DESTINATIONS ARUBA CARIBBEAN RIGHT: Fontein Cave
FAR RIGHT: Oranjestad
WHAT T O DO
EAT
Dine on first- class food and drink in beautiful beachfront views at Barefoot
Restaurant, where diners eat with sand between their toes.
RELAX Take a spa
treatment in one of the beachfront huts at Spa del Sol, part of Manchebo Beach Resort.
DRINK
The exquisite Wine Room is half-bar, half- open-kitchen restaurant,
pouring wines not found anywhere else in Aruba.
SEE Visit Fontein
Cave in Arikok National Park to see handprints by early island settlers and
Victorian graffiti.
$52 for children, with morning and sunset cruises also available. Also teeming with rich marine life is the barrier reef at Mangel Halto, where donning a snorkel and fins will open your eyes to an abundance of activity below the surface. And the catch? You’ll have to work a bit harder to get there. Instead of cruising on a catamaran, this can be part of a kayaking tour, paddling a little over a mile along the coast. The currents are gentle and the water fairly shallow, so even the least confident kayaker will still have time to sit back and enjoy the scenery. The half-day tour from Aruba Kayak Adventures includes lunch and pick- up, for $83.
w CITY LIGHTS
Aruba doesn’t do big cities – even its capital Oranjestad has fewer than 30,000 people – but its urban areas are still worth exploring. Cruise passengers arriving at the port can catch the free trolley-car – though it’s only a few minutes’ walk – to go shopping along Wilhelminastraat or see its Dutch Colonial Revival architecture up-close. Painted in pastel shades accented with elaborately curved eaves and bright white curlicues, these ornate frontages are quite the contrast to the designer brands – think Louis Vuitton, Cartier and Gucci among them – that line the streets of the nearby Renaissance Mall. Even the town hall is a colourful affair, painted emerald green with white shutters. The aesthetics of second city San
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travelweekly.co.uk 14 September 2017
Guests will see why the official motto, printed on every car number plate, calls this ‘one happy island’
Nicolas are just as eye-catching – but in an altogether edgier way. The street art murals that brighten up the walls around this district are unquestionably
Tried & Tested DIVI ARUBA ALL INCLUSIVE
Taking its name from the distinctive divi-divi tree or watapana – an icon of the island thanks to its bent-over shape – this large-scale resort occupies a plum spot on the west coast, with a long stretch of beach shared with sister property Tamarijn Aruba. It’s a popular mid-range option with British guests in search of a laidback escape, and serves the market well with premium-brand spirits stocked at the bar, most à la carte restaurants included (reservations needed), and plenty of poolside and beachfront spots if all guests want to do is set up on a sunlounger for the day. Rooms are well appointed, albeit
cool and make easy Instagram pickings. Follow it with a drink at Charlie’s Bar – a tiny pub where the ceilings, walls and every bit of available space heave with kitsch artefacts from the island and mementos left behind by barflies over the years. So if guests want nothing but beaches and bars, they won’t go far wrong in Aruba, which ticks every Caribbean box and more. But sprinkle in some of its natural beauty, fine food scene, and a bit of that all-important wild side, and guests will see why the official motto, printed on every car number plate, calls this ‘one happy island’.
occasionally lacking in attention to detail, and the buffet restaurant serves simple, familiar fare. There were plenty of families with kids of varying ages, plus a golf course and water sports on- site for anyone who needs to work off some of those extra all-inclusive inches.
diviaruba.com
PICTURES: SHUTTERSTOCK; ARUBA TOURISM AUTHORITY/ALEX CHAN
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