Holiday Inn Resort Aruba Review
I'm not going to lie, when I found out I was going to stay at a
Holiday Inn, beautiful white beaches with crystal clear water and fine dining did not come to mind. From check in to check out, the Holiday Inn Aruba far surpassed any expectation I had set.
Before we arrived to the property, we were driving through the middle of a deserted restaurant and shop filled street. Nothing gets going until after 4:00 PM, so it was good to get a look around before it was packed with people. The Holiday Inn is located in the middle of the action and once passing under this entrance sign, you would think you were in the middle of no-where in paradise.
Our room had a king size bed, love seat (that was also a pull out bed), table and chairs, and a decent sized mini fridge. You did have to reset the temperature every day or it would default back to 72. It wasn't the Ritz, but it was comfortable, clean and pretty spacious. The best and worst part of our room was the balcony.
On the weeknights that we were there, there were no sound issues. On the weekends, the restaurant Moomba's next door was apparently a very popular place to go since it did not close until 2:00AM. Below you can see the beautiful water and that roofed building to the left? Moombas. If you are not a night owl, I suggest you ask to stay on the other side of the hallway or one of their other buildings altogether.
For dining, the hotel had several options to chose from. They do offer all inclusive packages, but we just did the breakfast only plan. Every morning we ate at Corals Restaurant which is an all-you-can-eat buffet. There were more choices of food than I could even fathom eating. Outside of the food area was a row of pastries and little cake squares, several types of bread and croissants and the biggest jug of Nutella imaginable. Inside of the cafe, there were fresh fruits, cut of veggies, sliced meats and cheese, cereals, oatmeal, soda machines, juice dispensers and a fancy coffee machine. Then there was a hot food bar that had staples like scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, french toast, and pancakes and then another hot food bar that had changing entrees - such as chicken and mushrooms, meatballs, polenta, and johnny cakes. In the center there was an egg station that could make fresh omelets and any other style of eggs and a fresh waffle station (my personal favorite). The breakfast was a 10/10 for me.
We grabbed lunch one day at the Oceanside Bar and Grill, which is really the main pool restaurant and bar. It was pretty crowded and overpriced for what we had. My husband got the chicken tenders and fries, and for the price, we thought they would be whole chunk chicken tenders, but they were more of a chicken nugget in the shape of a tender. I had the Caesar salad with coconut shrimp which I thought was very tasty, but not worth $26.
Another day for lunch we went to Sea Breeze Restaurant & Bar. You absolutely could not beat this view. The wait staff was fabulous and very attentive. We ordered mozzarella sticks, personal pizzas, and drinks. It was honestly one of my favorite meals just because of the atmosphere. It was not crowded like the Oceanside Bar & Grill and just overall better in my opinion.
We did not eat at the Da Vinci restaurant. Not because it didn't look delicious, just because there were so many other choices and Italian wasn't calling my name. There was also the Palm Lobby Bar that had little to go breakfasts and coffees in the morning and a lively little bar at night. It wasn't until the last night that we realized it was a bar, but apparently everyone else got the memo because it was PACKED. We grabbed a few drinks there before heading into the casino.
Which leads me to the casino. I hate to love them, but my heart wants what my heart wants. And that is to push the button on the slot machine. Thankfully my husband and I are (fairly) good about setting a limit and then walking away, but we sure had fun while it lasted. If you are a big card player, there were not that many tables, maybe a handful of poker and blackjack and one roulette table. There was a sports betting room but it looks pretty small so we didn't go in. While you are gambling in the casino, the servers will bring you free drinks - so make sure you bring cash money to tip them!
The setup of the beach was very intricate, which I didn't realize until we tried to rent a palapa. You had to be in line at noon the day before to secure one if you weren't buying for your whole stay and good luck to you if you want one in the first row on the beach. We decided on a cabana because we liked going back and forth from the pool to the beach. For the whole day, the cabana was $40 to rent.
The beach was absolutely amazing. There was a stand that you could rent things or schedule excursions, and we found out the floats were $5 for the day and that quickly became the best $10 we spent each day. There was not one fish swimming at your feet and the sand was very soft compared to what I am used to. The beach chairs in the sand were not the best, but after we discovered the floats, we were rarely sitting down. Also at the rental shack, I asked how much a boat ride would cost for just me and my husband. He said for the hour is would be $160. I thought this was extremely reasonable and we decided to do it. He drove us around and we saw sea turtles, the California lighthouse, and passed tons of snorkeling excursions. We did get in for a brief dunk and did some snorkeling. It was not my thing so we moved on from that pretty quickly after we saw a school of fish. If you are not a fan of big crowds, I highly suggest doing this if it is in your budget. The amount of people we saw smooshed into those snorkeling excursions was enough to set off a panic attack. While this is not technically part of the hotel I wanted to include it since it is technically located on the property.
There is a Kid's Club on property that we peeked our heads into. It was nothing impressive with two rooms with a few board games, an arcade game, tv, and craft area. I think older kids could have fun in there if there were other kids their age to hang out with, but my kids are 3 and 6 and they would not have enjoyed it at all.
This giant palapa was where we enjoyed our last little bit in paradise looking into the lobby before boarding out bus. The Holiday Inn Aruba was definitely a great place to stay and I will be sure to recommend to my clients moving forward.
Commentaires