Honeymoon Discussions

Aruba in September

We have narrowed down the honeymoon destination due to hurricane season.. just can agree on a place to spend our 10 days in paradise.. anyone have any suggestions?  We are looking for all inclusive.

Re: Aruba in September

  • Tamerjin all inclusive!  We stayed there and it was AMAZING. 

    All rooms face the ocean
    2 resorts to use your AI wristbands at (more food)

    Awesome
    It's time. Adoption saving and process started in November 2012.
    Image and video hosting by TinyPic Image and video hosting by TinyPic
  • We just got back from Aruba, I would discourage you from going. While beaches were beautiful, its so Americanized it was disappointing. Where's the culure? Everyone was from NJ/NY and there were Dunkin Donuts on the beach.  We stayed at probably the nicest all-inclusive, THe Riu Palace and while it was gorgeous and our suite was amazing it was like a cruise ship on land. The Tamarijin didnt even rate with the RIU, and guest we met totally trashed it and the Occidental. They said there was only 1 restaurant, bars closed early and the fridges in rooms were never re-stocked.
    Here's my review from TripAdvisor:

    I booked this hotel for my honeymoon in August 10-18th. We just returned and I will tell you the place is impressive. Its beautiful and has a great pool, beach, service inside, and ambiance.I will say its probably the nicest hotel in Aruba appearance-wise. I went with all inclusive because I didnt want the hassle of locating restaurants. However, I will warn you that you have to reserve the hotel restaurants every morning at 9 AM which meant waiting in the lobby by 8:30! I hated this! But the alternative was the Don Nicholas buffet, and after 2 days of eating there 3 times a day you get so sick of the greasy fried food. Everything is FRIED- its awful! We liked the Nautilus Restaurant the best, the seafood/steak was good as was the Baked Alaskan. The other thing that really bothered me was that I had to get up by 7 AM everyday to reserve a cabana on the beach and chairs. The same with the pools. People take their towels and reserve seats, and if you need shade you need to be out there early or forget it. Its very annoying if you just want to sleep in. So you are getting up early to get a chair with shade and a restaurant ticket... So it was very annoying to deal with the management of these things of the hotel. The Westin next door had a reservation board- no need to get up early! And the restaurants should be booked with a slip of paper under the door, not getting up early to book one!

    We had a suite which was gorgeous in the new building, it was worth the extra money. It was big and luxuious and cleaned nicely. The bed was so comfortable! The spa tub was wonderful! People we met complained about being in the main building (the older one) hearing the casino. We came home to nightly towel art- it was a nice touch!

    The casino is small and full of cigarette smoke. The entertainment is mediocre but amusing and Im glad they had shows nightly, as other hotels didnt have them. What I didnt like was that no one served us drinks outside on the beach or pool, because they dont work for tips you can feel the difference. The drinks were very strong, so if you love alcohol this is your paradise. Beer was delivered daily to the room, as was water. There were 3 bottles of liquor in the room to make your own drinks.

    Warning- We also had our camera and room key stolen our 1st night on the beach when we swam in the water, so beware- Aruba's beaches are not safe, but the are beautiful, great water and pretty sunsets. The tradewinds are great!

    We would never return to this hotel, as its very crowded, lots of people staying there, and not very romantic. All day they blast this music at the pool that pounds in your ears, even on the beach. We like a quieter setting like Bermuda. I will say if you are looking for a lot of pool action, games, music, this is your scene. We like it quieter and more intimate. We found families there who let their young children roam through bars and not really watch them.

    It was nice that in the lobby there was a car rental place and an excursions booking agent (De Palm). We loved the Jeep excursion, but the snorkeling was way too crowded to the WW2 ship. Felt like the Titanic sinking when they let us out, I was kicked and the water was rough! The Kukoo Kunukoo trip was too much also, the driver was crazy and brought us to dives where prostitutes and thieves were looking for drunken tourists.

    Room service was awful! There are like 4 items on the menu and they were not appealing. One was "An American Classic- Bagel with Salmon" -yuck and Nachos. Their answer to food was nachos with cheese whiz, its available 24-7 and it gets sickening to look at.

    Hope this was helpful.

  • edited August 2010
    I think that Aruba will be enjoyable for some depending on your personality. I can see where Reilly is coming from but than again MH and I had a great HM in Aruba. We actually liked that it was more Americanized. We felt very safe there as apposed to some of the other Islands we have stayed at. We were able to leave our resort every night and walk around with no problems. The beaches were beautiful!

    We also stayed at the Riu. I have to agree we had friends stay at Tarmajin and Occidental and said it didn't compare to the Riu. For us on our HM we wanted to go all out so we picked the Riu instead. Beautiful pools, great service, and we actually thought their buffet was one of the best we have seen at an AI. There was a different theme every night so it wasn't the same boring food over and over again. We also had no problems making our restaurant reservations in the morning. Often at times we didn't come down until almost 10am and were able to get a reservation. This could also depend on how crowded the resort is at that time. We stayed in the beginning of June. We also really enjoyed the music and games by the pool. We our in our mid 20's and still enjoy getting a little rowdy and having a good time.

    We also did the snorkel trip to the German sunken ship and it was one of the highlights of our trip! We also did horseback riding, the jeep tour, and had dinner on the beach at the Flying Fishbone all were amazing and I would highly recommend. Again I think it is personal preference and you and your FI will know what works best for you. MH and I plan on making a trip back to Aruba for our anniversary.
  • i find aruba to have absolutely no island personality and be us hm central. ugh!
    go to curacao-it's sister island. it's the total opposite of aruba. larger, quieter, better island feel, more dutch, exonentially better snorkeling.

     

  • edited August 2010
    I can not imagine going to Aruba and limiting myself to an AI..... there are SOOO many amazing restaurants there!
    My parents have a time share in the Ocean Club, and go twice a year. I have been a couple times with them and LOVE the island. Yes, if you go to the touristy spots, there is definitely American influence & infiltration. But there are also parts of the island that are still *native* for lack of a better word. The other side of the island (where the natural bridge used to be) is completely untouched and so beautiful! You will also find the majority of *local fare* there too.
    I think no matter what island you go to, if you chose to stay at an AI you are signing yourself up for "honeymoon central" and depriving yourself of some really great island specific experiences.
    I think Aruba is a great choice for a September HM because you will have good weather there, whereas most other places are susceptible to hurricanes. Aruba is located in between 2 opposing trade-winds, so any storm fronts are *repelled* away. Aruba gets less than 3 inches of rain a year, or something crazy like that.
    Its also all very safe, and friendly ~ one happy island! =)
    BabyFetus Ticker

    Image and video hosting by TinyPic
    Being married is a real thriller! =)

  • We werent fortunate enough to have the money for the Riu..but if we did we still would have hated the "hotel row" feel of it.  We had our own beach that was VERY safe...we kept our sliding glass door open.  We didn't want a room that was 20 stories up and we woke up, walked off our patio and were on the very secluded beach.  I understand where "luxury" comes in with the Riu but we wanted to have WILD CRAZY PASSIONATE SEX without our neighbors hearing. :)  That's what you do on a HM!
    It's time. Adoption saving and process started in November 2012.
    Image and video hosting by TinyPic Image and video hosting by TinyPic
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards