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Aruba Trip Report - Allegro Beach Resort
August 24 - 29, 2000
Sent in by: Gary G. and Carol
My fiancé, Carol, and I went to
Aruba for the first time in late August. I had decided on an all-inclusive hotel and was
choosing between the high-rise Allegro and the low-rise Bushiri. I did a lot of internet
research and picked the Allegro because I thought that, for an additional $600, the
Allegro would be a step up in class compared to the Bushiri. It was, and I made the right
choice. The food was OK, not great, but I still felt that the Allegro all-inclusive was a
good value for the money. Overall, we had a very enjoyable stay at the Allegro Aruba. We
spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool/beach and didn't try to see every part of the
island like we did on St. Thomas. If you can afford to stay at a more upscale hotel and
pay for your food and drinks - do it because you may be disappointed in the Allegro. The
following is a description of the hotel facilities and our experiences that I hope
benefits future Allegro Aruba visitors:
Required Documents for Boarding the Plane
If you do not have a Passport, you must have an original State-issued birth certificate
with the raised seal plus a photo driver's license. A hospital birth certificate, with
imprints of little baby feet and hands is not acceptable. An original State-issued
"Notification of Birth" with raised seal, issued by the States for many years,
is also NOT acceptable. Carol had the "Notification of Birth" and was denied
boarding. We missed our 7 A.M. flight on Thursday the 24th and had to go to the State
Bureau of Vital Records and quickly obtain the right birth certificate. We made the 1:30
P.M. flight to Aruba the same day. If this problem had occurred on the weekend, we would
have been royally screwed.
Airline, Customs, Check-in, Aruba Airport
We flew American Airlines from Philly to Miami, then to Aruba. The return flight was from
Aruba to Puerto Rico, then to Philly. No problems at all with the airline, customs (either
way from/to Aruba), or hotel check-in. You need to save the little stub from the Arubian
immigration form that you fill out prior to entry and return it to immigration when you
leave. God only knows what happens if you lose the stub.
We took a taxi from the airport to the Allegro - $17. At the end of our vacation, we took
the DePalm tour bus (pre-paid) to the airport. The bus stopped at several other high-rise
hotels on the way to the airport, which wasn't a problem because we had 2 ½ hours before
our flight left.
The Aruba airport is brand new. The stores are still under construction. Buy all of your
souvenirs before you get to the airport for the flight home. There is no restaurant at the
airport (as of 8/31/00), only two small convenience stores. Return check-in took about an
hour.
The Allegro Resort
Amenities
Three restaurants, five bars, casino, dance club/lounge with pool tables, Vegas-style
showroom, DePalm tour desk, Red Sail Sports tour desk and equipment rental building,
shops, fitness center, massage/spa boutique, car rental counter, pool, free water sports:
kayaks, windsurfing, paddle boats, rafts. The hotel is U-shaped with the pool area in the
center of the "U". It is located close to the beach with numerous palm trees and
huts.
Rooms
I paid a little extra for the Deluxe room which is the same as the Superior room but with
a pool/ocean view. The view was nice and worth the extra dollars. I requested, and
received, a room on the top floor with a king-sized bed. The room was newly refinished but
still a "motel" style. The ceiling was white popcorn spray, walls were a beige
textured finish, rug was fairly new. In-room safe in the closet. The rooms that are direct
oceanfront views are suites. The only problem that we had in the room was that the
compressor in our A/C unit died on the 4th day (I may have killed it). They sent a
maintenance guy to check it and all he did was turn down the temperature setting which did
nothing. I requested, and got in 3 hours, another room on the top floor. This room was in
the South tower and had a slightly nicer bathroom.
Pool
The pool is not a typical rectangular or oval shape. It is about 15 feet wide and
"wanders" around in a circular form. Water depth ranges from 3 ½ to 5 feet. In
the center of the pool is an "island" with 2 small waterfalls and 2 hot tubs
which are accessed by a small wooden foot bridge. There are many palm trees, rock
formations, flowers, and plants in the pool area. Lounge chairs at the pool were occupied
early in the day. A few iguanas sun bathed on the rock formations early in the morning.
Beach/Ocean
The beach is fairly wide with pure-white finely ground coral "sand". There are
many palm trees and huts for shade. I never had any problem with the availability of
lounge chairs on the beach. The ocean is beautiful shades of turquoise blue with very calm
waters. No large rocks are in the water, which is good for swimming but bad for
snorkeling. Wear sunscreen, SPF 30 minimum. The sun is very strong and I saw a lot of
people "fried" which didn't look fun, especially if there were still a few days
remaining in Aruba. There is a constant 20 mph breeze along the hotel shoreline.
Fire-orange sunsets over the ocean were awesome. Gazing at the stars at night on the beach
was nice too.
Bars
The Allegro has a swim-up pool bar, beach hut bar, lounge/dance club bar, casino bar
(cash), and a bar in Caruso's - a reservations-only restaurant. If you like to drink, you
will like the all-inclusive Allegro. People who say that the drinks are watered down must
have left their beverages in the sun too long so that all the ice melted. The beach hut
bar and pool bar had any kind of tropical juice drink and frozen drink imaginable. The
beach hut bar also had hot dogs early in the afternoon. The lounge bar had some top shelf
liquor (I drank Stoli's vodka most of the time in the lounge). Caruso's had a good
selection of after-dinner drinks - Bailey's, Kahlua, Frangelica, Sambuca, etc. Beer on tap
was the local Arubian beer plus American domestic beer (I forgot which one). I'm not sure
of the bottled beer. Wine was served with dinner at Caruso's. The pool bar was open from
10 A.M. to 10 P.M. Beach hut bar from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M.. Lounge bar from noon to 2 A.M..
Try an "Iguana" at the pool bar - it had the alcohol content of a Long Island
Iced Tea, as it was made with vodka, rum, tequila, crème de banana, blue triple sec, and
pina coloda mix.
Food
The food at the Allegro was OK. It wasn't great, but it was OK. Don't expect 4 star food,
or even cruise ship-type food, because you will be disappointed.
Breakfast: The breakfast buffet at the Topaz restaurant was probably the
best meal that was offered. Anything you could ever want for breakfast, as much as you
wanted. Papaya's, another restaurant, offered continental breakfast. Both restaurants were
open-air.
Lunch: A buffet lunch was offered at Topaz from 12:30 to 2:30. We were
always doing something during this time slot so we never had the buffet lunch. The other
lunch option offered was at Papaya's with a boring menu of hot dogs, hamburgers, fish
sandwich, club sandwich, etc. I was a little disappointed in this menu - I thought they
could have offered a better selection. I had the fish sandwich twice - it was very good -
fresh fried Mahi-Mahi. They don't de-bone the fish so chew carefully.
Dinner: Three options were available for dinner. Topaz had a menu that
changed twice a week. We ate once there - Carol had filet mignon and I had grilled salmon
steaks (watch the bones). Both meals were good. Desert was ice cream/frozen yogurt
selections. Another dinner option was the theme buffets (Italian, Chinese, Prime Rib,
etc.) offered in the Vegas-style showroom. We went to the Prime Rib buffet and it was very
good. Caruso's, an air conditioned cozy little restaurant, offered two seatings at 6:15
and 9:45. You need to make reservations a day-or-two early because it books up. Caruso's
had a small tropical garden with falling water as part of the restaurant. They poured the
wine freely if you asked for it. The food here was hit and miss. Appetizers were no good.
For dinner, I had the filet mignon, twice, and it was excellent both times. Carol had
linguine with shrimp one night, and chicken parm (by mistake) the next night. The
pasta/shrimp was good, the parm was only OK. Dessert was not that good. Make use of the
after-dinner drinks.
Casino
The casino was small but had most games your average rookie gambler needs: black jack
tables ($5 minimum), craps tables, roulette tables, slot machines. Live music was provided
nightly. It had a cash bar, but drinks were free if you were gambling.
Lounge/Dance Club
This area offered an air-conditioned refuge for people to hide from the sun during the day
and play pocket billiards. Music changed depending on the time and day of the week. Small
but nice light show and dance floor. Good dance music late at night, open till 2 A.M. The
lounge was a good place to relax in the hotel before or after dinner. The room had two
large staircases that took you right to the pool area.
Vegas-style Shows - did not go to any.
Snorkeling Trip
We went on a 5 hour snorkeling trip to DePalm Island and a neighboring reef (offered by
DePalm Tours) for $45 each including drinks and a good catered lunch on the boat supplied
by Le Domme catering. The boat went down the
east coast of Aruba and provided a nice view of most of the hotels as well as Sonesta Island.
DePalm Island was an excellent place for shallow water snorkeling. We could have used more
time on the small island - they only gave us 45 minutes. Many large multi-colored fish
waited in the water to be fed and they came up to you looking for a handout. The rocky
ocean floor was slippery and the currents were surprisingly strong. I swam out deeper and
spotted a nice-sized sea turtle in the coral reef. The boat then went to a nearby reef for
snorkeling in 35-foot water. I used a life jacket around my waist for buoyancy and it
worked out good because the currents took me about 40 yards away from the boat. There were
not many fish at this reef.
"Jeep" Rental
I didn't want to spend a full day on an organized open-air jeep tour so I rented an
air-conditioned Dahatsu SUV from Economy
Car Rental across the road from the Allegro. I don't know if I saved any $$
by using this place (with a 10% discount coupon) versus the rental place in the Allegro. I
paid $58 for a 24 hour rental - I think that the 3 day rentals were a better deal but I
only wanted 1 day. They had to get the car from the airport, a ½ hour wait, even though I
reserved it the day before on the phone. This SUV was mid-sized, auto-trans, large ground
clearance - not a bad little toy for a day. I'm glad I got the A/C.
Baby Beach
We took the Jeep thing to Baby
Beach, driving through Oranjestad which was a total ghost town because
everything is closed on Sundays. We got lost a couple of times, there are no signs and the
roads are not marked. Look for the anchor in the rock and you're close. I heard that Baby Beach
was good for shallow water snorkeling, but I found it to be very crowded (a lot of locals
on Sundays?). We stayed to the side of the main area, which was more secluded but closer
to the oil refinery and had some abandoned piping and valves from the refinery. Nothing to
snorkel on this side beach.
"Tunnel of Love"
Carol wanted to see this so we drove through rocky dirt roads to check it out. Don't be
fooled by the name, the "Tunnel of Love" was no romantic stroll through a
visitor-friendly tunnel. If we would have known what we were getting into, we would never
have done it. It was a hot, humid, cramped, dirty, garbage filled, pitch black cave. The
name comes from the so-called heart shaped entry - a stretch of the imagination. For $14,
I got a battery backpack lantern flashlight, Carol got a regular flashlight, and we both
got a total disaster. As soon as I stepped into this cave, I told her that she wasn't
going to like it, but we proceeded anyway. As we made our way following fading, painted
arrows on the walls, the descent became so steep that we needed to use a rope to guide
ourselves down. Cave residents included bats, roaches, and a small white rat. We stumbled
over the uneven rocky floor several times. We were the only ones in the cave the entire
time. There were many areas where the rock roof was so low that you had to crouch and
walk. Carol hit her head 3 times and was a total basket case by this time. It wasn't a
good scene watching the one you love having a major panic attack. We continued on until I
saw a marker that noted the exit was 50 meters ahead. I came upon the "exit"
which required you to squeeze yourself through the rocks to get out. I was unsure of this
exit, so we back-tracked through the cave and got out the same way that we went in. Never
again.
California Lighthouse
We took a ride up the north coast past the lighthouse for some sightseeing. This side of
the island offered rocky coastline with waves crashing on the shore - much different than
the beach in front of the hotels. I followed the coast on a rocky dirt road and it was an
enjoyable ride. You really do need an off-road vehicle for a trip like this. There was an
interesting looking restaurant near the lighthouse that offered nice views of Aruba's
eastern shore.
A Note on Tipping
Although the Allegro is "all-inclusive" which takes care of gratuities, I still
tipped waiters, bartenders, and bellhops because they don't receive any tip money from the
Allegro.
Gary G. and Carol
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