Aruba is an island of tropical sun, white sand beaches (the "sand" is actually white coral dust, is very soft and doesn't get hot in the sun!), moderate humidity and excellent weather year round. The island is located out of the hurricane belt and only rarely feels any effect of Caribbean hurricanes. It rains less than 20" per year, so Aruba is arid and water is a valuable commodity. The island population desalinates their own water from the ocean in a modern, state-of-the-art, dual purpose desalination/electrical generation facitlity, and is not only very safe to drink, is some of the best tasting water you'll ever enjoy! The Trade Winds blow east to west across Aruba, and that helps keep the heat moderate year round. On the windward side of the island the wind feels a bit "stiff", but on the leeward side of the island, where all the resorts are, the winds have been tempered somewhat crossing the island and are only enough to blow your napkin off your lap occassionally. One quickly learns to weight down lighter items. At the Bucuti Beach Resort, under the little huts with tables, each table had a brick provided for just such purposes.
Water sports abound in Aruba, and one of the favorite watersports is drinking and eating on anything that floats! Yes, yes.....to be sure, there is sailing and windsurfing, parasailing, deep sea fishing, snorkeling and scuba diving, jet skiing, but for great fun and a chance to party with other island visitors, the Mi Dushi Tattoo Cruises and Jolly Roger Cruises, De Palm Sunset Cruises and Red Sails Cruises will take you out and show you a great time with a great view of the island. We took a Sunset Cruise with De Palm and loved it. The crew of the 42 foot catamaran was jovial, entertaining and never let our glasses get dry. The sunset was ok, but the trip was GREAT!
In our minds, the real draw of Aruba is the beaches and Palm Beach and Eagle beach are known to be the best. Bucuti Beach Resort is on Eagle Beach and has a "beach cam" for you to check out current conditions and some of the natural beauty of the beach. The sun is very warm, but the air is perfect with the breeze and the water, the water is an unbelievable green going to blue that even when you are in it, you can hardly believe the colors. The swimming in front of Bucuti is nice, though the water gets deep pretty quickly. There is a slight swell most of the time, though it is very easy to swim, tread water or just float on your back. The beach in front of and around Bucuti is expansive and never, ever felt crowded. Everyone just grabs a couple of chaise lounge chairs and finds a palm tree or a hut and sets up for the day and it feels very private (though not alone). In spite of some of what you might read, topless swimming and sunbathing are NOT illegal in Aruba. The toplessness is only acceptable down on the beach areas and NOT in the restaurants or into the hotels. My wife sunbathed and swam every single day topless and she was among many other women doing the same. Everyone seems to be very respectful of this, we never felt like we were being stared at nor did we do any staring (well, not OVERT staring, anyway).
We felt like we were in paradise every single day!
We took a taxi into town twice, to shop and look around. Iv or Carsten, at the Bucuti activities desk were always willing to call the taxi for us, and the trip to town was $6.00 and we would tip $2.00. There is a public bus system that works very well and cheaply too. I was told that for $2.00 you could ride all day. The busses we saw were in good condition and air conditioned. The bus stops are easy to identify and are clean too. Once in town you could catch a taxi as easy as stepping up to the curb. Like as not, one would stop and ask if you needed a taxi before you could get your hand up to hail one. The taxis we took spoke reasonably good English, and paying in American Dollars was no problem, as we found was true even in some more remote sections of the island.