Aruba is the reason I travel! To meet people, taste local cuisine and explore the beauty of the destination. This was my first visit to the Dutch Caribbean island and can't wait to return! The beaches are beautiful, the locals are super friendly and I loved that all-inclusive resorts did not dominate the beauty of the views.
There are so many restaurants, bars and shopping just outside the hotel areas you could easily experience the local flavors of the island and nightlife on your own. Although I did stay at the RIU Palace Antillas, which is all-inclusive it was modest in comparison to some resorts in Punta Cana and Mexico I have been too. It was nice to have that options during the day and then head into town at night. I stayed on Palm Beach, which is know as the high rise beach and then Eagle Beach a few miles down is the low rise beach. There are plenty of casinos around the island for those that are feeling lucky and renting a car is much safer and easier to do here than most other Caribbean islands. You do feel the influence of Venezuela being only 15 miles from shore and the Dutch spirit as well. Most locals on the island speak 5 languages and the drinking water is voted top 5 in the world! Pretty impressive for an island home to 108,000+ multi cultural residents!
The Arikok National Park consumes 20% of the island and is worth a day of exploring along with a bar crawl on the Kukoo Kunuku Party bus! The people of this One Happy Island love to dance, drink and have a good time whatever they are doing and make sure you feel like a local when you are right there along with them doing it!!
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