Going away for our first year anniversary....

i know i mentioned i wanted to go to mexico-but now we are re-thinking it-


we want to go to an all inclusive for 5 nites in august-someplace hot and nice

any suggestions?

Re: Going away for our first year anniversary....

How about Aruba? It's south of the hurricane belt, so you wouldn't have to worry so much that time of year.

We went for our HM and LOVED it!! There have been a few posts about Aruba lately (and of course you could always check out LIW for reviews and pics).

ETA: We flew American, but JetBlue now offers direct flights to Aruba also.

Message edited 5/17/2007 10:02:13 AM.

Re: Going away for our first year anniversary....

Where did you stay in aruba?

i was just lookin at the:
Renaissance Aruba Resort & Casino

it looks pretty nice too

im not sure if an all inclusve is good in aruba-someone said the restaurants there are really good...


is it $$$ there?

Re: Going away for our first year anniversary....

We stayed at the Wyndham. It's not called that anymore (changed ownership), and I don't think it's all-inclusive anymore either. I don't know if it's changed for better or worse, but if we went back, we'd prefer to stay somewhere else.

If we went back, we'd like to stay at the Hyatt, which I don't think is AI. The Radisson is also very popular and is very nice.

We loved AI when we went for our HM. We didn't have to think about where we wanted to eat...everything was right there for us. That was perfect after the whole wedding planning process.

There are a few great restaurants on the island that we wanted to try, but didn't since we already technically paid for our dinners when we did AI.

It can get expensive, if you eat 3 full meals a day. We normally skip breakfast, eat a light lunch, and have nice dinners. And we drink too. But I dont think it would cost us more $$ than if we did AI.

The Renaissance, if I'm not mistaken, is located where all the shopping is. I think that's where the cruise ships come in too. In order to get to the beach, you have to walk across the street. For me, that wasn't my thing. I like to be on the ocean. But others on here Loved staying there!

Re: Going away for our first year anniversary....

In aruba (aug 2006) we stayed at the Renissance. We loved it, the nice part is that is in the downtown area so you can walk to alot of places, we rented a car one day just to explore but other than that we walked. The only bad thing is that it is not ON a beach. Its on the marina. A Boat comes into the hotel and will take you to a private island, which was amazing and there were tons of pink flamingos roaming around. There is also a place to eat and the island acutally has 2 beachs, one is more family-ish one is more adult. There are 2 hotels in teh Renissance, we stayed in Marina towers, the other is Ocean suites which is more families because its suites.
As far as food we did not do the all inclusive, however friends did. The restaurants included are all very good as we ate at many of them on our own. The food on the island is amazing so I dont think you can go wrong either way.

We also went to Jamaica Sandals (Aug 2005) which was great! We went to Dunns river which has since been remodeled but we loved it, we basically just stayed by the pool and on the beach all day! It was really nice to not have to worry about $$ the whole time but Sandals is pricy and their food was good but not great at least when we were there.

Re: Going away for our first year anniversary....

You still havent booked???

Re: Going away for our first year anniversary....

I think Aruba sounds like a great idea during August. Have you considered going to Europe on one of those organized tours?