r/Aruba

Presently, I have us booked for the Couples Full Experience Package at Spa Del Sol this week. After reading more recent reviews and then searching through this sub- I am now concerned the massage experience is going to be less than ideal. Does anyone have any recommendations for other places where they thoroughly enjoyed their experience and felt it was worth it? Thank you kindly in advance 😊

My husband and I were just in Aruba for a week. Had the best time ever. Here are my quick personal food ratings below:

Organic Bodega Cafe- 8.5/10 delicious and very kind people

Drunken Burger- 3/10 terrible, bland, soggy

Hot Box (Paseo Herencia Mall)- 5/10 meh

Lionfish Snack Aruba- 8/10 delicious !!! Please try it. but seating in the back is not very comfortable bc of flies and it’s cash only

Lola Taqueria/Craft- 4/10 two TINY tacos were ~$15 at noon. Ended up spending around $50 for very little food at lunch. Was ridiculous

Les Cappuchinas- 7/10 food was good, wanted to go back to try the savory food but didn’t get to. was also a little overpriced but the coffee flavors were fun. I do think the Organic Cafe’s coffee woke me up more

Zeerovers- 7.5/10 fries and plantains were the best part. fish a little dry but awesome price for two!!!

Yemanja- 10/10 expensive, but we knew that going into it. Everything was amazing

Azar- 9/10 took a point off bc we had a dry, crumbly, hard brownie for dessert. This was the best entree I had in Aruba though (short rib) very very good but $$$$$

Passions- 9/10 beautiful views great staff wasn’t blown away by the food but very fresh and still tasty

Arashi Beach Shack- 7/10 only tried the pastechi was yummy though. Guy working the counter lowkey had an attitude idk why

So overall we felt like the food was hit or miss, but such is life. If you want a very good meal you gotta spend a buck unfortunately.

My husband and I are going for 3 days in Dec. He loves boating and exploring but we don’t enjoy snorkeling. Is there any boat rentals you recommend? Ideal afternoon is floating in the water with some music and drinks (me not him haha) and maybe boating to lunch somewhere? Do they even have island to boat to for lunch? Thank you for all the help! He planned the hotel so trying to help plan the rest!

My partner and I are spending a long weekend in Aruba in about a month, and I was curious to see if folks had any recommendations for a boat tour that’s fun for both snorkelers and non-snorkelers (i.e., includes some snorkeling but is not entirely focused on snorkeling).

I LOVE to snorkel, and my partner really doesn’t— he might go in for a few minutes, or might just stay on the boat or swim around without a snorkel. On other vacations, we’ve enjoyed tours with multiple stops in which some/most stops are not for snorkeling, or where the snorkeling stops have an alternate activity (even if that activity is lounging on a nice beach).

I do sometimes drag him on snorkel tours, but sitting on the boat alone gets old pretty fast. We enjoy history, nature, and wildlife, and would enjoy a couple of cocktails but wouldn’t be into a booze cruise.

Hi everyone! Myself and two girlfriends will be coming to Aruba from October 3-9. I’d love to get some recommendations for an expert level diver. My girlfriend is a Dive Con Specialist and we are overwhelmed with how many companies there are to dive with. I would love to get some advice on which diving company would be best for her to book with. We are also contemplating a horse back riding tour but none of us have experience riding horses - would this type of thing be out of the question for us as we are completely non experienced? Any other advice or recommendations would be so helpful! There are so many things to do on the island we are overwhelmed with choices and operators. We are staying near the national park and have rented a car so getting around isn’t an issue. Thank you so much!

my partner's father is from Aruba, while they were never close my partner wants to learn more about their roots, and that involves learning Papiamento/papiamentu, but it's been quite the struggle. They bought a textbook and workbook to learn papiamentu, but unfortunately a lot of the assignments use words that haven't been explained or taught yet, as well as phrases. This has been quite the issue for them while learning the language, so they want to use something else to get a basic grasp on papiamentu first. i understand that Papiamentu is not the main language spoken on Aruba, but i figure i could still ask. so now comes the question, what are some good resources to get a basic grasp on either language, so they can continue learning?