incredible! I mentioned the restaurants we tried at both resorts, but here is a list of restaurants we tried outside of the resorts:

Lobby Restaurant & Bar – located right across from the Hilton on Palm Beach strip. Upscale setting with stellar service, delicious food and nice ambience!  Tried it in 2019 – loved it, came back in 2021 – loved it again.

Lobby Restaurant & Bar 2019

Lobby Restaurant & Bar 2021

Gianni’s Restaurant Aruba – located on Palm Beach strip right across from the Hilton.  This is an Italian restaurant and it’s AH-mazing! I had the best gnocchi ever, Chad had the Chicken Alfredo and kids had the spaghetti with meatballs.  Service was super fast even though the restaurant was packed! Highly recommend it. Oh and my Strawberry Mojito was???!

Lola Taqueria– located next to Gianni’s restaurant.  This is a Mexican street taco place.  Chad and I loved it, kids – not so much (but they don’t like Mexican food??).  The guac and pico de gallo were excellent! Highly recommend it if you love street tacos.

Casa Tua Pizzeria – they have two locations: one on Palm Beach strip and one next to the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Oranjestad (in the Renaissance Marketplace). We ate at the Renaissance Market place.  Pizza there is delicious, we had it twice! They have a budget friendly lunch special till 3pm.  We all had a personal pizza, salad, and a drink for $10 per person! Can’t beat that price.

The Dutch Pancakehouse –   The Dutch Pancakehouse did not disappoint! Kids ordered the Captain Hook dutch pancakes (and loved them), Chad and I had their schnitzels.  I ordered the original with mushroom sauce and Chad ordered the Cordon Blue schnitzel.  Both were delicious!!

Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar & Restaurant – located right across the Renaissance Resort & Casino (the adult only property).  We ate there in 2019 and loved it.  I remember from our last trip, a lot of people were taking the Scorpion Shot (a shot of Tequila with a dead scorpion inside the glass). When you drank it, you got a t-shirt that said “I survived the Scorpion shot at Lucy’s,” and you got to write your name on their wall!  Delicious tacos, fun atmosphere.

The Bread Basket Aruba – This sandwich shop is located right on the beach (Palm Beach) next to the Hilton.  The food is delicious and reasonably priced.  Both Chad and I ordered thier Chicken Caesar salad wrap (mine was in a spinach wrap), the kids had fish &chips and chicken nuggets. Highly recommend it! (The Pina Colada came from Gilligan’s Island).

Bugaloe Beach Bar and Grill – located at De Palm Pier between the Riu Palace Hotel and Hilton Resort.  The food was ok, nothing special; hence, no photos (we ordered different flavor wings and shrimp).  This restaurant is very busy, we had to wait for a table. I think most people go there for drinks and live music.  Nice location though, right on the water!

Things we did outside of the resorts:  

We usually get a rental car everywhere we go, however I would not recommend you do that in Aruba.  It’s such a small island (20 miles long and 6 miles wide), taxis are conveniently accessible, and all rates are fixed and regulated by their government.  Prices are based on distance with a max of 5 passengers.  Our rental car cost us a little over $900 for the week with all the insurances, fees, gas, etc. We would have spent only a fraction of that on taxis.  We rented a car back in 2019, but because it was just the two of us we were able to get an economy car.  This time around we had the kids and a lot more luggage, so we had to upgrade to a bigger car.  Again, not worth it!

The Butterfly farm – Open daily 8:30am – 3:30pm, the cost is $15 for adults, $8 for kids, entrance fee includes a free return pass for the duration of your vacation! Guided tours run all day and last about 20-30 min.  We learned so much about butterflies, our brains were about to explode!  Tip: If you want the butterflies to land on you, wear bright colors and citrusy perfume.  Tyler was the only lucky one (he wore his bight, neon green shorts).

Downtown Oranjestad – It’s beautiful, clean, safe. There was definitely a huge difference between 2019 and 2021.  In 2019 there were a lot of people walking around downtown even at night, shops were open till 9pm.  This year, it was a ghost town after 6pm.  Even the vendors were closing up shops around 5-5:30pm.  Without the tourists coming off cruise ships, not a lot of foot traffic in downtown Oranjestad, whereas Palm Beach strip was busy, loud and crowded.

Mommy and me matching dresses ($128 and $78)

The next day, we happened to be downtown at the right time to hop on this Trolley ride. It took us to Main Street and back, about 20-30 min round trip, with 6 stops along the way.

Eagle Beach – is the widest beach in Aruba and it’s famous for its soft white sands.  It is also home to two of the most famous (and most photographed) fofoti trees in Aruba. Eagle Beach won the TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice award for the 3rd Best Beach in the World! This beach is less crowded, but the water is rough.

Aruba is the perfect place to get away from it all.  We cannot wait to go back! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below and I will get back to you asap!❤

What I wore in Aruba: