Renaissance and Marriott

October 16-24, 2004 by Melissa

We flew from Detroit to Newark, then on to Aruba. When the plane is getting closer to Aruba, you can see the water and all the beautiful colors, it was a site to see! We landed at the airport and got through customs pretty quick...then we got into a cab to take us to the Renaissance. Apparently the one cab driver I decided to strike up a conversation with was not the friendly type, so I guess all are not the "happy island" type. We went to the Renaissance Beach Resort, and unfortunately we had to wait a couple hours for our room.

No worries, we just got a couple cocktails and looked around. As this was our first trip to Aruba, we were open to the idea of being "in the action" at the Renaissance, which is downtown. The "Beach" resort isn't really on a beach, it has a man-made one next to the pool. Finally, we got to our room, which was nice and big, with a garden view, and actually we could see the ocean, so all was good.

The island was awesome, the boat takes you right there. They have a restaurant on the island, and it is a nice way to spend the day. We were happy with our resort, until we saw the Marina Hotel (part of Renaissance, just across the street). The Marina hotel is much nicer...I don't know about the rooms, but the bar was nicer, you got real (plexi-glass!) cups, compared to the dinky plastic cups at the Beach Resort. Also, the "restaurant" at the Beach resort is an outdoor area where they have breakfast (we got free breakfast every morning). It rained a couple days, however, and the area was practically flooded and only a few tables could be used because of the water. We usually waited to eat at the outdoor area. We walked over to the Marina hotel for breakfast a couple times, and it was MUCH better. They offered scrambled eggs standard, where at the outdoor area you had to wait in line and order them. We enjoyed the Renaissance Hotel, until...

We took a cab to the high rise hotels and saw how fabulous the beaches were...all the water sports you want (none available at Renaissance), lounge chairs, huts, etc., it was beautiful. Right away I wanted to move, but we had a special, buy 5 nights, get 1 free. So we stuck out the 6 nights, then moved to the Marriott Stellaris for 2 nights. Boy do I wish it was the other way around. The Marriott is right on the beach, and they have people setting up chairs (good lounge chairs!) and huts, and you can reserve huts (not sure how). I noticed people bought beer at the store and the hotel would put it on ice for you! The beach was gorgeous, powdered sugar sand, and the water was heaven. Bottom was pure sand...The Marriott Resort and Casino was a fantastic hotel with all the amenities. Large rooms with a big balcony overlooking the water (even though we had garden view we could still see the ocean just fine). HUGE bathroom with robes for your use. Service was impeccable. The pool outside was great, has a nice waterfall, swim-up bar and is a little cooler than the ocean, which is a welcome feeling. The hotel store was great, we actually found lots of bargains (for a hotel store!). Both hotels were great, but we decided Palm Beach is the place for us, so we will be returning to the Marriott on our next visit. Pricey, but worth the money.

Can't wait to go back to Aruba!

Melissa