28^th trip to Aruba - Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort

April 19 - 30, 2013 by ~Amy~®

Aruba Forum Profile: ~Amy~®

Arrival

Flew First Class on Delta with a connection through Atlanta (MSP-ATL-AUA) - on time and breezed through immigration, luggage, etc. Checked the Duty Free store but no decent bottles of champagne this time so had to pick up a few at the grocery store.

Rented a car from Payless and found my shuttle driver within a few minutes outside the terminal. Only took a couple of minutes to drive to their office at the Toyota dealership and complete the paperwork. The car was already waiting with A/C turned on and my luggage in the back by the time the paperwork was done. Headed to Amsterdam Manor, ready to start my vacation until.... traffic jam downtown. Took me 20 minutes to get from the roundabout near the Renaissance to the Valero on the other end of downtown.

Amsterdam Manor

Arrived at Amsterdam Manor and was greeted by hugs from Julio at the front desk. I was early so my room wasn't ready yet. Headed to the beach bar for a Bright at about 3pm while I waited. Back to the front desk at 4pm, checked in, got a complimentary rum punch during check in, and off to my favorite room (a 2 bedroom/2 bath that I was sharing with 3 girlfriends who arrived the following day.)

Grocery Stores

After checking in and unpacking, headed to the grocery store for supplies. I wanted to try the new Super Food but I was just too tired and wanted to go to a store I knew so I could grab what I wanted and get out quickly. Headed to Ling’s (since I knew they had the champagne I wanted) and bought the usual breakfast foods, Amstel Brights, wine, champagne, pop, etc. A couple of days later, my girlfriends and I ventured over to the new Super Food which is right down the street from Amsterdam Manor - loved it! Loved that it was so close and it had everything we needed. It's now our "go to" store.

Beach and Weather

We "beached" it every day on Eagle Beach and hung out at Passions' beach bar for lunch and drinks. Nice and breezy, sunny, with big white puffy clouds. It did rain (really poured) one morning for about 2 hours. It was the morning I was meeting a friend for coffee at the Marriott’s lobby/coffee bar so had to run to the car without getting soaked. By the time I got back to the hotel around 11am it had cleared up, was sunny again, and proved to be a hot and steamy day.

Had a great time on the beach, water was nice, and no problems getting a palapa during most of the day. Just nice, relaxing, do-nothing days with a few Brights, good friends, and lunch from the beach bar.

Tranquilo

Ahhhhh.... sailing and snorkeling with Captain Anthony never gets old! It's always a great way to spend the day and we got to meet Buster on this trip, too. A very good time was had by all! Looking forward to it again on the next trip.

New restaurant for us

Ike's Bistro - Dinner was with two friends and our appetizers included the ceviche, scallops & corn, and tomato soup - our entrees were the seabass, tuna, and paella. All were excellent - great flavors and ingredients! My tuna came with quinoa which I love and it's the first time I've ever seen quinoa in Aruba. The bread is served with hummus and tapenade (my favorites!) The chef took your basic entrees that you see in Aruba and added a Mediterranean twist to them. Presentation was also excellent. I would definitely recommend the poolside seating - seemed very soothing next to the pool with the blue lights. Will definitely be back again to Ike's on our next trip!

Restaurants/Bars

Favorites that we had great dinners/drinks at: Bingo's, Barney's, Amadeus, El Gaucho, Passions, Tulip, 2 Fools and a Bull, and Pago Pago at the Westin - all were great! Also had drinks at Bugaloe, Moomba's, Café 080, and Nos Clubhuis.

The only place we had dinner that was just so-so was Casa Tua - and I think it had more to do with the music/atmosphere than the food. We had music on one side of us coming from Soprano's, music on the other side coming from the plaza, and live music behind us coming from the Hard Rock. I like music as much as the next person but this was music overkill.

Bulletin Board Party

Had a great party, met some new people and it was fun to say hello to old friends, too. Ann and I had a champagne toast for Gary/Eagle Beach Boy. Also great to finally meet Charlie (ArubaKid) and Tom & Stanley!

Departure

Flew out on a Tuesday (Delta flight at 3pm) and was dreading it after hearing all of the horror stories regarding the back-up at U.S. Customs over the past few months. But it took me about 45 minutes from the airline check-in counter to the gate.

Cheers.... to another great Aruba trip! Looking forward to being back in November.