Anyone Been to Aruba?

[Spooner]

girlfriend and I will be visiting january 19- 26th staying at the Renaissance Hotel & Casino for a lovely 7 night stay

i've never been to this area and am wondering any experiences / suggestions

thanks!

 

[Miramonti]

Can't remember the name, but there's a wwII shipwreck that's worth snorkeling around.

 

[Spooner]

ah yes. snorkeling is certainly a top priority

 

[blackdogdeek]

purbeast went there i think. try pm'ing him.

 

[waggy]

go find natile holloway. she is somewhere on the island!

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: waggy
go find natile holloway. she is somewhere on the island!

:laugh:

i wonder if she was shark bait. :Q

 

[Spooner]

so im guessing not a lot of people have been?

 

[AMCRambler]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: waggy
go find natile holloway. she is somewhere on the island!

:laugh:

i wonder if she was shark bait. :Q

I bet the "Others" have her! Probably in their midget submarine. With the underwater station that is broadcasting a jamming signal.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: Spooner
so im guessing not a lot of people have been?

Over 1.5 million tourists per year visit Aruba, with 75% of those from the United States.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/22491.htm

 

[sponge008]

http://www.virtualtourist.com

 

[ScottFern]

NINJA EDIT!!!!

Look for hot Euro boys who can "show" you around the island!

 

[rootaxs]

There's lots to do there!

For cuisine, i suggest trying out these:
http://www.papiamentorestaurant.com/
http://www.amazonia-aruba.com/

There's a lot of good restaurants there, but these two made its mark to both me and my wife.

For sightseeing, check out the:
- Bird Sanctuary
- Butterfly Farm
- California Lighthouse (really, it's just a lighthouse, we only stayed 20m there), it's on one end of the island
- Caves
- Natural Bridge and Natural Pool

If you can, try renting a bike or a vehicle without a top, the weather is usually great down there and there's nothing like driving on and off the city in this manner.

The opposite side of the island (relative to the lighthouse) is not known to be entirely touristy, but there's a nice public beach on that side. It's more "local" in my opinion.

Nearly everyone speaks English, so communication shouldn't be a problem.
-

 

[Juno]

Originally posted by: waggy
go find natile holloway. she is somewhere on the island!

ah, beat me to it.

 

[rootaxs]

I forgot to mention, when driving around, bring your own water. From what i remember, any type of liquid refreshment was a little on the pricey side.

 

[purbeast0]

The Antilla is the shipwreck you can see there and the tip of the ship is pointing out the water.

Aruba is freaking awesome, I want to go back so bad but I also want to see other places.

Check out the pics in my sig, we did a decent amount of stuff. If you have any questions about it I can tell you more about what we did.

Also just fyi, the Natural Bridge collapsed last year (or the one before, can't remember) but I think they still do tours to that area.

I too recommend renting a car if I were you.

Also check out www.aruba-bb.com for people who have tons of information. There is this snorkelling trip that people on there rave about. It's a mom/pop type deal and they take people out on their sail boat to a reef people snorkel that no other tours go to. It books up weeks/months in advance sometimes too. I forget the name of his ship but if you go to those boards, the name of the ship captain is Anthony.

 

[spidey07]

Watch out for the casino games. Their rules are a little "funny".

Do one of the island tours at least, it's a small island so you can see most of the natural stuff in a single day. It's also fun to spend a day in town.