Where We Stayed: The Marriott Surf Club on Palm Beach. We had a 2 bedroom/2bath unit with full kitchen, dining room & living room!! The Surf Club is just beautiful!! It is clean & very well maintained. We loved it! The Lazy River is a blast!! We took our own inner tubes & used the air pump they had at the towel hut to inflate them. We found lounge chairs easily with umbrellas. The swim-up pool bar was nice!! We had a chocolate monkey & a strawberry beach!! Very refreshing!

Check in was a breeze!! After 10 hours of flying & 3 hours of lay overs, we were exhausted & they greet you with a cool wash cloth with some type of relaxing scent in it. Very nice!!

When you arrive, you exit the taxi & they take your bags for you – give you a ticket & then will bring them to your unit. Very nice after traveling!!

Where We Ate:

La Vista ~ brunch at the Marriot Stellars. Great food but expensive. We ended up here after the Iguana feeding, just checking things out & smelled the food. Should have ate first!! Great eggs benedict!!

Pelican Restaurant~ Dinner following the sunset sail. I had the mahi mahi which was like butter in your mouth. Wayne had the chicken. We ate on the deck. Moon light on Palm Beach!

Flying Fishbone~ What can I say. The best meal of the week. I had made reservation months ahead to get a table in the water. We met a couple from San Diego & she had made her reservations months ahead too. I had the Lobster (Mmmmmm) Wayne had chicken. The service was superb & the atmosphere was all I had hoped for!!

Champions~ Sports bar at the Ocean Club – a quick salad for Wayne & a chicken wrap for me. Wayne also had a mud slide that looked like a chocolate sundae!!

Salt & Peppers~ Lunch after our spa day at Manchebo. We each had tappas to start – shrimp cocktail for me, spinach dip for Wayne. Then we had wraps. I took half of mine home for later.

Hadicurari~ Breakfast on our last day. Inexpensive & filling. It was nice to sit & look at the beach . . . .but sad to think we’d be flying home soon.

What We Did:

Went to an Iguana Feeding ~ This was held at the Ocean Club resort which is next door to the Surf Club!! They literally come down out of the tree’s at 10 am!!

Sunset Sail on a Catamaran with Pelican Adventures ~ Almost a private cruise as there were only 3 other couples besides us on the cruise. We went up the coast to the light house, then back down to the Pelican marina – appetizers & open bar included.

Jolly Pirate Snorkel Cruise ~ THE BEST!! 3 stops to snorkel. One was at the Antilla’s ship wreck which was awesome!! Lunch was included (very tasty) as was an open bar!! The end of the day was the rope swing!! Those guys were great!! They actually took people on their backs & then did flips before they hit the water!!

Rented a car for a day ~ driving was easy!! We went to Ling & Sons & stocked up on supplies. The Surf Club has a market but it is very expensive. Ie) a bottle of water is $ 5.00!! This is a full service market just like at home (for me that is USA) – large, well stocked & they had Starbucks mocha’s in the bottles! Sweet!! Then we did some shopping in downtown Oranjestad.

All Day Private ATV Tour with Kini Kini ~ This was a fabulous trip!! We went to all the sites ~ the lighthouse, the ruins. A natural bridge, the natural pool, the caves. We had a nice lunch in Santa Cruz (included in the trip) The day ended at Baby Beach where we got to cool off & rinse off some of the dirt from the trip (see pictures)

Full Body Refinement Package at Spa de Sol at Manchebo Resort (included Jacuzzi, steam room, clay body wrap, 60 minute full body massage, pedicure followed by a fruit salad. (We were there for over 3 hours!!) This was just yummy!! And a nice treat after being on the ATV’s all day the day before.

Misc. Info.:

We used Bully as our taxi & had this set up before we left. He was waiting for us as we exited the airport with a sign . . .how nice. Then he called us the morning we were to leave & we arranged a time for him to meet us in front.

Leaving Aruba ~ you go through the airport check in ~ I was very surprised to see that a LOT of people did not know about baggage weights. Several people were told to go re-pack & then GET BACK IN LINE as their bags were over 50 pounds. (one couple had a bag that weighed 72 pounds) They got a little heated.

After this line you get into another line & go through immigration. You wait in this line – then you collect your bags, & enter ‘US TERRITORY’ – through security again & US customs. The process is long – but you do not repeat it when you get to the states – so that is nice. We flew to Atlanta & only had an hour to get to our connecting flight, so not having to go through customs was nice.



Any questions ~ just ask!!


Link to over 200 pictures:

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563657889xlJSqa

It sounds like a fabulous trip! You didn't mention the weather? You had a couple of days of clouds?

So bigger question, would you return?

Aruba Bound! ~ Hoosier Kitties ~ Our-Cruises ~ Blogging to Aruba
Back to paradise Trip #18

Wildewoman,

Love to read reviews like that and love the pics. Just curious, what did you pay to have Bully pick you up, was he helpful to you throughout your time there ? Secondly, what was the price of that fabulous spa treatment, have been looking into them. I am glad to hear you so enjoyed your trip, as arubalisa's question, when are you going back ?

Kathy

Going to Aruba in

thank you for your review. My favorite drink on a cruise is the dirty banana== anything at all like your choc monkey? what is the going rate of the frozen variety of drinks? are some places cheaper then others?

do you have a link to reni reni private tours. there are a few places we been and dont care to go again-- the natural pool or the natural bridge but do want to see the lighthouse and those beaches.

--
kath: we have bully picking us up at the airport on a monday and taking us back early on Saturday morning. He will stop at the grocery store to stock up on "stuff" like soda/been and stropwaffles.
he told me it will cost 20 bucks each way... but that was before the price of gas went higher-- so now I will have to ask again.

Price of gas is included in the fare.
Fares are set by the government as well as the gas prices.

This was a very recent topic on another Aruba forum and the prices listed at http://taxiaruba.com/new/farelist.html are still current, as well as their policies http://taxiaruba.com/new/policy.html

Print the fare schedule and bring it with you to Aruba. Know what you are "supposed" to pay for your fare before you step into any taxi, in other words, agree upon the fare in advance. Unfortunately there are taxi drivers who do try to take advantage of people who do not know the fares are regulated by government regulation.

For us this was just another reason that when we were introduced to Bully and we found him to be honest, we continued to use him. No one needs or wants the hassle most of all on vacation.

Aruba Bound! ~ Hoosier Kitties ~ Our-Cruises ~ Blogging to Aruba
Back to paradise Trip #18

How was the ocean,clear,cloudy,seaweed?Glad you had a great vacation.GREAT PICTURES...

Hi Wildewoman,

I was in Aruba the same time as you. I saw Bully waiting for you outside the airport. It was crazy inside due to so many flights landing at once. I was staying at the Radisson but we went down to the Marriott almost every night because my son likes their arcade. I had Bully all set up to pick us up on Saturday and then my husband decided that he was just going to drive our rental to the airport instead. I had to cancel Bully and he was so nice about it. I was looking forward to meeting him but I guess it will have to wait until next year. I'm glad to here you had a good time and that the Surf Club was nice. A friend of mine is going there in a few months and I couldn't really tell her anything about it except that its beautiful. We always stay at the Radisson so All I could tell her is what I have seen. We did have a couple of days with more clouds than usual but it was still nice wasn't it??!! I am now in my Aruba depression and it will take me a couple of weeks to snap out of it. I am trying to talk hubby into going more than once a year but so far, its not working.
Do you plan on going back??

Rose

Yes!! We will go back!! And stay at the Surf Club!! Maybe next year!!

Bully charged $ 20.00 for the trip to the Surf Club from the airport. He had another pick up ~ so he charged us each $ 10.00 (we gave him $ 15.00)

The 4 hour spa treatment was $ 370.00 per couple. It was fabulous. We sat in the hot tub for about 20 minutes, under an awning right on the beach, then into a steam room for about 20 minutes, then to our cabana for the wrap. We were like melted butter by then.

Also, I only gained 2 pounds on the trip & ate way too much!! (lobster, ice cream, breads. . . ) I think the steam room melted away most of it!! That & the ATV ride.

http://www.kinikini.com


here is the link for the ATV tours. We took a private/all day tour, It was $ 217.00 for both of us. They picked us up at the Surf Club & we got to go where we wanted & stay as long as we wanted. By the time we got to Baby Beach we were so tired & dirty & had been riding all day that all we did was sit in the water & cool down. Then we realized we had to ride back!! After a while we told Tony (our guide) that we wanted to go home now. He said "Take the same way back?" - NO!! Not back on all those dirt roads. So we rode on the main street (1B?) all the way back to Ora.

Pretty exciting!!