Kat

My fiance and I are going to Aruba July 99 for our honeymoon. We haven't booked anything yet because we can't decide to go all inclusive (Allegro formally Americana) or just go and stay a nice little hotel and pay for everything on a daily basis. NEED ADIVISE and I need some opinions on activities! If can give me info on Allegro, that would be great! My fiance is 42 and I am 32, we love the beach, love to drink, love to shop and love to swim. Also, do the resorts offer snorkeling?

Thomas Finn

I recommend you go all-inclusive to Aruba. Aruba is very expensive to eat out on your own and the purchase of alcoholic beverages during your stay <BR>would be even more costly. If the Allegro is located near the Palm Beach area where we will be visiting Aruba at Easter 1999, the beach is excellant. We are staying at the Holiday Inn Beach Resort & Casino. We visited Aruba in 1991 and we loved it so much we promised ourselves that we would return. Enjoy <BR>Tom <BR>

Jennifer

Hi Kat! My husband and I went to Aruba for our honeymoon in July 97. We had a great time...if I can give you any advice...stay at the Hyatt! It is on the expensive side, but it is your honeymoon! It is by far the nicest property on the island. The food is expensive all over the island, but there are a few nice restaurants. The Marriott also looked nice, but the Hyatt was great! Good luck and enjoy! <BR> <BR>Jen

karen pinn

Hi Kat: Aruba is the perfect honeymoon spot. We stayed at LaCabana which offers suites with cooking facilities and also offered a meal package. We liked this instead of an all inclusive because we were able to take in a few of the wonderfully romantic restaurants in Aruba.We went to Chez mathildes and Lescale for dinners that we'll remember for ever (especially the violinist playing the theme for L'miserable. If your looking for a beach holiday with safe surroundings Aruba is a great choice. I also agree that the hyatt is the nicest looking hotel, we walked around there alot and enjoyed there beach side bar. The whole Palm Beach boardwalk area is very accessable to all visitors to Aruba. Feel free to E-mail if I can be of more assistance. Karen

debbie

Yes - all inclusive - if you are Canadian, you'll find Aruba very expensive. We did all-inclusive for two weeks at the Holiday Inn for a really good low price and were still able to: <BR>1) enjoy some of the restaurants on the island - in particular enjoyed The Buccaneer for the whole lot of seafood we ate for a not too bad price. <BR>2) enjoy the grounds of the drop dead gorgeous Hyatt Regency which is just two doors down from the H.I. (without having to pay the prices. <BR>So all inclusive is not a bad thing on Aruba - all the money you save on separate restaurant meals can be spent SHOPPING, SHOPPING, SHOPPING until you drop. <BR>Shopping in Aruba is great however, the stores in Oranjestad are not open in the evening, so you will have to give up some beach time to shop. Again though, if you choose any one of the all inclusive or regular places along Palm Beach (ie., the Marriott $$$$$, the H.I. $$$, the Allegro $$$$, the Hyatt $$$$$), you can have your beach and shop too because each of the hotels has it's own little shopping area and include many of the stores you would find in Oranjestad. <BR>Allegro will definitely satisfy your beach, swim and shop requirements. And, a Canadian + love to drink = all inclusive!!!!! <BR>P.S. should you wish to make a trip into Oranjestad for shop, shop, shopping then simply hop the bus that stops all along the road behind the high rise hotel strip - it's $2. return, drops you off in town and to get back, you look for the group of touristy types waiting at the bus stop in front of Wendy's! <BR>P.P.S. for two very good snorkeling trips take: <BR>1) the 3 1/2 hr cruise with Octopus Tours which picks you up right on Palm Beach and takes you to 3 good snorkelling spots. <BR>2) the Depalm Tours sun and snorkelling trip - they pick you up at your hotel, run you over to their private island - my other half said that the snorkelling there rivalled the snorkelling in Cozumel! <BR>You will love Aruba but even more when you are not spending time opening that wallet to pay for drinks, meals, and more drinks!

Kim

Don't go all-inclusive in Aruba. There are so many wonderful restaurants like El Gaucho and La Petite Cafe in the square and cool bars to hit. Having a late dinner after a day in the sun is a lot of fun and if you do all-inclusive you will feel you have to get your money's worth at your hotel. The Americana is okay. I haven't seen it since Allegro took over. I know at the Hyatt next door you cannot use their pool or facilities unless you are a guest of the Hyatt. So it is nice to be next door to the Hyatt since you can wander their grounds, but it is like -- you can look but not touch. We really love staying at the Hyatt. It is such a great place and hard to go elsewhere once you have stayed there. Wonderful spa/sauna, pool, gardens, etc. But the Holiday Inn is a good value for the money. It can be downright cheap and while their pool is yucky, their beach and palm trees are probably the best on Palm since it is older and the trees are great. Places I would no longer stay: LaCabana (not on the beach and the beach across the road is nothing to brag about) and the Sonesta (downtown is too congested!). As for snorkeling, it is not very good from Palm Beach but you can go further down past the Marriott to a residential area and have great snorkeling form the beach. Just drive down and look for the snorkelers. I think it is called MelMar or Mel mac. Something like that. And snorkeling outside the cove at Baby Beach is great which is another place you can go to on your own. De Palm Island is nice but the reef is dying/dead. Big blue parrot fish though. Don't do the tour. Go by yourself. Take a taxi, catch the ferry for minimal cost, spend the day at DePalm Island at your pace, and for less money than a tour where someone is herding you around. Warning: the ferry has posted times, but they are likely to not adhere to the schedule. You can try blowing your horn if they don't show up. I like DePalm. It has funky lizards and the people who run the place are nice. I always feel sorry for the people on a tour though. They are herded to lunch, herded into the water, herded back to the boat or ferry, etc. Aruba is so easy to do on your own. It is safe and the people are so nice. You can have a lot of fun exploring, getting lost since I do not believe a truly accurate map of the island exists. Great pictures can be found at the cemetery at Noord and the natural bridge (you have to go). We are going back in March. Aruba is one of my favorite places on this Earth. Have a great honeymoon.

Randy

<BR>Kat- <BR>My wife, daughter and I did an Aruba trip last spring break. We don't usually like to do all-inclusives so we chose to just to accomodations. While we had a very nice stay in a garden apartment at La Cabanna, the one thing that did surprise us a bit was the cost of dining out. We spent about $100 per evening meal for the three of us and that usually excluded alcohol. The benefit was that we got to sample a wonderful array of different foods and all of it was excellent. Since there are so many different options, I'd always recommend going this way. I suspect, but don't know for sure, that it may be cheaper in the long run to do the all-inclusive, particularly if you get alcohol included in the deal. <BR> <BR>We snorkeled several times while there and you can buy trips off of the beach at the Holiday Inn and I'm sure most of the all-inclusives offer these as well. As an added note, we took a sunset tour on a small cat that sailed off of the dock at the Holiday Inn. I think it was called the Blue Dolphin, but can't find the info on it just now. This cat only held about 15 or so people so it was much more pleasant than the larger boats--those seemed to be just big party boats. <BR> <BR>Be sure to take one of the 1/2 day jeep tours--we had lots of fun and it takes you all over the island. <BR>Have fun!