Whether it is a good idea to rent a villa is very individual.
If you are only there for a short time, I would choose a hotel, for longer than a week I would always choose a villa.
I love to drive to Ling & Sons and buy a bunch of T-Bone Steaks and Lobster tails, and put the BBQ by the pool side and have a dip in the pool and a big home made Pina Colada, while the coal gets ready and then grill the food in full privacy, while the sun sets.
Do
that in a hotel
.
But you normally don't get the beach at your porch, unless you pay an arm and a leg when renting, but you do that at most hotels.
So it is all a matter of preference.
If you do choose to rent a house, make sure it has a pool. When we are at Aruba and at the house, we are in the pool. For us a house without a pool in Aruba would be very strange.
Also be careful where you rent, depending on how small kids you have (not for security but for dogs and traffic). The areas in Aruba is very very different. If you don't know Aruba, then a good tip is to see at the house for sale websites how much a house is in the areas you are considering, and then rent where the houses are most expensive
. That is a good rule of thumb.
Even though there are exceptions another rule of thumb is, the further north the more expensive and often more quieter it is.
To repeat myself and to step a bit of people toes
, this is a very hard question to answer as both hotel vs. villa and area choice is very individual.....but this was my 2 ....sorry 8 cents
Carsten