RENTAL CAR….if you are in a VRBO, you will likely need a car rental. We had a great experience with BUDGET-decent car, located right at the airport and paid $305 for a week (compact car).
BEACHES: We like Palm Beach, and it is our favorite. There is a public entrance to this beach nearby if you google Bugaloe-this is a waterfront/casual beach bar and there was a walkway right from it to a public parking lot. Eagle Beach is just south of this area-more low-rise buildings here but be careful not to get too close to Amsterdam Manor hotel or the restaurant “passions on the Beach”-this is near their water treatment plant and can smell 🙁. We did also visit Baby Beach, which is very beautiful….BUT it does get very crowded by 11am. So much so that we left and went back to our beach after two hours here. Unfortunately, they drop off large tour busses of people here around mid-day-which ruins it for me. There is plenty of free parking here are there are two decent beach bars/restaurants. It took us about 45 minutes from Palm Beach at 9:30am. I wish we would have arrived earlier knowing how the crowd piled in.
Arashi Beach is at the northern tip near the lighthouse and we also had a couple hours visit here. Plenty of free parking and you will see kite surfers along the coast as you approach. The beach is steeper and water much rougher here than the flat and calm Palm Beach. There is also a beach bar/restaurant here.
EXCURSIONS: We did a catamaran sunset sail one night which was fun. We used Octopus, and booked on Viator. The tour departs from the beach at the Holiday Inn (on Palm Beach). It did seem smaller and more adult-which is why I picked it for my husband & I. I did see Red Sail operating as well-which is larger, more of a family friendly catamaran tour. They also offer daytime snorkel tours. Several people we met did 4-wheeler tours to the Natural Bridge and Natural Pool-opposite side of island, which everyone loved. We didn’t do this on this trip but based on all the rave reviews, I would try it next time. Would be fun with kids! Shopping is pretty good in the main town, Oranjestad, but busy obviously when the cruise ships are in port.
RESTAURANTS: We did a few more romantic beachfront spots that you may/may not be interested in doing with kids. Flying Fishbone was very good, toes in the sand and/or water. Great seafood/romantic. We also liked PINCHO’s waterfront with great sunset, near Oranjestad. DANIEL’s a good one-known for steaks. Several people we met liked OPUS-though we didn’t hit that one. More casual dinners we had in Palm Beach strip area…LOLA’s (Mexican/casual) and GIANNI’s (Italian/pizza). MoomBa Beach Bar and BUGALOE are also fun casual beach bar/restaurants for lunch/dinner.
The “strip” across from the Hilton/Hyatt has a ton of restaurants and shopping. It was pretty bustling here at night. You should get as many reservations as possible-many are on OpenTable.
AIRPORT: There is a lot of buzz on this island about long wait times for your return flight since you clear customs basically twice when you depart. You do not clear customs in the U.S. like a typical international return flight, you do it here in Aruba. We always fly mid-week so that definitely helps a ton. With the vast VRBO population tied to Saturday/Sunday arrivals/departures-leaving mid-week is much easier. We got through the airport in about an hour total to our gate though if you are departing on a weekend, you should adhere to the 3-hour time allotment.