Dining with a child

[macfamily]

Traveling with teens and 5yo so fine dining is out of question. What is Average cost of lunch/ dinner at average restaurants? Have read many good psots about where to eat, but no costs mentioned. Trying to figure budget. Staying @ Marriot

[serene56]

so many menus online that we were able to see where we can eat that comes highly recommended but was cheap enough.

smokey/iguana joes. Tomato charlies, Bugaloe, bingos, to name a few. Just google.. the above or any place tht catches your eye to see if they have an online menu

[cindyo]

My family of 4 budgets( 2 teens) 200-250.00 per day....

[Graham Flanagan]

Tony Roma's and MooMba's beach bar are not that bad in terms of price (they are also located in close proximity to the Marriott). There are also alot of American style fast food restaurants on the island that you can grab a quick bite to eat at (e.g. Subway, McDonald's etc.). To get a better idea of prices/what the restaurants offer, you may want to visit the websites of the restaurants themselves before you go down.

BTW - I would stay away from the restaurants in the AI properties (e.g. Holiday Inn, Riu etc.) as their food prices are much higher than the restaurants that are located outside of the hotel properties (i.e. they are a tourist trap for those not on the AI plans).

[Andrea J.]

eating OFF marriott property is a fine way not to overpay.

eat some dinners at places where the arubans eat:
nos conucu
old fisherman
tulip
lindas pancakes (not for breakfast only but had great food all day long)
andrea

[coqui]

Can you cook breakfast in the room? We have been doing that and saving a bundle as well as having our own 'happy hour'. We eat lunch or dinner out and about at a nice restaurant and have the other meal in the room. Personally, I am ok making sandwhiches for lunch and having an amazing dinner. We have taken our 2 & 5 yr old everywhere with no problems as most places are more then accomodating. My kids LOVED Senor frogs (sunday is kids day).

[Arubalisa]

Originally Posted by coqui

Can you cook breakfast in the room?

Depends on which resort you are referring to.

Marriott Stellaris are "just" regular hotel rooms.

The Marriott Ocean Club and Surf Club are timeshare properties which offer full kitchen facilities (as long as it is not a "lock off" unit).

[Andrea J.]

we traveled a lot to aruba with our son who always brought a friend (both now aged 22).
they traveled with us til about 4 yrs ago.
we always planned on $150 a day and tried to eat most breakfasts and lunches in our timeshare unit.

now it is just paul and i that travel to aruba alone.
we eat breakfast and lunches in our timeshare.
we usually eat dinner out.
we allow ourselves $80 per night for dinner and there is usually left over $.
we usually spend about $150 on groceries..........breakfast, lunch, snack and beverages at lings grocery store.

some nights we do take out pizza for about $20 including a salad.
some nights we do king ribs which is about $28 and we get 2 nights dinners from that.

now that the boys are not traveling with us, we have cut down a lot on food, excursions/entertainment.

go to my trip report (april 23 - may 3) and you can see the places we ate and how much we spent.
Apr 23 - May 3 2008 Lacabana Brc


andrea

Originally Posted by macfamily

Traveling with teens and 5yo so fine dining is out of question. What is Average cost of lunch/ dinner at average restaurants? Have read many good psots about where to eat, but no costs mentioned. Trying to figure budget. Staying @ Marriot

[kgarv]

We've been to Aruba a couple of times and plan on coming back, only now it's the three of us instead of the two of us. We've always enjoyed the fine dining in Aruba. What restaurants would be considered "off limits" for kids ( a 1 year old)? Has anyone noticed kids at any of the nicer restaurants? The last thing we want to do is annoy anyone, but we would still like to enjoy ourselves.

[Andrea J.]

None of the restaurants "say off limits for kids".
(i am unsure about Chez Mathilde)
we have seen kids @ Madam Janette and Chalet Suisse.

you may be better off asking the question, which restaurants are very kid friendly?
Buccaneer is the first one that is very kid friendly comes to mind.