Occidental Grand Aruba?

RecoveringActor

That's where I'm staying for my honeymoon.  Yes, it's an all inclusive.  I know.  Don't stay at an all inclusive because Aruba has great restaurants.  But I wanted to go to an AI.  Maybe we'll venture off the resort one night and have dinner someplace else.

My question is: Has anyone else ever stayed there??  FI and I wanted to do couples massage there, but I can't find pricing anywhere.   I've emailed the hotel a few weeks ago, but I never heard back.

michelle7102

We stayed at the Marriott in Aruba.  To be honest Aruba was expensive and a little boring.  I am from Florida so I am spoiled with great beaches.  I wish we would have planned a honeymoon in Costa Rica instead.

We did have a blast on the beach (see picture below I took at one of the cabanas on the beach).  Stock up on liquor at the duty-free stores in the airport to save money on drinking at the resort!

michelle7102

Forgot to mention.  The couple's massage was $400 at the Marriott so we walked down the strip to the Holiday Inn and got a couple's massage for $200 instead.  Still pricey, but it's your honeymoon and you deserve to relax

RecoveringActor

Thanks, Michelle!  If the Marriott was $400, I imagine that Occidental is going to be at least that much, if not more.  $200 would be about as much as I would want to spend, so I guess we're going to take a walk down to the Holiday Inn!  Was the massage nice???

I live in Delaware, and while we do have beaches... they aren't nearly that nice.  Alcohol is included at our hotel, so I don't have to worry about stocking up.  That was actually the main reason we wanted to do an all-inclusive.  I don't intend to do much more than be a lazy, lazy bum for a whole week on the beach.  Maybe snorkel.  Maybe.

CD2011

I stayed there for a week in March 2010. We really enjoyed the beach and the pools at the hotel, and also some of the shows they had. I don't even remember there being massages, but maybe they did and we just weren't interested in doing them.

Also, I don't know what the weather difference will be like when you are there, but I didn't find out from someone until we got there that it is "always windy" as they put it ... and they were right that there was pretty much always at least a light breeze! I was the only one on the beach freezing!!! So I definitely recommend bringing sweaters and pants just in case you need them!

The worst thing was that the hotel room smelled really musty, and the pillows and everything always felt damp. Our clothes also felt damp. When we got home and unpacked, our suitcases and clothes smelled terrible and were extremely damp-YUCK!!

Hope you have a better experience than we did! (The most fun we had was renting a 4 wheeler for the day and just cruising all around the island!)

aimers1525

We just got back from our HM in Aruba. We stayed five nights at the Hyatt (right next to the Occidental) and three nights at the Renaissance (in downtown Oranjestad, about a 10 minute cab ride from high rise hotels.

I know the Hyatt has spa services, but was told it's just a room in the fitness center, so I skipped it. The Renaissance has a nice spa, it is $230 for a couples massage (can't remember how long)

Bring a hat and plenty of sunscreen. We had SPF 50 and still burned a bit. The beaches are really clean, water is warm (at least when we were there last week), and very calm. It was in the upper 80's or 90's everyday, and the sun is pretty intense.