When I posted my vacation summary from
Maui, it surprisingly had a lot of views, so I figured I would do the same thing for my recent trip to Aruba.
If you are new around here, I'll give you a little bit of background information. I was on Wheel of Fortune in March of this year. If you want more information on that process, you can check out my
blog post about that here. One of the prizes I won on the show was a vacation to Aruba! The planning process was fairly easy, I gave the Wheel of Fortune representative three options of dates we'd like to go, and then she really took care of the rest. Airfare and hotel was included, and they also gave us spending money.
TRAVELING:
We traveled from Washington State to Aruba, which was pretty exhausting. It was around 14 hours of traveling, between two flights and layovers. Everyone we met down in Aruba was from the east coast, and I can see why! I wouldn't ever say no to traveling to the Caribbean again, but I would definitely invest in first class seats so that those long flights are extra comfortable! I always make sure to get a window seat, and during the flight there, I was very glad for that! The water as we got closer to Aruba was so beautiful, I couldn't stop taking pictures!!
Night One:
We landed around 3:30pm Aruba time, and had been traveling since midnight Washington State time, so we were really exhausted. Once we got to the room I immediately took a nap to get caught up on sleep and get used to the time switch. We then just explored the beach path and found a little bar to have dinner at before turning in early for the night to catch up on more sleep.
kimono from: Generation Peace
black v neck from: Target
Day Two:
Since this was a free vacation, we spent the majority of the vacation just relaxing on the beach. I didn't want to have to spend a lot of money on excursions and activities, because I honestly just wanted to relax and take advantage of this and have it feel like a true prize. Wheel of Fortune did send us with spending money, which covered cab fares, meals, luggage charges, and a few activities we did. We also spent a few nights at the Casino, Aruba is famous for their FOURTEEN casinos on the tiny island. We did "splurge" and use some of our spending money to gamble one night. It was really fun and the atmosphere in the casino was really fun. I didn't get any pictures there, but we spent some time there as well.
We stayed at Divi Resorts, and the beach right outside of our resort was AMAZING. There were about 10 people on this beach daily, and usually 0-5 people in the water. It was so calm, no children running around or drunk people. There are a few popular beaches on the island, but we never felt the need to leave ours since it was so peaceful.
Fun fact about Aruba: totally casual for iguanas to be running around. The first two days this kept freaking me out, and it was so weird, but by the end of the vacation, it was just like seeing a squirrel or bird walking around.
This was a lunch spot at our resort on the beach that we ate at.
this was a little bar on the beach that you could order drinks at all day
Day Three:
Same drill :) Relaxing on the beach with a good drink and a good book. I read Dark Places while I was there. I'm still not completely finished. I planned on finishing it on the plane ride home but was pretty motion sick on the way back so I didn't get a chance to finish this yet, it was a good beach read though!!
Day Four:
We explored downtown Oranjestad this day. Oranjestad is the capitol of Aruba, and it was about 10 minutes from our resort. There were three malls downtown, and they are all walking distance of each other.
This hotel/mall had a little channel that goes through the hotel that gives people rides out into the ocean. It was pretty cool!
Day Five:
We, of course, laid on the beach again this day. After laying out all day, we went into another downtown area, Palm Beach. There were more shops down there that we explored, and then we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe.
After dinner, we stumbled upon this bar that is out on a pier and basically is over water. It was so beautiful, and we happened to find it right at sunset.
Day Six:
We decided to do a pretty big excursion this day, and we don't regret it! We did the Island Jeep Safari Tour through the company ABC Tours. I highly recommend this tour, as their hospitality was amazing and it allowed us to see parts of the island that we would have never been able to see. They offer 4-5 different tours depending on the time of year, but we took the North Coast tour, which brought us along the north coast of Aruba. As you can see, it is on a Land Rover truck, and you sit in the back of it. It is a total off-roading experience, but it was really fun! I did take motion sickness pills before going on this (I have a really weak stomach), but I don't think I needed them. It wasn't as crazy as I was expecting but it was still really bumpy!
The first stop was this rock garden/park place where we climbed to the top of this rock and overlooked the entire country.
We then went to see the Natural Bridge. The actual "Natural Bridge" in aruba collapsed many years ago, but there is still this small one remaining (We are standing on it in the below photo).
The next stop was Blackrock Beach. Exactly what it sounds like, it is made up of black rocks and sand. Our tour guide said this is from the emulsion of volcanic rock, which is why the sand is black.
I think I just took this photo out of the back of the truck, I don't think it was a specific landmark. The north side of the island is very "desert like" and looks totally different than the high-rise hotel end that is very touristy and tropical.
We then went to the Rock Wish Garden! This was something that I saw on Pinterest was a "must do" in Aruba, so I was happy that this tour stopped there. The tour guide explained the story behind this rock wish garden, and it just caught on that you are supposed to stack your lucky number of rocks and make a wish. I couldn't leave without doing this, so I stacked up three rocks and made a wish.
The same stop that the Rock Wish Garden was at, had this old gold mine at it also. The tour guide told us about the history of gold on the island, and it was really interesting to learn a little more about the actual country we were in. You could go inside and climb to the top if you wanted also, it was pretty cool!
We quickly stopped at another landmark where there was another pretty Natural Bridge. We didn't stay at this location long because a dead horse had washed up on the beach from the ocean. There were little girls in our tour group who have horses at home so this stop turned into a little emotional stop for some as there was literally a dead horse sitting on the beach. Our tour guide called 191 (911 for us) and reported it and then we moved on.
The next stop was at a famous church in Aruba. We happened to hit this stop at the same time as a few other tour companies, so there were a ton of people here that we didn't get to go inside.
One of our last stops was at the California Lighthouse. I've never been this close to a lighthouse so it was pretty cool to see such a unique part of Aruba's history. We weren't able to go inside but it was a good photo-op!
After the lighthouse, our last stop was snorkeling at Catalina Bay. If you read my post from Maui, you know that my favorite part was snorkeling. I think it is just the coolest thing to see fish in their natural habitat! I have a thing with marine life, it fascinates me. The snorkeling here wasn't the greatest, but it was still great nonetheless. I did see a gigantic starfish, which I've never seen before, it was seriously enormous!!
Last Day:
We spent our last day soaking up the rays on the beach again. How could one complain?
tank top: Old Navy
short: Target
sandals: Nike
The last sunset :(
Oh, and fun fact? I won another vacation while I was there! I will have to pay for my flight, but I will take a free 8 days at a resort any day! I can choose from MULTIPLE places, so I will probably take advantage of this for my graduation trip after I finish my masters! So until then, this is your yearly dose of vacation pictures :)
As always, thanks for reading.
xoxo, Jaimie
