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Going to Aruba Surf Club

H

hotcoffee

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In a little over two weeks, I will be leaving for the Aruba Surf Club. I have never been to Aruba. So, I don't know what to expect. Any tips of either the Surf Club or Aruba itself would be welcome. I still have not rented a car, and don't know if one is truly needed on Aruba. How is public transportation? If renting a car, rent at airport or at hotel (if Surf Clubs provides that)? Are many good restaurants within walking distance to the Surf Club? How far is the Surf Club from downtown?

I usually go to Hawaii where there is lots of scenery. I assume that Aruba is not too big on scenery. Right? I may not lug my SLR camera unless there is enough scenery to justify it. Thanks.
 
OH MY GOD!! You will LOVE Aruba & the Surf Club is great!! We were there for a week last year & plan on going next October.

The Surf Club is not close to downtown - the island itself is only 19 miles long - but the Surf Club is in the high rise area - which is north of the low rise area - which in turn is north of downtown.

We rented a car at the Surf Club the day after we arrived - just to go to the grocery store in town - check out Oranjestad & to go to dinner at the Flying Fish bone - then we turned the car back in.

There are places to eat near by - a few within walking distance - but taxis are readily available in front of the resort.

Nice places to eat that we enjoyed include Salt & peppers (cute place for lunch), Mamba beach bar/restaurant - we had breakfast there once. Flying Fishbone (make reservations in advance)

Enjoy your trip!!
 
Oh - you say you've been to Hawaii - Aruba is NOT lush - it is a dessert - bare, dry & hot.

If you like the water - then go snorkeling/diving. Take an ATV tour of the island - see the back side (awesome!!)

The Surf club has a lazy river - we took tubes that we bought here & they have a pump to blow them up - sit on the inner tube all day & swing by the swim up bar as needed.

What day do you check in? Saturdays are check in/check out days for most, so there can be a wait. When we arrived they were handing out scented - cool clothes as Aruba is hot!! I found that a very nice tough!!

We had a 2 bedroom/2 bath for the 2 of us & the view from the balcony was post card perfect.

Let me know if you have any questions.
 
hotcoffee said:
In a little over two weeks, I will be leaving for the Aruba Surf Club. I have never been to Aruba. So, I don't know what to expect. Any tips of either the Surf Club or Aruba itself would be welcome. I still have not rented a car, and don't know if one is truly needed on Aruba. How is public transportation? If renting a car, rent at airport or at hotel (if Surf Clubs provides that)? Are many good restaurants within walking distance to the Surf Club? How far is the Surf Club from downtown?

I usually go to Hawaii where there is lots of scenery. I assume that Aruba is not too big on scenery. Right? I may not lug my SLR camera unless there is enough scenery to justify it. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I would say the only thing in Aruba that would justify you lugging a SLR camera around would be the sunsets. Other than that, there is no comparison to Hawaii for the scenery.

Unless your general plan is hang out at the resort and beach, I would rent a car. The surf club does have a car rental booth, and most of the local companies will deliver to the hotels. For a first visit, I would recommend renting a car at the airport from one of the off-airport companies like Royal. http://www.arubaroyal.com/. Weekly rates are pretty reasonable.

There are some decent restaurants within walking distance, but to get to some of the favorites mentioned here you will need transportation.

The Surf Club is a fair distance from the downtown area.
 
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I will be at the Surf Club July 1-10. Took a couple of extra days to avoid the rush for 4th of July. :D You may not want to rent a vehicle for the whole week. The island is very small and you can see it all in one day. SC has a rental agency on sight. The fare from the airport to the SC is I believe $25. I would bring a couple of inner tubes packed in your suitcase for the lazy river. If you have not emailed the front desk for a room assignment I would do that ASAP. There is another thread with the SC contact information. If you can not find it I will post or send you an email. Also, there is an SC thread about renting palapas you might want to look at. There are some excellent restaurants such as Tony Roma, Chris Steak House, Simply Fish, Amazonia, TGIF etc. There is a new water park (may need a car) between (approx.)the low rise and high rise resorts. It is windy poolside at SC. I am not the romantic type so the thing about sunsets all I can say is yes there are sunsets (lol) you can be the judge of how great they are compared to Hawaii.

bob
 
Check out www.aruba-bb.com for all things Aruba! We discovered Aruba 7 years ago and go every year for 2 weeks to relax and regenerate. The island is very small and takes only 1 day to "tour" although we rent a car for the entire 2 weeks for convenience. Taxis are plenty. Many good restaurants within walking distance of the Surf Club.

Ingrid
 
last week

hotcoffee said:
In a little over two weeks, I will be leaving for the Aruba Surf Club. I have never been to Aruba. So, I don't know what to expect. Any tips of either the Surf Club or Aruba itself would be welcome. I still have not rented a car, and don't know if one is truly needed on Aruba. How is public transportation? If renting a car, rent at airport or at hotel (if Surf Clubs provides that)? Are many good restaurants within walking distance to the Surf Club? How far is the Surf Club from downtown?

I usually go to Hawaii where there is lots of scenery. I assume that Aruba is not too big on scenery. Right? I may not lug my SLR camera unless there is enough scenery to justify it. Thanks.
Click to expand...

We own at the ocean club and have gone there at least 10 times, we never need a car. We take a cab to and from the airport and use the bus to go in town. We also use a cab ($13.00 each way) to go food shopping. If you want to sight see you should consider a jeep tour. The bus stop is right outside of the surf club.

I usually go with a large group so I do bring a camera and my husband brings a video camera. We do the MiDushi snorkeling trip every year and use the video camera when the kids go off the swing. We've also used iit to capture their water sports, you can usually ride on the boat as a spectator while your kids are in the water.

You can walk to a large number of restaurants assumming you are fairly healthy. 10-20 minute walk depending on which restaurant you want and they are plentiful. There is also a small mall on your way to the restaurants and they have a movie theatre. Food is expensive and I noted this year that all of the restaurants seem to have raised their prices. Drinks at the resort are also pricey.

Aruba can be hot but it is generally in the mid to high 80s and they get tradewinds so it does not get unbearable. Another great place to get advice on Aruba is through trip advisor. It includes reviews from people that have stayed their recently. Have a great time and make sure you put on sunscreen often.
 
Looks like there are lots of differing suggestions for car rentals. Rent for the full week? Rent for only one day? Rent prior to arriving at the hotel? Rent at the hotel? In Hawaii, there is no question as to rental - lots of places to go, things to see, and things to do away from the resort. Opinions vary even to the car rental company. Royal good. Royal bad. I've never waited this long to decide. Hopefully, if I decide to rent for the full week, there will still be something good available.
 
iamnotshopgirl said:
If you have not emailed the front desk for a room assignment I would do that ASAP. There is another thread with the SC contact information. If you can not find it I will post or send you an email. bob
Click to expand...

Either send or post the e-mail address if you could. I searched for the thread you mentioned, but was not sure if I found it or not.

Curiously, since I traded a two-bedroom ocean front room in Hawaii, is it reasonable to request an ocean front in Aruba?
 
Wildewoman said:
Oh - you say you've been to Hawaii - Aruba is NOT lush - it is a dessert - bare, dry & hot.

If you like the water - then go snorkeling/diving. Take an ATV tour of the island - see the back side (awesome!!)

The Surf club has a lazy river - we took tubes that we bought here & they have a pump to blow them up - sit on the inner tube all day & swing by the swim up bar as needed.

What day do you check in? Saturdays are check in/check out days for most, so there can be a wait. When we arrived they were handing out scented - cool clothes as Aruba is hot!! I found that a very nice tough!!

We had a 2 bedroom/2 bath for the 2 of us & the view from the balcony was post card perfect.

Let me know if you have any questions.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggests. We will be checking in on Friday, July 3rd.
 
We had read many things about the Surf Club ~ some good/some not so good. There was a lot of info. re: renting palapas - people saving chairs near the pool, etc. We didn't have any problems at all!

We did the Jolyy Pirate snorkel tour - right off of the beach near the resrot & it was great!! Had lunch - stopped at 3 places - the water was warm & the clarify was 100 feet!! We stopped at a wrecked ship which was very cool to snorkel over.


If you have never been to Aruba just remember that when you go to leave - the process is long & sometimes makes no rhyme or reason. You go through customs on the island - which is nice if you have to change planes in the states - but it means you have to collect your bags after one customs, just to drop them off at the next.

But it was so worth it!! We are excited about going again next year!!

Enjoy!!
 
hotcoffee said:
Curiously, since I traded a two-bedroom ocean front room in Hawaii, is it reasonable to request an ocean front in Aruba?
Click to expand...

Nope, II is blind to views and you will most likely be assigned to the view of the deposit. If you have a Marriott Rewards account, add your # to the res and you'll be able to see your view assignment. We were fortunate last month in that our first week's assignment was oceanside and our second gardenview. However, for whatever reason they assigned us to the same oceanside unit for the second week :clap: .

Ingrid
 
Aruba

We own at Marriotts Aruba Ocean Club and this Christmas will be our 25th on the island. We stayed at the Hyatt until the Ocean Club was built. We go for 2 wks annually and always rent a car for the whole trip---we eat all over the island and we don't want to be dependent on cabs. Here is a list of restaurants that we love:
1. El Gaucho ---steak. Get the El Gaucho steak. I only eat steak once or twice a year--there!!!
2. Madame Janette's--international food. Fabulous almond grouper. Huge portions
3. Chalet Suisse--international great roast duck, chocolate fondue
4. Screaming Eagle--international owned by Flying Fishbones closer to the resort
5. Smokey Joe's--bbq ribs and chicken
6.Trattoria da Vittorio--italian near the Hyatt
7. Aqua Grill--excellent fish-poor acoustics so it's loud
8. Blossoms--excellent chinese
9. Yemanja Grill
Have a wonderful trip and if you have any questions feel free to send me a private email.
ilene:cheer:
 
My favorite place- you will love it. As posted above, there aren't the lush gardens and beauty of Hawaii, but the climate is similar and lying on the beach or at the pool is even more comfortable because of the trade winds. The restaurants are much better than Hawaii, in my opinion. The deciding factor for me, though, is it is about 4.5 hours versus the half day flight to Hawaii.

As for renting a car- I like to rent one, but it is probably no more expensive to use cabs for the week. There are several restaurants within walking distance. I have friends who prefer to use cabs, so it really is a matter of personal preference. Driving is easy (except if you want to go to the natural pool on the other side of the island- you might prefer an ATV tour for that).

I am into sunsets, so I always take a camera. Sunsets can be beautiful if the sky isn't cloudy. I didn't take my SLR last time but think I will next time. But there aren't the photo ops that Hawaii offers.

Have a great time! Feel free to ask any more questions.

Oh- btw- you can e-mail the concierge there in advance to make restaurant reservations at a few of the more popular places if you want to.
 
:deadhorse: After reading all of the forums, opinions, and experiences of others, I've decided to rent a car for the entire week just for the convenience of being more mobile.

How is parking at the Surf Club?
 
hotcoffee said:
:deadhorse: After reading all of the forums, opinions, and experiences of others, I've decided to rent a car for the entire week just for the convenience of being more mobile.

How is parking at the Surf Club?
Click to expand...
Easy and free.
 
We were there June 5-12

We just left the surf club last friday.. wish we were still there. If you will be using the lazy river. you can either purchase your floats there for $7-$9 or of course take your own. Suggest you take a sharpie to write your name on them..some folks would offer them(floats) to others as they were leaving.We were offered 2, but already had our own.

Give yourself at least 2 hours if not more at the airport.. as others have mentioned US Immigration is on the island. When we were leaving it took us 1 hr. 45 mins from check out at the hotel to our plane departing.

We did request a particular building and were fortunate that it was given to us. We were in the Lighthouse Tower and had an oceanside view as well as a view of the pool.

Have a wonderful vacation:)
 
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