Aruba Trip Reports

29th trip to Aruba - Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort

November 1 - 12, 2013 by ~Amy~® and Mike

Aruba Forum Profile: ~Amy~®

First Class on Delta with a connection through Atlanta (MSP-ATL-AUA) – nice flight, on time, and flowing champagne. After getting our luggage, we once again checked the Duty Free store and, again, no decent bottles of champagne to be had. But we found everything we needed later on at Super Food.

First person we see when we walked out of baggage claim is Hans from Tropic who came over to say hello and embarrass me since we didn’t rent from him (I booked too late). Had a nice chat with Hans and then out the door we went to feel that first blast of heat and wind. We saw our usual shuttle van driver from Payless across the street and we were off to their office. We got a small Hyundai i10 which was fine for the two of us plus luggage but doubtful you could get 4 people plus luggage in it.

Amsterdam Manor

Arrived at Amsterdam Manor and escorted to our one bedroom suite on the first floor which was just steps from the pool and steps from the walkway to the beach (we met a lot of people on this trip just by sitting on our patio – LOL!) We had a nice large patio in front with a table and 4 chairs and French doors into the room. We also had a back door off of the kitchen in the rear that was very handy since it was close to the parking lot and easier to bring in groceries, etc. through the back. Kind of nice having two entrances/doors. We had some cold Amstel Brights waiting for us on ice and relaxing music playing in the bedroom which had a nice calming effect after a day of travel. Love a lot of the little "extras" that Amsterdam Manor provides: bathrobes, Dove chocolates every night, fresh flowers that the maid put in water in a wine glass (we used this on our patio table every night while enjoying a drink), a candle that we also used on our patio table for ambiance….even salt and pepper packets so you don’t have to pack those.

Only problem with being so close to the walkway was that we had an unannounced visitor one morning. We had the French doors open to the patio since we were bringing in our breakfast dishes – I was in the bedroom and Mike was in the kitchen when I heard him talking to someone and I thought "sounds like this person is IN our room but I never heard a knock". I walk out and there is a lady standing in our dining room and asking us for directions to LaQuinta. So we gave her the directions and then she suddenly asks "am I in someone’s apartment?" Uhhh, yes, yes you are. She had just wandered in since our door was open and it was the first door off the beach walkway. Not really quite sure what she was thinking. LOL! Her friends were waiting for her outside... she seemed embarrassed but decided she had a good story to tell her friends. LOL!

Eagle Beach at Amsterdam Manor

We spent most days on the beach and went for a lot of early morning beach walks from Amsterdam Manor to the Divi and back. We got our daily fruit skewers in the morning from the hotel as well as free floats to use. Spent some time at the beach bar just chatting with people while drinking a few Brights. We did get rained out one day on the beach – rained in the afternoon and never looked like it would clear up so we called it a day and decided to head over to the Bugaloe for a bit. Water was nice and clear and warm – couldn’t ask for anything better.

DePalm Island

We have not been to DePalm Island since around the year 2002 or so which was shortly before they want to an all-inclusive format. This year we decided to give it a try. We drove ourselves and got our tickets at the booth where the ferry departs from. Once we got there we wanted to sign up for Sea Trek but they said the water conditions were not good that day so we went with SNUBA instead. Went to Miramar (their buffet restaurant) and had a nice breakfast while looking out over the water. Then onto SNUBA training. It was a lot of fun except I didn’t like being tethered to the float with the oxygen along with others. Only two per float but if the other person was going slow you ended up being the one swimming and pulling the float behind. You could definitely go a lot deeper though. Saw the big blue parrot fish that we always remember and a ton of other fish. After SNUBA we had a few drinks at the bar and relaxed on the beach – then lunch at Miramar restaurant. They had a snack bar there as well but it was limited to hamburgers, chicken nuggets, etc. We liked the food at the restaurant better with more options to choose from. I thought it was actually a fun day. They have a lot of activities including massages and salsa lessons – you could be as busy or as relaxed as you wanted to be and the food and drinks were good (except the only beer they had was Amstel so had to switch to mixed drinks – darn! LOL!) The kids’ water park looked like a lot of fun, too.

Arikok Park

Drove through Arikok Park and stopped at the new Visitor’s Center to pay our entrance fee. They have some nice exhibits in the Visitor’s Center explaining the various animals (mostly birds and snakes) that you might see. Much easier driving through now that its paved but still had to drive slow because of the cut-outs where water would drain through. Drove to Dos Playa and talked to a group of 4 guys who were parked next to us and getting ready to go skim-boarding. I was downwind of them for awhile near our car and could smell something other than cigarettes…guess they were "relaxing" before getting into the water. LOL! Headed over to Boca Prins for a couple of cold drinks before heading to Charlie’s Bar to say hello to the usual gang.

Trolley

We rode the new trolley downtown - a lot of fun but a little slow (but it is free) and VERY noisy. You can hop on/hop off anywhere along the line where it stops. Once you get to the end of the line at the end of Main Street it backs up in the opposite direction so you get off and they will flip your seatbacks so you're faced in the right direction - we flipped ours since it seemed to be part of the experience. We saw the other trolley coming in our direction as we switched tracks behind the Rensaissance. The other one (blue) is a double-decker where you can also sit on top.

Bikinis Bar at the Tropicana

The Tropicana has new pool bar operators at their swim up bar and it is now called Bikinis. We popped over there for happy hour on a Sunday afternoon and they had live music, bar snacks, etc. We ran into a lot of local friends there. Nice addition for the Tropicana (and Pizza Bob's is also there.)

Passions’ Wine and Dine Event with Jordan Vineyards

All I can say is "wow, I wish they’d do more events like this!" It was one price for a wine and appetizer reception followed by a 3 course dinner and wine pairings from Jordan Vineyards. We were able to meet the wine reps from Jordan and learn more about wine while sipping on fine wine and eating incredible food. Worth every penny! If I knew when they were going to host another one of these I would plan my trip dates around it.

The Wine Room

If you like trying new wine and learning more about it, then the Wine Room is for you. It is fairly new and is now taking reservations from tourists. It’s a small nicely decorated place located in Orange Plaza. We told Monrick (owner) the types of wine we usually like and he steered us toward some new ones that he thought we’d enjoy. We had 4 tastings of some excellent wine along with some great tapas (very nice and flavorful meat, cheese, and bread with oil), and an interesting conversation about wine (you can tell Monrick has a true passion and knowledge for wine.) I will definitely be going back again on our next trip. Reservations are a MUST since it is very small.

New restaurant for us

The West Deck – great place located on Governor’s Bay just past the Renaissance. Very casual with a small bar, lots of tables and a great view of the water. They have mostly small plates and plates to share so we tried several and decided that the ceviche was our favorite. We liked it so much that we stopped by twice during our stay.

Restaurants/Bars

Favorites that we had great dinners/drinks at: Bingo’s, Barney’s, Amadeus, Passions, 2 Fools and a Bull, Pago Pago at the Westin, Bugaloe, Chalet Suisse (haven’t been there in ages – nice rack of lamb), Mango’s, Screaming Eagle, Ike’s Bistro, Linda’s Pancakes – all were great! Also had drinks at Bugaloe, Charlie’s Bar, Boca Prins, Fusion, and The Local Store.

The one "miss" was Carpe Diem located downtown. Décor was great, loved the ambiance, food was fairly good, but... the service was something to be desired. Sometimes I felt like we were invisible – well, okay MOST of the time I felt like we were invisible and it wasn’t even that busy. We stopped by for lunch so I’m glad we didn’t waste a dinner there. It could be a nice place – you can’t beat the location – but until they get their act together, we’ll wait before going back.

Bulletin Board Party

Wow – what a great turnout! Met a lot of great people that I feel like I’ve "known" for years but have never met. After happy hour drinks at Amsterdam Manor’s beach bar, a group of us headed to 2 Fools and a Bull for a fabulous culinary evening with the Fools. It was fun having the entire place to ourselves. We took a few breaks here and there out on the patio for a glass of wine and conversation together. It was really a fun evening!

Departure

Flew out on a Tuesday (Delta flight at 4pm) and our time from the airline check-in counter to the gate was about 35 minutes total.

We had a great time at our "home away from home". Hope to be back again for trip #30 in April 2014.