Aruba
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Aruba is a very arid Caribbean island which is part of the ABC (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) chain. Aruba has beautiful sandy beaches and blue water. It is an ideal place for windsurfing during certain times of the year. |
Amsterdam Manor, Aruba
Since this trip consisted of seeing all of the ABC islands, we only stayed on Aruba for three nights. We chose Amsterdam Manor again because of its great beach location. Just as before, we felt the property offered a really good value. |
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This time we had the superior studio. The room consisted of a bed, small kitchenette, and a very large bathroom with a spa/bathtub. |
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The beach area has been greatly improved. There is now a bar right on the beach. (Picture on the left) The service has also improved on the beach. In the afternoon we were served fresh fruit and cold towels. Very nice touch. The beach was also spotless. They had crews of people constantly raking and clearing any stray trash. We still recommend this property. It isn't a full service resort, but a very nice property located across the street from an awesome beach. |
Places to Eat in Aruba
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MooMbas Beach Bar
Our favorite place to eat during this trip was MooMbas Beach Bar and Restaurant. We had late night drinks here during our last trip to Aruba and really enjoyed it so we thought we would try it again. They did not disappoint. The food is good and the location is awesome. |
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Somehow, food just tastes better when your toes are in the sand! |
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We each had the BLT salad and then we split the sampler appetizer plate. The salads tasted soooo good. Nothing better than a good salad on a warm evening. |
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The bar had some entertainment that played a nice variety of music. |
Hanging over the bar was a giant chandelier of beer bottles. |
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Smokey Joe's
We also dined at Smokey Joe's in Palm Beach. The food was pretty good. We had the "shark bites" for our appetizer and then split a combo order of ribs. The order was huge. |
The Paddock
On the way back to the airport we had lunch at The Paddock. The Paddock is located downtown on the water. We dined there during our last trip. It is a great place to stop and eat on the way to the airport. The burgers here are very good. Don't order the crab sandwich. |
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Beaching it in Aruba
This was our third trip to Aruba. Because we have pretty much already toured the island, we decided to spend our time on the beach. Eagle beach is our favorite beach because it is quiet and beautiful. There is no better place that we have found to relax and read a nice book. |
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During the trip we experienced some rather large waves. This is pretty rare in Aruba. Normally the water is very calm. But even though the waves were a little rough, we still had a great time swimming in the 85 degree water. |
The landmark divi divi tree has been vandalized. Someone chopped off the major tree limb. It was pretty sad to see it propped up. |
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Throughout the island you are likely to spot wild iguanas. If you want to be assured of seeing an iguana, you can head over to the Hyatt on Palm Beach. They have pet iguanas roaming the grounds. |
Aruba Travel Tips
Car Rental
Renting a car on Aruba is a must. The taxis are very expensive. We have had excellent luck with Alamo. The service with Alamo has always been top notch and they have always had the most competitive Internet rates.
Grocery Stores
The new Ling and Sons grocery store is wonderful. The store has a wonderful selection and the prices are competitive. |
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Airport
When leaving Aruba, make sure and leave ample time to go through immigration. Each afternoon from 2 - 5 there are 3 - 7 large planes leaving the airport. About 1 PM there is a "rush" of people trying to drop off rental cars, checking into the airlines, and moving through immigration. All U.S. bound passengers go through immigration while in Aruba so allow ample time before your flight. (Between 2 - 3 hours)
Columbian Emeralds
We purchase all of our watches at Columbian Emeralds. The Citizen watches are 45% off retail and there is no sales tax, so it translates to about 50% off the normal retail price. During this trip we bought some Citizen Eco-Drive dive watches for around $120 each. They have stores at the Marriott at Palm Beach and downtown at the Renaissance mall. |
Carroll's Aruba Blog
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
We arrived from Curacao via Bonaire Express at 11:25 am. We moved right through immigration and picked up our luggage. Customs scrutinized everyone much more on this flight. They had an adorable drug sniffing dog. She looked like she loved her job.
We picked up our rental car from Alamo. The agent actually recognized us from 2 years before.
It took a while to drive through downtown Oranjestad. We got to Amsterdam Manor at about 12:00. The room was not ready yet (check in is not until 4:00), so we went to the beach bar for lunch. We split a burger and had some Brights. The service was slow, but we were hungry so it really didn’t matter.
After we ate we drove down to the Aruba Marriott to check out the hotel. We stopped at Columbian Emeralds International and each bought a new waterproof Ecodrive watch for $260 US. Columbian Emeralds is our favorite place to shop for watches. We also found replacements for my missing Reefs at Red Sail Sports. Now I have another pair of green flip flops. We were glad we decided not to stay at the Aruba Marriott. It seemed way too crowded.
We finally got our room at 4:00. We quickly unpacked our food and clothing. We had stopped at the market and had already bought provisions for our next 3 days. We then went down and relaxed at the pool for a bit.
Happy hour was fun because we had some drinks we had never tried before…Bahama Mama, Aruba Arriba, a Dirty Banana, and a Mudslide. Yum!
We decided to go to MooMba’s Beach Club for dinner. We got a table in the sand and enjoyed a bottle of wine and great service. We each had a BLT Caesar Salad and the Tapas Sampler. It was very good. We liked everything so much that we made reservations for Friday night.
When we returned to Amsterdam Manor we saw that they had a small ensemble playing Latin music. We played cribbage on the patio and enjoyed the music.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
We decided to beach it today, so we packed up the cooler with provisions and headed across the street to Eagle Beach. There are quite a few palapas to put your chair under. The beach bar brought around cold towels and fruit skewers…a nice touch.
Dave read The Beach House by James Patterson. I was struggling through The Caribbean by Michener…too long and heavy for beach reading. We stayed at the beach until around 3:00 pm.
We cleaned up and headed over to the high rise area for an early dinner. We walked around the Hyatt property to see if it was as we remembered. It is still nice. We ate dinner at Smoky Joes. We split an order of Shark Bites and an order of 4 ways ribs. It was plenty of food for 2.
We stopped at Ling & Sons grocery on the way home to get a new book for Dave. It is a new store and absolutely beautiful.
Friday, October 14, 2005
Our last day…time for some serious BEACH time!!!
The beach crew was out, the same as yesterday, raking up the seaweed to keep the beach clean. The waves are much rougher than usual and is causing stuff to wash up on the beach. It doesn’t seem as bad as yesterday.
We ate cheese, Mortadella, and crackers for lunch. We relaxed and read the afternoon away. We finished our day of beaching at the beach bar drinking 2X1 Amstel Brights.
We ate dinner at MooMbas. We each had the BLT Caesar and shared calamari rings and coconut shrimp. Afterward we wandered over to the bar and listened to the band. What a great way to end the day.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Packing day…time to go home. We packed and were ready to check out by 9:30 am. We headed into town to do some last minute shopping. When we were making our first purchase Dave realized he was missing his American Express card. We figured he must have left it at MooMbas last night. We drove back and sure enough he did. They had kept it for him and they were glad he had returned for it.
Returning the car was uneventful. We were able to go through the fast line for check in at United because Dave belongs to the “club”. We breezed through security, immigration, and customs. We waited for about an hour and half for our flight. We thought the stops at the airport were going to take much longer than they did. All that was left was the long flight home.
Until next time!!!!!
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