I always specify the mood/vibe of each trip/vacation. This was ADULT TIME in Aruba!!!
We stayed at the Renaissance Resort. Our room was a king room on the top floor (6th floor) with vaulted ceilings and a balcony with a view of the pool overlooking Lucy’s, the city light, the water and the cruise ships. The DJ was legit right outside our room a few floors down and we loved that. We had a live show every night with the balcony door open.
However, Aruba was still closing earlier than normal so everything was shut down by 11pm (due to covid restrictions). If it was 2 am, perhaps, we would have felt differently, but we also felt if we closed the door it was pretty sound proof.
I researched a lot about the great spots to stay on the island and in my research this private Flamingo Beach kept coming up over and over (and it was “adult only”) and these private huts kept coming up. So, I was drawn here. My husband kept saying he just wanted to lay in a hut on the beach, so this fit. There are some huts on the Island of Aruba that you can “stay in” as a resort option. They are private and very natural and beautiful. I considered that option, but I knew my husband would want a mix of sitting with people at the bar and space and nature, so this was the perfect mix.
This resort offers two options. There’s a more family friendly guest suite option across the street that still gives you access to flamingo beach and the resort. We stayed at the resort. This beach is completely closed off to anyone on the island other than guests. You have to take a boat to get to the island and it’s about a 10 minute boat ride and the boat leaves from right inside the hotel. You have to show a wristband and a room key every time you get on the boat – no exceptions. Once you’re on the island, if you turn to your left it’s the family side and if you turn to your right it’s the adult only side. There are restaurants and bars, iguanas and flamingos, hammocks and chairs, towels, floats and couches and more on the island. The private island was exactly what we wanted and needed. It was not just Instagram worthy, it was amazing!
The cabanas are obviously not included. Those are extra and you can rent them for the entire day 9am – 6pm which we stayed in the entire time, last boat off the island is 6:30. They book out months in advance and are worth every single penny – and are pretty affordable ,especially if you split them with other people. They are private and perfect and just as beautiful as they seem. You literally have a button that you can press any time for amazing service and assistance straight to your cabana. You don’t need to leave for anything. Food, drinks, snacks, private shower, private hammock, couches and more. We also pre-ordered a picnic basket and filled it with all of our favorite goodies and pre-ordered a stocked cooler with waters champagne and beer! It was probably one of our favorite experiences ever.
The resort and the island in general felt extremely safe. I would recommend it for an adult couple or a girls trip. There were families there, but they were on the other side. I don’t think that this would be the resort for us with our kids – for convenience and because when we travel with our kids we cater to them, not us. It just makes life easier.
For us as adults it was fine to hop a boat and go to the island. We also preferred mostly adults. Adult language and behavior without guilt of scarring a child I don’t like kids seeing adults acting a fool – especially around kids.
Although, sometimes adults want to party and I’m ok with that. Hopping the boat for us was actually half the fun! Personally, if I came back with the kids I think I would stay more in town at a resort that was right on the regular beach (they still do a good job of blocking off the beach for each resort- you just don’t have your own island). That way if the kids wanted to swim it would be easy access from the room. If they needed a nap, quick up to the room. If they wanted to hop to the pool it’s all right there. If they wanted to hop over and get a blizzard or a churro it’s all right there downtown. My girlfriend stayed at Playa Linda Beach Resort with her family and loved it and that’s where I would most likely look into with the kids. It felt more family friendly than our hotel.
Also, where we were it was just a $13 taxi ride away from the downtown area, which was so quick and easy to get to.
We used all of the excursions from Pelican Adventures which was also right there!
Eduardo Beach Shack which is a must is also right there! And at night we walked around the open air market area down there and it felt like Disney Springs.
Back at our hotel there was an ALL inclusive package option and a breakfast package option. We didn’t use the all inclusive because we planned so many meals already off of the resort. However, the food at the resort was amazing. They have two amazing restaurants on the private island. The steakhouse dinner alone would’ve been the cost of our all inclusive for that day! There’s another restaurant called the Aquarius – great breakfast and even our room service was delicious. Their all inclusive is all food and all alcohol! If you wanted to just make life easy and stay on the resort I think that would be worth it.
But you could also walk to Lucy’s across the street and you could also walk to the 5 o’clock somewhere bar which we really enjoyed too. Downtown (that 13 minute taxi ride away) had a ton of food options as well. As well as some other local spots that we didn’t even have time to hit. So it really depends on what you want for convenience, but the food at the resort would be worth the all inclusive if that’s the way you wanted to do it too. We didn’t want to stuff ourselves and over drink, which is something we tend to do with an all inclusive mentality for some reason.
With all that said – the food on the island was AMAZING! I do recommend the L.G. steakhouse at the resort. It was by far our favorite dinner experience. https://www.lgsmiths.com/
The resort also has an amazing spa. And while the out door hut spa Cove side-by-side massages were double the price of our normal massage date nights… I again cannot emphasize that they were worth every single penny. the experience was breathtaking.
We don’t travel often without our children, because the gift of experiences and memories with our kids is important to us. We enjoy traveling with them, but this trip reminded us of the importance of traveling sometimes without them.
We also rented a jeep to explore the island alone, not in a tour, and just be free and off-road. We got a map and we listed out our top spots and we just went. Let me pre-warn you… being out on the boat was nothing compared to the sun of being in the jeep! The winds blowing in your hair and you’re in the jeep you don’t realize how direct the sun is hitting you and you burn so easily without even knowing it! We reapplied sunscreen many times and the jeep was worse on our skin than the boat. We used ALL AROUND ARUBA to rent our Jeep. https://www.aroundarubatours.com/
It was more expensive than Top Line, but we didn’t plan out or pre-book the jeep, so we had to take what we could last minute! I plan 90% of everything out, but wanted to leave some room for my husband to make some spontaneous decisions and this was one of them.
The snorkeling was amazing. We went to both shallow depth and deep depths. Everyone we use through Pelican Adventures seemed to really care about our safety more than some islands, if you know what I mean. I felt like we were learning and exploring. I’ve been to many many islands and never felt comfortable enough to jump off of boat into the water the way I did here.
Also I have the Aruba highlight on my IG: Aruba with hubs = @stephanie_villers
And you can check out some reels: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17883799028233687/
Hope this was helpful!!!
#bookthetrip
While on the island I was making a drinks of the rainbow video “for our oldest”.
I needed a green one to complete the rainbow, so when I saw a couple get a green drink, we ordered us one. At 10:30am after our massages, and before I ate a bite of food.
It was green all right. Papagayo punch. If you ever come to Aruba. Don’t do it. Do not recommend.
Listen I’m not even proud of this (I think it’s hereditary to be honest) but I can hold my liquor, like a lot. I don’t drink frequently (when not on vacation), I just can. This was THE STRONGEST drink I think I’ve had in about 10 years. Even Ern was loopy from ONE. He had me laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe or see through my tears. I had no idea he was snapping pics like this.
I told y’all before. I laugh loud. I laugh often. I don’t laugh pretty. I love these pics. Post massage. Hair up, no makeup and laughing our asses off.
Also we took naps after this rum
I can’t day drink like I use to. Holy crap.
Papagayo punch – Rum, green grenadine, and pineapple juice. But I think it was just straight rum don’t do it. If you do… don’t do more than one.
I’m reminded that adult trips are a necessity for our marriage to consistently connect and reconnect. Our marriage is always our base. The little adorable twenty something in the cabana next to us asked to take our picture together.
She said “I love love and you two have beautiful love.” We were talking and laughing and looking at the camera smiling “for the gram”. And she said: “Wait, just look at each other like that again, it’s so beautiful.”
I know social media has been weaponized for showing the highlight reels of life and creating massive unnecessary comparison.
I love showing the REAL. If you know us in real life, you know this is our real. Maybe there’s something you didn’t know. We don’t talk about it often because we are not the people we were then, but at one point in our marriage I left him. Then guess what? After that… he left me. Yup it was yucky. It was over about a 5 month period total (which felt much longer). And it was before we decided to have the twins (I was 21 years old, he was 24).
We never divorced, only separated but it wasn’t pretty. At all. It took us years of healing and learning and DECIDING to make it better. We both knew we deserved better than what we were giving each other.
Here’s what we did kind of – we did a LOVE IT OR LIST IT on our relationship (ever seen that show on HGTV? Where you decide to fix up and make gorgeous the house you already have OR you decide to sell it and buy new.)
We didn’t treat each other in the way we knew we needed to. We needed some fresh paints, new lights, and upgrades.
So, if you admire someone’s marriage or relationship, ask them. I encourage you to. If you love their love… ask them. We love telling people our story of falling in love, to falling out of love, to falling in deeper love.
It’s ok to start over. Even with the same person. Be brave enough to find the life and love you want. Chase it. Fight for it. Be courageous enough to get messy for it. But make sure IF YOU choose to start over it is the WAY your life was meant to be. Don’t settle.
New phases of life NEED THIS. Love it or list it.
Marriage is a commitment, we honor that deeply now, but it should never ever steal YOUR LIFE. We are clear on that boundary for us.
It should BE the in your life in so many ways.
#villlersadventures #forbetterorworseigotyou