My first Aruba trip Jun 5-11

[xiaotianshi]

Aruba is one happy beautiful island! My husband and I were there on June 5th-11th, I was worried about the weather and the wind at first. After one week there, only Sunday night and Monday had few drops of rain for not more than 5 minutes, the rest of the week was Sunny! It was unbelievable sunny that it was very easily to get burned, even with sunscreen spf of 90+! We keep reapplying and were fine

Sunday:
After arriving at 2:30 pm, we got to the Westin at 3ish. Our room was at the 16th floor and the view from our balcony was stunning! It was a long flight for us so we decided to eat in the hotel at Pago Pago. The lobster bisque and steak were very good!

Monday:
We did a jeep tour with ABC and their service is excellent! Sorry to not remember the tour guide's name but he is very informative and he was our cameraman for the day! It was cloudy but that made it comfortable for all those sightseeing. We went to the California Light House, Alto Vista Chapel, Gold Ruin, Nature Bridge and then we had our lunch at a local restaurant. The BBQ chicken and ribs there were fine. After lunch, we went to Baby Beach for snorkeling. Baby Beach is pretty but we didn't get to see much fishes there and we had only 45 minutes! It was a fun day, seeing another side of Aruba! For dinner, we went to Soenchi's, my goal there was to see the Aruba Reef Crystal Tear dessert lol. It turned out the food there is excellent! I definitely tried something new...Agrumi Wayaca, Keshi Yena, and the Crystal Tear!

Tuesday:
Tuesday was our shopping day, we took the bus to downtown and shop around souvenir shops. It was a very humid day! It was smaller than I expected, not as much souvenir shops as other Caribbean islands. However, we did found some unique gifts! We went to the Casa Tua Barcelona and had Paella for two, it was just ok but not worth the money! We finished our shopping in less than 3 hours (very humid that I don't want to shop anymore lol), we were planned to shop for the whole day and have dinner at Aquarius seafood buffet. We went back to the hotel to get some rest and come back to downtown again at night. Aquarius seafood buffet was good in general, they have a seafood station where someone will grill shrimp, scallop, lobster tail, crab legs, fishes, and steak for you! They only have one person to grill though so if you come in late, you'll need to wait in line. They have two table/counters of food which consisted of sushi, salad, meat selections, and soup. It was a small buffet but worth it if you eat 2+ dishes of grilled seafood.

Wednesday:
We did snorkeling with Jolly Pirates, the crews were friendly! The only disappointment was there weren't as much fishes as I expected. Others' reviews are true, Aruba is not the best place for snorkeling! We had fun though watching people doing the robe swing ^^ It was again another long day so we decided to have dinner close by...Baci Cafe right in the Westin. Baci has many pasta selections! I had the seafood linguini, it was excellent! My husband had the Red Snapper, it was the best fish he had in Aruba! After dinner, we went to the Paseo Herencia Mall. It was a nice mall but the stores were not our type. We stayed for the water show at 7:30 pm, we enjoyed it!

Thursday:
We finally explored Palm Beach today! We did parasailing with Delphi Watersports! I can't believe I did it lol! I am very scared of height! The crews were very professional! I was really nervous going up but I was fine after few minutes up in the air! We did parasailing in the morning, the staff suggested us to do it in the morning when the wind is smoother than the afternoon. It was a windy day but once we were up there, it was pretty calm. We had a few moments of swinging left and right but was okay ^^ I really enjoyed it..once in a lifetime, have to tried it! We ate lunch at the Terrace Cafe at the Westin, the food was great! I love the Aruba seafood chowder, it tasted a little bit spicy so it was different than other chowders I had! Their sandwiches were great! For dinner, we had reservation at Passions at the Beach! We took the bus from the hi-rise down, it was a short ride. The view was romantic and first time we had dinner on the beach, our toes in the white powder sand! The sunset was absolutely beautiful! Living in the metropolitan area, we never spent time to look at the sun and wait for it to set, this is an absolutely wonderful experience! It was a perfect dinner except for the food...limited selection and not so good. Afterwards, we took the bus back to the hotel, the bus stop was just the opposite side of the road ^^

Friday:
We went to downtown once again to finish our souvenir shopping! It was a much better day for shopping than Tuesday! Our last dinner was at Pago Pago once again, we don't want to walk around ^^ I had the 22oz rib eye and my husband had the Fried Grouper. The steak was excellent!!!

Saturday:
Say bye-bye to Aruba We arrived at the airport at 10:45 am and our flight was at 3 pm. I read reviews about the long lines on Saturday so decided to go early to gave us plenty of time. Actually we were lucky, we got through customs in around 1.5 hours ^^ We got a double Whopper and Chicken Sandwich from Burger King and found out that we can't bring any beef or pork food in >.< The food in the airport after customs were very expensive!!! If you don't hate to eat chicken, I suggest you get some chicken sandwich on your way to the airport!

Aruba.....one happy island, this is true!

[Andrea J.]

thanks for your review!!

[WendyS]

Great review! Sounds like you had a lot of fun!

[serene56]

thanks for the report- I got really tired after reading everything you did.
Did you do any beach stuff other then parasailing?

Was it windy on the beach?