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Vakantie Curacao
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Paradera Park Apartments - December 19th to 28th
By Auntie Mame
This was our seventh trip to Aruba and our first staying off the hotel strip.
Car Rental:
We always rent a car. This year we really needed one. Paradera arranged the rental for us from Value Car Rental. It was a white Yaris
which ran very well. The Value people picked us up at the airport and drove us to the rental office (near Gasparito's).
The paperwork took only a minute and we were off. It was equally easy at the end of our trip. The day before leaving we
called Rich and told him what time we would be at the office. One our final day we took the car to the Value office and
Carlos drove us down to the airport. I actually like that arrangement quite well.
Lodging
We stayed at Paradera Park Apartments. The property is a jewel and the owners are wonderful. The place was decorated
for Christmas with a wreath on every door. Inside there was a small Christmas tree on our bureau. The fridge was on,
with ice cube trays filled and a pitcher of cold water inside. We felt well and truly welcomed. We had a studio,
which has everything one would need. The pool and gardens are beautiful. We spent quite a bit of time there.
Cell phone
Because we were not on the strip I wanted a cell phone - just in case we got well and truly lost. We got one from
Aruba Fast Phones at the airport. We never used it for an emergency but we did use it for all of our on-island calls.
Service was better than it sometimes is here in the USA. Next time we will want the MODO-WON which has a GPS and a
directory of activities, restaurants etc. that you can browse through and then call for a reservation.
What we did:
We spent some days on the beach (Malmok or Eagle), some days at our pool, some days touring the island. We went again to
the Donkey Sanctuary where we fed the donkeys our carrots. More of Natural Bridge had fallen so we needed to check that out.
On Christmas day we went to the AMBR for the BB party. We met up with 'EagleBeachBoy and 'Liz from NJ' as well as Jurgen and
Chef Marc from AMBR. It's always nice to meet folks you've been online with. We did some shopping at Ling's and Certified
but most of it in the small shops on the back roads. We ate pastechi for breakfast, had lunch at the beach, some dinners
at home with an amandelstaaf that was a gift from our hosts for dessert. We spent a pleasant two hours at Caribbean
Laundry which we chose because it advertised a "relaxed washing atmosphere with air conditioning and lots of parking space."
(They do have laundry service at Paradera but we require certain products due to allergies - so we always do our own.)
By the end of our trip we had almost begun to feel like locals rather than visitors.
Where we ate
The real reviews will be in the restaurant
section but a quick rundown.
Returned to:
Bingo
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for both lunch and dinner. Always a winner.
It's a 'must go' for us. If we lived on Aruba we'd be there all the time.
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| Linda's Pancake |
Yum!
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| Salt and Pepper |
very good indeed - awesome gazpacho
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French Steak House
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Christmas dinner. Loved it.
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The Garden
at The Mill Resort
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this is always our 'reasonable price' stop. Very good still.
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New to us:
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La Granja
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down in Savaneta. Fast food chicken. Really really good.
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Fishes & More
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excellent - and Rick (from MJ's) is there now as well.
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Chef's Table
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this is the stuff of which Michelin stars are made. 'nough said'.
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Overall
Looking back, I think that was my favorite time in Aruba. We have stayed at fancier places and for longer periods but there
is something special about getting off the hotel strip, hearing almost no English unless someone was speaking to us and even
shopping locally. And there is certainly something special about Paradera park Apartments. If we return to Aruba for an
eighth time it will probably be to Paradera
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