please help! Aruba vs St John

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Aug 2nd, 2002, 10:33 AM

#41

ask yourself

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What do you want? To be in high rises that are all along one beach next to each other with some timeshares squeezed in? Aruba Do you want a villa in the hills overlooking a lovely vista or a high end luxury resort or the Westin which gives you great access to a wonderful island that is your resort? St. John Do you want the party bus, booze cruises and commercial venues including all the luxury of home with Dunkin' Donuts, KFC and MickeyD's? Aruba Do you want some pristine seculsion with little commercial development, mom and pop type bars and restaurants and good to great restaurants to choose from? St. John Do you want to sit on a beach with rows of chairs and huts with a thousand of your friends then when the wind kicks up the sand everyone gathers around swim up bars and listens to recorded music? Aruba Do you want to be one of the three cars that can park at a particular beach and be just two of the six people on that small cove beach that day? St. John Do you want casinos and air conditioned comfort? Aruba Do you want to be able to snorkle from the beaches and not hear jet skis and power boats zipping about? St. John Want to be able to not take advantage of parasailing, jet skis and all the associated activity? Aruba Want to rent a dinghy for a day and just go from beach to beach many of them will have no one else on them. St. John Do you want tropical breezes that cool you so you don't need the air conditioning? St. John Do you want to spend little time seeing all there is to see in Aruba? Or would you rather spend time on St. John when even a month is not long enough to find all and enjoy all the natural splendor that is there. Aruba is arid and topography is very interesting with cactus and desert-like conditions in some places. St. John is tropical, lush and the passing showers do nothing but cool down the temperature if you happen to have them at all. You'll need to rent a car at the Westin to go to the beach and you'll want to dine out. Aruba you can easily walk or use public transportation (bus). Would suspect that Aruba is the more economical destination but then you may have gotten a super price at the Westin. Saw it for $70 a nite! St. John is not the party place. Most places are quiet at nite with early morning risers to take advantage of the wonderful beaches, snorkling, trips to other islands, National Park activity and hiking just to mention some of the things. The Westin is a beautiful property as are some of the hotels on Aruba but neither will give you tropical paaradise until you leave the grounds. St. John will offer more once you leave the hotel area but it depends how mobile you want to be. Want to be able to explore other islands by ferry or private boat some just minutes away (St. Thomas for the best duty free shopping) or even more pristine isolated cays and islands in theBVI? St. John. You take a chance that September is height of hurricane season where ever you travel in the Carib. It is more likely to impact on St. John but there is no guarantee that it will. Nor is there a guarantee that there won't be a problem on Aruba. September you'll find some of the St. John restaurants and stores close. It is low season and the prices reflect that. Both islands have fun stuff to do but it's just a different kind of fun.

Aug 2nd, 2002, 11:02 AM

#42

Cariblover

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I agree with the auhtor: ask yourself. However a few corrections... There are 75 good restaurants in Aruba, Aruba was voted second for having the best bunch of restaurants in the Caribbean after Jamaica in 2001. There are secluded beaches in Aruba you just have to do more exploration. You can snorkle in Aruba without hearing the sound of jet ski's, Palm Island, Baby Beach, Boca Grandi.

Aug 2nd, 2002, 12:00 PM

#43

hank

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Aruba may not technically be desert (climatologically speaking) but it's darn close to fitting the definition: "Deserts are areas where the rainfall is too low to sustain any vegetation at all, or only very scanty scrub. The rainfall in desert areas is less than 10 inches per year." Aruba gets 18 inches of rainfall per year but has very scant natural vegetation (cacti, scrub weeds, etc).

Aug 2nd, 2002, 12:42 PM

#44

Cariblover

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The rain fall in a desert is less than an inch a year, a desert has practically no vegatation to speak of. You should visit the Sahara desert in Africa! Aruba has many kwihi trees, cacti, watapana trees, why do you think goats and donkeys live in the wild in Aruba? They could not do so in a desert.

Aug 2nd, 2002, 01:56 PM

#45

Hank

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Taken directly from the Desert Dictionary site at http://www.desertusa.com/glossary2.html a desert is an area which receives less than 10 (ten) inches of rainfall per year.

Aug 4th, 2002, 01:47 PM

#46

Arubarules

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Aruba rules! St. John has scorpians and other HUGE bugs. Aruba has a refreshing breeze that keeps flies and bugs away. Aruba is for people with class

Aug 4th, 2002, 03:44 PM

#47

Arubasucks

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Aruba is for people who are cheap. Aruba is for people who are not well-travelled so they don't know any better. Aruba is for timeshare owners who are cursed to spend their vacation there coz' they're trapped. Aruba is for a bunch of fools......

Aug 5th, 2002, 06:47 AM

#48

Cariblover

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If a desert receives less than 10 inches of rain than by all means the Sahara should show atleast some vegetation instead of pure desert dunes. And you just admitted that Aruba is not a desert the island receives on average 18 inches of rain and in 1999 the island received 28 inches of rain because of La Nina. Aruba is cheap, hmm is that the reason why Aruba has a high standard of living? Timeshare owners are not stuck in Aruba have you ever heard of Resort Condominium International (RCI) in which timeshare owners can exchange their weeks for other timeshare resort properties in other countries?! Arubasucks, the more you bash Aruba the more people would have an unfavorable opinion about you and will not rely on you just because you are so negative. You dislike the island ok that's your opinion and feeling but give others that have never been to the country a fair chance of visiting the island and judge for themselves. Different strokes for different folks. What you dislike others may like and find appealing. So don't insult people for visiting an island, you sound like a spoiled child that has not received a gift on his or her birthday.

Aug 5th, 2002, 07:59 AM

#49

cdt

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I certainly prefer St. John to Aruba, BUT: Caneel Bay is the only hotel on St. John with a good beach, and it's VERY expensive. We stayed in Aruba in a modest hotel on a spectacular beach (Manchebo) for a third of Caneel's cost. The "villas" on St. John are pretty expensive also and usually require a drive to the beach. Some of the criticisms of Aruba can be misleading. For instance, the "high-rises" are far less numerous, less high, and less close together than what you find in south Florida. The casinos, booze buses, burger joints, etc. can be totally avoided if you so desire. The British Virgins give you the same natural beauty as St. John but with more lower-cost lodging options.