First Trip and went with kids (age 4 and 6)
Thanks to this group for being an amazing resource! Just got back from a week in Aruba with my two kids and husband. Here is my report - TLDR; it was amazing and I'm so thankful!
We didn't realize when you get off the plane there are a lot of stairs, and then a bus. This would normally be fine, but really surprised our youngest kid and he got a bit scared with the engine noises/etc. Getting down the stairs with two kids plus all of our bags was interesting to say the least. Then, there are about twelve hundred thousand escalators inside the airport. It would be totally fine if we had known so I am just letting families be aware.
We rented a car through Nexus Car Rental. The pick up was at the Hyatt, which is quite literally next door to the airport. Through them, we got two car seats as well. It was so nice to just be able to get into our car rental, put our bags in, blast the A/C and get going. I was worried about car pick up from the airport but it was totally worth it. It was about a 2 minute walk from the exit to the airport.
We rented a condo at LeVent, which is a newer condo on Eagle Beach. Two of us are Celiac, so it just made more sense to me to have access to a kitchen. We also don't drink very much. In the end, the location was really nice, definitely on the quieter side of things although it's good they've built a little coffee shop on the main floor. It was 3 minute drive to Super Food and a 3 minute walk to Eagle Beach. The pool was really nice. We are not super picky, so of course there were some negatives, but how can you complain when you're in Aruba, you know?
We mostly ate dinners in our condo, we had one nice dinner out, to Lima Bistro, which was absolutely amazing and we had a fantastic time.
For kids activities:
Ostrich Farm - everyone disliked this except my ostrich-loving-son, so tricky to rate it low because he is very into Ostriches. I wouldn't recommend it otherwise.
Donkey Sanctuary - really special, enjoyed.
Pizza Hut and McDonalds indoor playgrounds - good way to kill time before you have to go to the airport, if you have to check out before your flight but dont want to get sandy all over again :)
We did a private boat tour with 1 Fool & A Boat, probably the highlight for the two adults in our group. Kids tolerated it haha.
Light show at the mall was not worth it, but we laughed a lot at its absurdity. The little merry go round is super sweet there.
Super Food is expensive AF but wow, it literally had everything on the planet. So many amazing options. It was a fun visit every time.
We also went to Dutch Pancakehouse, and the little treasure chest for kids was well received. We didn't go in busy season, so keep in mind the line-ups were fast even at peak hours.
Lunch at Zeerover's - wanted to enjoy this but my poor kid didn't like the aggressive seafood smell (fair) and so he cried during most of our meal, but if that hadn't been the case, I think we would have enjoyed it much more :)
The airport is under construction so there was one Quizno's and otherwise, not even a souvenir for sale, so plan accordingly!
Thanks for having us, Aruba, I hope we can come back one day soon