Aruba is one of my favorite destinations to visit. My mom and I go often as our own mother/daughter trip. We made another trip to Aruba in April 2025.
First and foremost, I love Aruba simply because we feel safe. We visited the Dominican Republic when I was 18 (which I wrote about in Outside the County Line if you want to read about it) and we just didn’t feel safe there. We chose Aruba because of how safe we feel. We can go walking around and not worry we’ll get kidnapped or something. There’s even a grocery store that is a 5 min walk from our room which saves us money a little bit.
I love booking a private Sedan through Kini Kini Transfer Tours for our airport transportation. The drivers are always so nice and the Sedan is SUPER comfy. I booked one when we visited for my mother’s birthday and that is now the only way I’ll do airport transportation! They were even so accommodating when I messed up my booking and had it scheduled for the wrong date. I was able to call them and they sent someone out to get us when we needed it.
We stayed at the La Cabana Resort & Casino. Mom and I definitely threw a little money at the casino. I wish I could report that we’re millionaires, but sadly we’re not.
Unfortunately, the resort was undergoing a lot of construction during this particular trip so the pool area was pretty much blocked off. We just hung out around the kid pool area, we even got a private cabana one day for free which was nice.
Mom and I are frequent tanners so we spend a majority of our time tanning by the beach, or if we don’t feel like dealing with sand, we hang out by the pool. We eat fish or some sort of seafood for almost every meal. There was even a little Italian bakery on the bottom floor of the resort and I made a point to try a different dessert every night after dinner…because I’m an adult and I have free will!
During this particular trip, we decided to do something different and visited De Palm Island. I’ve visited Aruba before, but this was my first time seeing flamingos! We decided to splurge just a little extra money and stay on the private beach side, which I would recommend to anyone because the public area was so claustrophobic with all the chairs lined up by each other. The private side also exclusively has the flamingos.
De Palm also has all you can eat buffets and unlimited access to drinks at the bar. If you’re big into cocktails, I would take advantage of that immediately. When we go back, we definitely plan on going back there. It’s basically just a little island that’s like an all inclusive resort!
We booked a snorkeling Catamaran trip, and this is where my alter ego “Catamaran Katie” usually comes out. This is because the drinks are free and I’m never shy going up to the bar. The snorkelings areas are pretty. We even booked a sunset cruise. We typically book a sunset cruise the night before we leave. My favorite sight of all is when the cruise concludes for the evening and we ride back to shore –the only thing that lights up the night sky is the nightlife of Aruba. It is such a beautiful and relaxing sight, so we book this pretty much every time.
Aruba has probably the prettiest sunsets I’ve ever seen. Every time we visit it’s almost like a dream. This is the one of the places that I’ve been where I could see myself living there. Aruba is the epitome of my island girly fantasies.
Until next time! Bida ta dushi. Forever and Always.
