We went on to Aruba from May 20 through the 26th on our honeymoon. We stayed at the
Holiday Inn. Let me say I was very worried, after having read some comments about the
hotel. Here’s what we thought:
Food: We had the all-inclusive plan, but not the upgrade which just includes more drinks.
Breakfast buffet was very good. Lunch, I never saw a lunch buffet, don’t know what
the other people are talking about??? The Seaside Grill place has decent food though.
It’s nice to sit right by the water and eat your lunch, and feed the birds. Dinner:
the nightly buffet on the Iguana terrace was very good. Different every night, and we
really enjoyed the entertainment. It is so romantic to me to sit under the stars with the
breeze and eat dinner. We really like it. The "restaurant" at the hotel was
terrible I thought. I hated the food. The ambiance was great. The service was good. The
food was terrible! My husband and I were both sick from it the next day. We only ate there
once though, so maybe it was the Chicken Parmigana. The drinks everywhere were awesome.
Never watered down a bit! The weird thing is Budweiser is covered on the plan, but Bud
Light is considered a Premium and not. Don’t know why.
Hotel: The room was nice. Not fancy but we didn’t care about fancy. We had a balcony
overlooking the ocean. We stayed in the oldest part of the building though, so it was a
little run down. I would stay there again anytime, just don’t expect fancy. The
elevators went really really slow. No big deal just strange. Don’t read the signs in
the hallways about dinner etc. They are all wrong. They have changed hours due to the
off-season and effects from 9/11 so they give incorrect info. Be sure to check when dinner
and lunch hours are!
Activities: Had a great time on everything but SeaTrek. It was neat, but not worth the
extra money! I think Snuba would have been more fun. We did the Atlantis submarine. Pretty
cool. The De palm Jeep Safari. A lot of fun. Bring a LOT of sunscreen though! A lot! Went
and did SeaTrek on De Palm’s private island. You walk on the bottom of the ocean
floor with a helmet on that connects to the surface with a hose to breath. Neat but a
little expensive considering you can’t go wherever you want, but must stay on a small
pathway. We also went snorkeling with De Palm. Had a great time. Went to the shipwreck and
two other spots to snorkel. Beautiful and easy for a fist timer like myself. Did the
sunset Booze Cruise with Pelican Tours. A lot of laughs and very pretty, and we
didn’t even drink. The beach is fabulous at Holiday Inn and I am not even a beach
person. Enjoyed just hanging out there a lot! I recommend going to sign up for stuff as
soon as you get there, things book up. Also if you can go to a time share seminar (the
people hang out outside of the hotels everyday.) You can get a free car rental etc. Wish
we had known!
I’d give the hotel a 4 out of 5 star rating. Could use more food choices really. The
island itself 5 out of 5. Just be prepared to be hot and bring your own sunscreen and any
over the counter medicine (i.e. Tylenol or Pepto Bismal), as it’s very very expensive
there!
Sarah Carlson
