Aruba

Dec 19 (Wed) Saint Charles, IL - Aruba

Got up at 4:00 am to take a service (American Coach) at 4:30 to Ohare. Early flight (American airlines) 7:34 to Charlotte, NC ( hrs) then to Orenjestad, Aruba (4hrs). Airport was a breeze going through customs. Used a kiosk that just scanned our passports.

Rented a nice Suburu SUV that fit us all comfortably. Then some trouble!

I had pretty poor directions to the townhouse. I was only about 5 miles from the airport (Aruba is small!). But, I was counting on google maps but Verizon international data service let us down and we had no internet access in the car. There are no street signs and only guidance through the many roundabouts. So, we fumbled around a lot on how to find the town house. We called them and English was really bad and their directions even worse but luckily they said they were across from the hospital. Eventually we found signs to the hospital and finally made it to the town house.

We are staying the entire week at the Jardines Del Mar Town homes. Rating 4.5. This was a huge two story, two bedroom, three baths, Kitchen, and huge living area. Each bedroom has seperate a/c control. Ours has a balcony and we have an outside eating area off the living room. Excellent all around except it is a 5 min walk to the nearest beach.

Jardines Del Mar Town Home

Dinner at We R Cuba

We went to dinner at a nearby outdoor plaza and ate at We R Cuba. Very relaxing after a stressful journey finding our town home. We all had Cuban dishes that we very good. Staff very friendly. Rating: 4.

Dec 20 (Thu) Eagle Beach, Aruba

Weather is perfect. mid 80s, nice ocean breeze and some clouds.

Headed to the grocery store for supplies. Breakfast at the Town home out on the deck. Nice, relaxing.

Manchebo Beach

Went to the beach which is two blocks away. It was great. We drove because we had all our chairs (provided with the town home) etc. It was great. Not crowded at all just pulled in and parked under a tree for shade. The beach is pure white sand. Rented an umbrella and spent the whole rest of the day at the beach. Relaxing and some swimming and some walking. ahhhhh. Just what we needed after a long travel day.

Dinner - at the town home

Mom and the kids went back to the grocery store for a few more supplies. Charcoal, buns, and drink stuff for tomorrow's beach day!

Just grilled out hamburgers hot dogs, corn on the cob at the town house and watched movies in the evening (Restarted watching the Series LOST).

Dec 21 (Fri) Eagle Beach, Aruba

Weather is perfect. mid 80s, nice ocean breeze and some clouds. Did have some rain overnight.

Breakfast at the Town House. Eggs, toast...etc.

Arisha Beach

We headed to a highly rated beach at the very northern end of the Island. Another day of laying on the beach, swimming (the water temp is great) and relaxing. This beach did advertise snorkeling so we brought our masks and snorkels. There is really no coral reef to mention but, there were tons of schools of small fish. So it was still fun to follow the schools around.

Dinner - Gianni's Italian Restaurant

Went into Eagle Beach where there are tons of restaurants and ate a Gianni's. An Italian restaurant. Service was supper fast and the food was good.

After dinner we went back to the town house for more episodes of Lost.

Dec 22 (Sat) Eagle Beach, Aruba

Everyone was up very late the night before so we ate a late breakfast

Weather, again, is perfect. mid 80s, nice ocean breeze and some clouds. Did have some rain overnight.

California Light House and Beach

We headed back to the northern tip of the Island to the California Light House and Beach. The light house was nice but, was closed to go inside when we were there. We hiked down to the water for some excellent ocean views. This northern end of the Island is very rugged with little beach, lots of wind and lots of waves. Spent some time hiking along the rocky beach front.

Sunset on Manchebo Beach

Sunset was around 6:30 (surprised it wasn't later since we are only about 1000 miles off the equator) and we headed over the the beach to get some pictures. The sun sets fast this far south so we barely made it in time for some nice pictures.

Eagle Beach - Hard Rock Cafe

Went back to dinner in the Eagle Beach area and had a nice dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Dec 23 (Sun) Eagle Beach, Aruba

Breakfast at the Town House. Eggs, toast, coffee, fruit.

Weather, again, is perfect. mid 80s, nice ocean breeze and some clouds. Did have some rain overnight.

UTV Tour

Boooked a 4 hour UTV tour (2 people per UTV) through Around Aruba Tours . We recommend this tour company. They picked us up at our hotel, headed to their office which had a small pet zoo on it. Kind of fun. Aruba, as always was laid back. Didn't bother checking licenses even and kind of surprising, no helmets.

The tour was 4 hours and we doubled up (Jake and Kathryn, Brittany and me). Then switched up half way through the ride. Kind of different from past vacations with two 20+ year olds. We let them drive the whole time.

We were all very pleasantly surprised at the ruggedness off roading we experienced. The trip took us to remote locations on the east side of the Island. We basically traversed from the nouthern tip down the rugged East Coast. No beaches, no people, lots of waves and spectacular views.

Started at their office with the Philip's Animal Garden (the island's largest exotic animal sanctuary), Alto Vista Chapel, Baby Bridge, Bushiribana Ruins, Natural Bridge, Arikok National Park, Shark bay, Andicuri Beach, Three Bridges, Black Stone Beach, Conchi Natural Pool, Ayo Rock Formation.

The first section of the ride was off roading but not to crazy. We stopped along the way at the above destinations. When we got to our Southern most destination, Arikok National Park, the off roading became extremely fun and challenging. Jake and Brit handled it like seasoned pros. The UTVs took a pounding. I think we had about 10 UTVs in the group and 2 guides (Titi and Abi (I think) who were great.

All the stops (about 10 minutes each) were very picturesque and had some history. The highlight was the Natural Pool in Arikok Park. You can see the pictures / videos below. Jake said it was the coolest place he has ever been! Nice!!

After the Natural pool we had another good 20 minutes of serious off roading which was a blast. Once out of the Park, the rest of the trip back was mostly on surface roads. It was still very cool as the sun was setting and we got some nice views on the way back.

I highly recommend this excursion, the company and the destinations on the remote East side of the Island with few other people. Rating: 5.

Videos

Dinner at the Town House

After showering off the Grit from the UTV trip, we just had Dinner at the Town House. We had pizza, pasta and Chicken. Just relaxed and watched Dinner with the Shmucks to end the evening.

Dec 24 (Mon) Eagle Beach, Aruba

Weather, again, is perfect. mid 80s, nice ocean breeze and some clouds.

Keeping up with our trend of staying up late and sleeping late, we slept until late morning.

Planned out our last couple of days and did a small final shopping.

Lunch at the Taco Restaurant

Ate lunch at a quaint Taco Place right next to our town house. We all had tacos on fresh tortillas. The best for me was the Cuban taco.

Arisha Beach

We decided to head back to Arisha beach for some more beach time. Nice and relaxing day.

Christmas Eve Dinner at the Screaming Eagle

Had Dinner at a highly rated restaurant called Screaming Eagle. It was excellent! Like the rest of the meals, we enjoyed being outside. The atmosphere was nice and relaxing. Jake said it was the nicest restaurant he has ever been too. Everyone had a great meal. Highly rated.

Dec 25 (Tue) Eagle Beach, Aruba

Breakfast at the Town House. Today's weather was overcast and rainy.

Manchebo Beach

We headed back to Manchebo beach for our final beach day. The weather was not great. (December is actually the rainiest month in Aruba). Mostly overcast and some short periods of rain. I did not mind too much as we had an umbrella, and if it rained, just go in the water!. Another relaxing beach day.

Christmas Dinner Buffet at the Marriott Resort

For our final dinner (and our Christmas dinner) went to the Marriott Resort in Eagle Beach. We again ate outside and they had an amazing buffet. Tons of great food. Another very good meal for our last dinner in Aruba. Although... this one was quite pricey!

Dec 26 (Wed) Eagle Beach, Aruba

Breakfast on the veranda at the hotel.

We had planned to check out of the town house around 11:30 and have a leisurely lunch before heading back to the airport for a 4:00pm flight. Unfortunately, we got notification that our flight to Miama was delayed a couple of hours and thus we would miss our connecting flight back to Chicago. So, we arranged to check out at 1:00 and head straight to the airport to work out new travel plans. Worked out OK. They re-routed us back through Charlotte, NC and delayed our return a couple of additional hours which was not terrible. Had a nice lunch at the airport restaurant (14 BIS) and then with some time to kill just hung out outside at some tables and enjoyed the Aruba weather for a final time.

Flights back were about 4 hrs to Charlotte and 2 hrs to Chicago. Had a bite to eat in the Charlotte airport. Arrived home about 2:00 am in the morning.

Home Sweet Home.

Summary

Travel day there was tiring and difficulty finding the town home was frustrating (no cell service so no GPS which I was counting on) but we made it.

The town house was the best, Rating: 4.5. Not in the crowds of the main part of Eagle Beach so, quieter. The place was huge with plenty of room to spread out. Full kitchen, and supplied beach stuff (towels, chairs, cooler). One minute drive to the nearest beach.

Beaches were great (Rating: 4.5), all public access, fine white sand and mild temperature water. The beaches we went to had nice sandy bottoms and shallow for a good distance out. Not much for snorkeling but did see some nice schools of small fish.

The weather was near perfect (Rating: 4.0), mid eighties with a very nice breeze. We only had clouds and rain on Dec 25th which hampered out beach day just a little.

The restaurants were excellent. Food and service were great. Pricing I think compares to finer restaurants in Chicago (so not cheap but not crazy expensive).

The main excursion of taking the a guided UTV excursion to the east side of the island was a highlight (Rating:5). The off roading was fun and the final destination of the natural pool was really outstanding.

People were friendly, and mostly spoke English which made things easy.

Getting around is not difficult since it is so small but, NO street signs except for the major highway. Just takes a little map studying to know where you are going.

It was awesome to have all four of us together for a vacation again (Rating:5)

Fun Facts

Capital: Oranjestad
Language: Dutch
Sovereign State: Kingdom of the Netherlands
Date Admitted: Jan 01, 1986

Area: 69 sq mi
Population: 104K

Geography: Flat, Riverless, White Sandy Beaches

Climate:
Avg Temp: 88 year round
Humidty: 77% year round
Rainy Season: Oct-Dec(11 days)

Economy:
Std of Living: One of the highest in the Caribbean
GDP: $2.6B
GDP per Capita: $28,294