First, a little background on how we ended up in Aruba...
Kenny and I really didn't know where we wanted to go on our honeymoon, so we were open to suggestions. I ended up contacting Turner Travel, a local travel agency, and was put in contact with our agent, Susan, to plan our trip. I told her that we wanted somewhere tropical and relaxing and were open to any and all recommendations that she had, and she immediately suggested Aruba.
There are tons of benefits of traveling to Aruba, so I thought I'd list them all out!
- Great weather: Weather was our main reason for traveling to Aruba. The island is outside of the hurricane belt, which is crucial if you're traveling during hurricane season like we were. It would've been heartbreaking to have to cancel or move our trip because a storm was coming through!
- They accept US currency: It was super convenient not to have to do a currency exchange in order to pay for things in Aruba. They take all major credit cards, as well as cash.
- The people are multilingual: Everyone we encountered spoke English, and most of the staff members also speak Spanish, Dutch, and Papiamento, which is the native language of Aruba.
- Plenty of direct flights from the east coast: A direct flight was something that our travel agent highly recommended so that we wouldn't have to worry about losing our bags or dealing with missing connections due to any potential delays. We had to travel about three hours to the closest airport with a direct flight, but to us it was worth it not to have any layovers.
- Same time as EST: While Aruba is technically in Atlantic Standard Time, there is no time change between EST and Aruban time, so no jet lag for us.
- It's small and navigable: The island itself is only about twenty miles long and six miles wide, much of which is desert, so it's extremely easy to get around. You can rent a car or take a taxi; the taxis are government regimented so they're safe and reliable.
- It's safe: The crime rate is very low in Aruba, and it's completely safe to walk around outside the confines of your resort.
- The tap water is safe to drink: I know people are split on whether or not tap water tastes good enough to drink, but the bottom line is that the tap water in Aruba is safe to drink, so you won't get sick drinking it or brushing your teeth with it.
- You don't need an outlet converter: This was something I didn't think about til the last minute, but I was relieved to learn that the outlets in Aruba are the same as in the US. This may seem like a given, but since it's another country I had no idea!
After learning all of those things, we were sold on Aruba! We wanted to stay at an all-inclusive resort Susan recommended a handful of different all-inclusive resorts, and we ended up choosing the Barcelo.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND working with a travel agent if you're going on a major vacation. Susan gave us such good advice during the planning process and beyond; I was especially grateful that she was thoughtful about the time of year when recommending Aruba since we were traveling during hurricane season. She also got us a much better deal on our package than we would've been able to get on our own (including some great honeymoon perks!), and set us up with the perfect travel insurance plan should anything have happened.
Now let's talk about the trip!
Saturday/Sunday
So, our honeymoon got off to a ROUGH start... 😂 Our travel agent encouraged us to fly out of the Baltimore airport (which is about three hours from where the wedding was, vs. closer airports which are anywhere between 20 minutes and two hours away) because it's the closest one with a direct flight, so we wouldn't have to worry about layovers, delays, or losing our bags. We had booked a hotel near the airport for the night of the wedding and didn't get there until almost 3:30am (our flight was at 7:00am the next morning!)
WELL, when we got there, they didn't have a record of our reservation! 😩 They looked it up by our confirmation number, and nothing... Only 10 minutes into trying to find any record of our booking did the
We sat down and waited in the lobby for I'm not even sure how long, and FINALLY someone got back to the receptionist and she got us into a room. We may have gotten one hour of sleep that night, ha. BUT that was the worst of it, we got to the airport and in four short hours, we were touching down in Aruba! We were one of EIGHT newlywed couples on the flight headed to their honeymoons, so we were in good company.
After a quick shuttle ride from the airport, we arrived at the beautiful Barcelo Aruba resort. As we stood in line, we were presented with rum punches that I'm pretty sure were 1% rum, 99% punch, but SO GOOD and welcome after our long journey!
When we got to the front desk, they informed us that we were actually booked for ROYAL LEVEL check-in, which was located on the ninth floor. What?! Kenny and I have never felt more bougie. We headed up to the royal level where we were offered champagne (yes please) and desserts, and treated like actual royalty. The employee made us dinner reservations, taxi reservations, and got us hooked up to the WiFi.
Getting to the room felt like crossing the finish line of a marathon. 😂 WE FINALLY MADE IT! After the travel troubles and not to mention the months of blood, sweat, and tears of wedding planning, we were finally in paradise as husband and wife!
Our room was stocked with not one but TWO bottles of champagne (thank you very much) along with some chocolates that we immediately demolished.
(My travel outfit - I had a MUCH cuter one planned, but after our night in Baltimore this is the best I could do, hahaha. I did don my new 'Wifey' tee, though!)
Check out that new band. 😉
After taking in the room, we had to check out our VIEW! And what a view it was, the weather was absolutely perfect and we couldn't wait to get down to the pool and the BEACH!
As soon as we got settled, we got our swimsuits on and headed down to grab some lunch and explore the pool/beach area!
Gin and tonic in hand, let the honeymoon commence. P.S. How cute is my 4 Things tote?! My good friend got it for me to use during the honeymoon, and it was so handy. Plus the company that makes them has raised over $3.3 million dollars for charity, so it's a win-win!
The sunset the first night was serene, I mean can you even?? There were a handful of couples having a sunset dinner on the beach, which looked so romantic!
First selfie as husband and wife! I had left my wedding hair in from the night before... I didn't feel like messing with 47 bobby pins. 😂
I miss those skies!
For dinner the first night, we went to the Japanese restaurant on the property. That ended up being my favorite restaurant at the resort, we went another night too. After dinner, day one was down, and it was time for some much needed REST! We ended up in bed at like 8:30pm, ha.
Monday
Our first morning we were there, we headed down for breakfast. Breakfast and lunch were all buffet style, and they had tons of unique food along with the faves we Americans know and love. I ended up getting a veggie pita most days! The coffee was surprisingly really good, too.
The breakfast place was right off the pool deck, so every day we headed straight to the pool after breakfast. Chairs filled up fast, so we had to get down as early as possible to get a spot.
There were all kinds of lizards everywhere!
The evening of our first night, we cleaned up and grabbed a taxi over to Boca Catalina for a honeymoon photoshoot with a local photographer, Quinty! If you want to see the rest, head over to my post about our shoot!
Did I mention our first full day was Kenny's 25th birthday?! I felt bad that our wedding borderline overshadowed his birthday this year, but I don't think he could've asked for a more beautiful place to spend it.
We walked around the town outside the resort to explore and find dinner. We got hungry before picking a place and stopped for a fried pickle snack at none other than HOOTERS 😂 before ending up going to a pizza place called Amore Mio, which was so good! Kenny got the quattro formaggi and I got the margherita.
Tuesday
Flash forward to Tuesday evening! We spent the whole day by the pool, living the dream. I liked getting dressed up for dinner each night, even if we were staying on-property to eat. We went to the on-property Mexican restaurant for dinner this night!
Like Kenny's shirt?? 😂 He sure does, he had to have it!
Those Aruban sunsets!! 😍
Wednesday
Wednesday was our day for adventure! had booked a UTV tour as part of Kenny's birthday present, so we took a break from relaxing to get down and dirty off-road. A shuttle came and got us from our hotel around 9:00am and took us to the tour departure point.
Do you like our bandanas?? After it was all said and done I was SO glad they gave them to us, we encountered a crazy amount of dirt, mud, and water (and did not leave the tour as anything even RESEMBLING clean)!
Kenny got to drive, and it was so crazy! I honestly can't believe they just let anyone drive those things; we both failed to bring our drivers licenses to the tour so they just told us to "be careful," ha! I really felt like we were in a game of Mario Kart. The guides DON'T take it slow, so you've gotta get the hang of handing the UTV with a quickness! Going over some of the rocks and bumps along the way really made me think that we were gonna crack the thing in half!
Our first jaunt was about 30 minutes through town and into the Arikok National Park. It was so wild driving on the streets in that thing, Aruba has tons of roundabouts and our guides had to stop their UTVs across the road at certain points to make sure that cars didn't get in between the line of UTVs and separate the group!
Our first stop was at a cave that was so cool, it has been formed by waves over many years and goes deep into the rock. There are cave drawings from the natives inside, the oldest of which date back to the 1500s!
After the cave, the guides asked us if we were ready for the fish pedicure - I thought they were kidding!! But they weren't, and Kenny coerced me into taking my shoes off and giving it a try. I think my face says it all! It felt SO funny and tickly, but I'm glad I did it!
On the way to our next stop, it started raining! Luckily it stopped for the most part by the time we got out. We climbed about 95 stairs down to a beach
The water was ominously choppy but beautiful. Normally we would've been allowed to swim, but since the surf was so rough, there were park rangers hanging around making sure no one got in. (Our guides said they'd have let us in anyway if the park rangers hadn't been there, ha!) I was kind of glad we couldn't swim because I had forgotten to wear a swimsuit like a dummy!
See that storm lurking offshore? Yeah, we'll get to that...
The tour guides were more than willing to take 25,348 photos for everyone!
See the horses down below in the background??
We encountered several other tour groups along the way, and we always beeped at each other. This photo was taken during the calm before the literal storm...
Shortly after we embarked on our drive to the next stop, It started raining SO HARD we could barely see. No windshield = torrential rain to the face at 30 mph. It was at that point that I realized that it didn't make a difference that I had forgotten to wear a swimsuit, ha.
We were just trying to keep up with the guides, when suddenly everyone stopped and we heard yelling. One of the UTVs in our group had a flat tire! We all sat along the path while the guides attempted to repair the tire with essentially no tools, ha. Eventually a guide from a different group came by with the supplies needed to change the tire and we were off again! Totally soaked and muddy, but on the road again.
After we weathered the storm, we made it to a series of natural bridges. We got to walkout on them and it was definitely a little scary! The one pictured is actually three bridges converging into one, this site has some good shots of it.
After the bridges, we headed to our last stop: natural pools! I WISH the photos did these things justice, they were truly like a magical mermaid oasis with crystal blue water, and tropical sea life! One of our guides pulled this huge crustacean out of the water, the only thing I can compare it to is a lobster. It didn't have a shell, our guide said it ditches the shell sometimes and then comes back to it. So crazy!
The rocks were really jagged and sharp, and waves were washing in and out of the pool, so it was a little scary to get in and out of the water. Once we did though, it was such a crazy magical experince! We spent the next little while swimming and jumping into the pool from rocks. At that point we were so soaked and muddy that we just swam in our clothes to rinse off, ha.
The guy in the background was a guide from another group, he was so funny!
This was the best photo I got of the ladder we had to climb to get up and down from the pools. 😳 It was terrifying! It was wooden and wet and slimy, I truly thought I might fall to my death from it haha.
After the natural pool, we headed back to the UTV tour base. It was a little after 1:00pm when we got back, but it had already felt like a LONG day!
The evening after the tour, we surprisingly had it in us to clean up and head downtown to do some shopping and walking around. This photo was taken on the pool deck of the Renaissance Resort. If you're familiar with the flamingo island in Aruba, that's the resort that owns the island! They have a ferry that leaves right from inside the hotel and takes guests out to the island to visit the flamingos. People who aren't staying at the hotel can still go to the island, but it's over $100 per person and they have very few tickets each day, if any, since guests are given priority. I heard that you have to show up pretty early to try and get them (like, 5:00am early), so Kenny and I decided we'd rather relax than risk venturing over there and getting turned away. Just visiting the resort was impressive in itself, it's connected to tons of luxury shopping and in the heart of downtown.
After walking around for a while, we stopped at Lucy's for some happy hour libations (Kenny: diet coke; Laura: mai tai) and ring pics. We skipped lunch so we were starving, we had chips and guac and fries to tide us over til dinner and they hit the spot.
When in Aruba, you've gotta get a picture with the "I 💗 ARUBA" sign! We teamed up with a group of Brazilian girls to make sure that we all got the perfect shot with it, ha. After exploring downtown, we headed back to Barcelo for dinner - we went back to the Japanese restaurant!
Thursday
The next day, more beach bummin'. We crept around and explored some of the neighboring resorts, which is harder than it sounds! Every resort has a unique wristband that all of its guests have to wear to prove that they're staying there, and a security team guarding the perimeter. We managed to chill poolside at Riu Palace Antillas (the white resort in the background) which was fun and super Euro-feeling, but agreed that we liked the vibe of Barcelo better.
We saw lots of pelicans while we were there, which was so cool! At one
point, we watched one dive for a fish and as it was floating in the
water, a seagull landed on top of it and hitched a ride. My kind of guy.
When we got back to "our" beach, a wedding was about to start! We HAD to
sit and watch, obviously. There were less than 20 guests in attendance,
and after planning my own wedding, I can say that it was probably MUCH
easier wrangling that number of people than even the modest 75 guests
that we had at ours. 😂
After the beach, we continued our routine of cleaning up for dinner and getting a drink or two at the bar before our reservations. And ring pics, lots of ring pics.
We met a sweet couple this night from Michigan, they were on their
honeymoon too! It was their last night, and I was sad imagining us
having to leave!
We ate at the on-property Italian restaurant that night and sat outside, it was so dreamy!
Friday
Friday was our last full day. It makes me sad even typing that! We topped the week off with a two-hour sunset catamaran cruise up and down the coast. There was an open bar, music, and lots of fun to be had. We met a couple from Kentucky and another from New Jersey and had a good time talking to them.
Our luck ran out the previous day with strangers taking our photos, ha.
That's what we get for asking a dunk lady our moms' age to take it.
Well, Kenny looks cute at least!
After the sunset cruise, we went to Gianni's
for dinner because a few people had recommended it to us and it was
super close to our hotel. It was SO good! Kenny got the fettuccine al
tartufo and I got the gnocchi alfredo. Do you see that gnocchi?? It was
beyond. Ate every piece (well, with a little help from Kenny there at
the end 😂).
The next day, we only had a precious few more hours in paradise. 😭 Kenny was taking advantage of ALLLLL the drinks at breakfast.
I was SO sad to be leaving!
I didn't get any good photos of the swim-up pool bar, but our "usuals" all week were a Shirley Temple for Kenny, and a sea breeze for me! We got one last round before we left for the airport.
They told us to get to the airport FOUR HOURS ahead of our flight, and we needed almost every minute of it. We had to go through local security, national security, and customs, which all took at least three hours. We had just enough time to grab some lunch before boarding our flight back to reality.
That was our dreamy Aruban honeymoon! I'm already dying to go back, I can't wait to return one day! If you're considering a trip to Aruba, clearly I highly recommend it, take me with you if you do!
xoxx, Laura
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