Aruba is a beautiful island that has amazing beaches, and is a very popular tourist destination, but is it really as good as everyone makes it out to be?
For Thanksgiving, I went to Aruba and tested the waters myself.
Firstly, Aruba is known for its beautiful beaches. As someone who isn’t obsessed with beaches, it takes a lot for one to leave an impression on me. However, they did.
The first beach I went to was Baby Beach, which was quite the drive from where I was staying, but was totally worth it. The water was clear, warm, and the sand was soft. There was no seaweed, and the water was pretty shallow, so it was perfect to get on an inner tube and relax.
The second beach we visited was Arashi Beach. Similarly to Baby Beach, the water was warm, and a clear blue. However, the ocean at this beach got deep pretty quickly, so it’s perfect for those that enjoy swimming.
Both of these beaches offered shaded areas and chairs. They also both had restaurants on the beach if you plan to stay for the whole day.
When looking at restaurants you want to go to for dinner, making a reservation is recommended, if not necessary. Even during a slower season, they never seem to be low on people eating at their most popular restaurants.
As someone who can be picky a lot of the time, I didn’t have many difficulties finding foods that I enjoyed. Many members of my family also have dietary restrictions and it never seemed to be a problem at any of the places we went to eat.
With most of the lunch places we visited, this continued to be the case being that they served pretty generic foods like sandwiches, burgers, salads, wings, etc.
This leads me to one of the few downsides, which was how expensive everything was. It’s understandable since the island does rely on tourism, and islands have more limited resources for the high demand, but it’s still something that travelers should keep in mind.
Though Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel times of the year, the beaches in Aruba were not bad at all, no matter the time of day. Finding when the busy season is and when there are less people visiting is definitely something to take into consideration when booking your trip.Most of the time, they are busiest from December through April.
My family opted to stay in an AirBnb in Aruba rather than at a resort. If you like to explore on your own and not rely on a resort for entertainment and food, then I definitely recommend this. I think that because we didn’t have much entertainment at the house, we had to go out and find things to do and made for plenty of memorable adventures. One time when we had gone off roading and got a little lost, we found small, secluded beaches, as well as a historical monument that we probably wouldn’t have known about if we hadn’t gone wandering.
Aruba is also host to a large butterfly farm, named The Butterfly Farm Aruba, which has butterflies from around the world, and tour guides to teach you about them.
While there, I would recommend getting a car, more especially one that is good at going off roading. Some of the places we would go would stray from the main roads, and we were lucky enough to have gotten a Jeep.The only downside to getting a car is that there are a lot of roundabouts because there are no traffic lights, and they’re a bit different to the ones I’ve seen in America. However, they really aren’t too difficult to figure out.
Having a car makes it much easier to see the most famous tourist spots since they aren’t all in the same area. Baby beach being one of them for example, as well as their downtown and more secluded beaches and caves that tend to be farther out from the main roads.
I thoroughly enjoyed Aruba, and would most likely go back. The beaches are great, there is always something to do, getting around proves to not be too difficult.
Next time you’re planning a vacation, consider Aruba because it is definitely worthy of the praise it receives.