Wyndham Resort (now Westin)

November 14 - 21, 2003 by Karrie

Thanks to everyone who made our vacation planning easier! Below is our trip report from our first time in Aruba!

We visited Aruba for the first time from November 14 -21st and had a great time! We stayed at the Wyndham and couldn't have asked for a nicer bellman, Frank. He was enthusiastic, fun and gave us lots of little discount cards for things around the island.

We booked our trip through MCM Tours in New Jersey, and Amy was sooooo very helpful. I think I asked her a million and a half questions - she answered every single one of them!

We had an even numbered room on the ninth floor with a great view. The drapes in the room were dark enough that you did not have to worry about letting in a bit of sunlight unless you wanted to!

We did not do the all-inclusive because we had heard there were a number of great restaurants to visit. The following are the ones we went to:

Caffe Baci (Wyndham): Food was good, our first night there and we were exhausted! Our waiter didn't seem to have a handle on the desserts, but we didn't care.

Gilligan's (Radisson): Ate here for lunch one of the days and loved our meal. The chicken sandwich was yummy!

Terrace (Wyndham): Decent lunch, I ordered the quesadillas and they were filling and kept me satisfied until dinner.

Le Petit Café (outside of Playa Linda): We loved this place! They serve your meal on a lava stone heated to 500 degrees! I wouldn't want to eat at the open-air one in downtown because your dinner gets a little steamy and the AC is definitely welcomed! We had surf & turf and the filet - it was fabulous!

Iguana Joe's (downtown): This was a great place for a quick dinner. We were both tired and shopping downtown and decided to grab an early dinner here. It was fun people watching and I had the best chicken sandwich!

El Gaucho: This was where we took our friends who live on the island part of the year to thank them for 'touring' us around. I had the lamb (YUM!) and my husband had the El Gaucho steak… both were to die for! I only ate half of my meal, you HAVE to go to this place with an empty stomach or you'll leave most of your meal on the plate!

Pago Pago (Wyndham): Delicious meal - we used the coupon for the giant tropical drink here! My meal was the Caribbean Shrimp served right in a coconut. My sweetie had the lamb chops, yum!

Blossoms (Wyndham): This is always our favorite kind of restaurant. The servers were so pleasant here, and we love the Japanese Steak House cooking!

Azull (Wyndham): This was the place we saved for our last dinner on the island. It was delicious, and you can't beat the service. Rudy was hysterical and had us laughing the whole time we were there. We were the last ones to leave that night, and we were so sad to see our trip be over!

Lots of days we didn't have lunch because we had the breakfast buffet included in our package, which was great!

As mentioned before, we had friends who were on the island while we were there and they took us on a tour of their favorite spots. Some of our favorite spots were along the sand dunes by the California lighthouse. We have some really great photographs there, and we'll be using one for our Christmas card this year!

Most of our time on the island was spent swimming in that incredible water - I have not seen sand that soft in my life! Only one and a half days were spent by the pool, but the way the Wyndham's pool and beach areas are set up it is great because you can chill by the pool and still walk out over to the ocean and jump in. The chair cushions at the Wyndham were very comfortable by the pool, it almost made you want to stay there versus the beach.

We attended the Manager's Cocktail Party (held every Tuesday night) and my husband went on stage to participate in the limbo contest. For his efforts he received a $60 prize package to the casino, where I went and won some $$$ at the blackjack table with the matchplay coupon. The guy who does the limbo show there is really something else, I could not imagine how he was able to contort his body that way!

Every morning after breakfast we would see Jose and birds. Jose was really nice, taking a million pictures of us with the birds. We got some fun shots!

The concierge and bell desk were very helpful every time we called them, and we were overall very happy with the service the Wyndham provided. Our housekeeper was efficient and kind, and we left her between $3 - 5 each day for her help. The only suggestion I would make for the Wyndham would be to take the front revolving door off of automatic because my husband's Tevas got stuck in it twice.

So sad the vacation is over, but we have some terrific memories of it! Feel free to email and questions you might have!

Karrie