Reviewers Rating: 
Good
Aruba hotels:Aruba Divi Mega all inclusive comments:
check-in easy
Room accomodation: simple, but comfortable. Airconditioned - window unit mounted in wall... kind of noisy. Single story row of bungalows, close to beach and small bar.
Beach: very nice and clean, not busy, slight current in water.
Pool: small. the one at the Tamarjin was not much bigger.
Food: I gave it a C - for the buffet. Dinner buffet: swordfish dry, salad iceberg tomato cuce olive real bacon bits + 2 misc pasta/bean salads, lots of saucy entrees. Lunch buffet was really minimal, same thing daily.
The restaurant, Red Parrot, I would give a B (you just need to make a reservation to eat there). Reserve early in the day for primetime seating... salmon w/ curry sauce v nice, ceviche spicy but quite good, escargo vol-au-vent good, good wines, nice overall selection.
The bar/grill near the main entrance was quite good. They did wood oven pizzas and grilled sandwiches. Pizzas were great.
Bars all had top shelf liquors and made drinks fresh. A-
Holiday Inn Sunspree:
Check in was pretty easy and with a nice smile we got a room upgrade to a ground floor patio room, facing the beach. The room was carpeted, huge, king size bed, clean and nicely airconditioned. The patio had 2 chairs and 2 lounge chairs, plus a beach umbrella.
Food choices consisted of a breakfast buffet, lunch buffet or outdoor grill restaurant, and dinner at outdoor pool side buffet (themed daily), or in the Italian restaurant. Good choices, decent food.
Drinks: In the all inclusive package, mixed drinks with house brand liquors, bud and miller light are free. Top shelf liquors and other beers were a supplement of $1.75 each. Wine at the italian restaurant was not included unless you wanted just the house wine by the glass.
Pool: nice size, with a mini foutain in the center. There were a lot of people usually in it though, namely kids.
Beach: lots of huts, lawnchairs, and free floaties. The beach was not super crowded but there were a lot of people. The water was wonderful and was waist deep 50 yards out.
Aruba:
A pretty commercial downtown area, catering to cruise ships and tourist shopping. There were a number of jewelry stores but it didn't seem to be a bargain.
There is a movie theater downtown (English with Spanish subtitles).
There is also a Tiger exhibit where you can hug and have your photo taken with Tessa, a gorgeous siberian tiger, for $25.
There are some good restaurants (we didn't actually eat in any) but they are scattered around the West side of the island, and downtown center.
Taxis: Fixed price per destination. Around $10 around town and to/from airport count on $15-17.
Activities: They will pick you up at your hotel for free.
Superficial hotel evaluation: We walked up and down the beach and checked out a few hotels. Here is what we thought:
The low rise section of the island is closer to downtown and the airport. The beach is definitely less crowded, except for the part in front of La Cabana. Also, there are a few places where the beach is extremely rocky and narrow (in front of Tamarjin).
The Mega Divi was overall ok, not great food but nice resort, and beach.
The Playa Linda looked great, nice pool, nice beach.
La Cabana is not actually on the beach. It is a huge resort/hotel and looked very crowded. We didn't see the inside at all.
On the high-rise side, the Wyndham is the tallest - about 15 stories. The Radisson has beautiful landscaping, and a nice beach. The Allegro was also very nice and the restaurant chioces looked good. Nice pool too.
The Marriott at the far north side was enormous with 4 buildings, 2 of which were the Marriott vacation club (time-shares) - and there is a fifth building under construction.
Scuba Diving: Overall rating: B-
Some nice wrecks and fish but reefs were not that impressive. Operators were ok but not top notch. None of them set up your gear for you on the boat. All of them also operate boat tours, parasailing, jet skis, etc. and are not truly dedicated scuba shops.
Red Sail:
Their registration in the morning can be a zoo, all depends on how busy it is.
They were pretty efficient on the boat. The dive guides were nice but didn't particularly point things out underwater. $65 for 2 tank dive (rental $15 for bcd and regulator). $5 coupons can be found for them in free tourist guide magazines.
They are located between the Allegro and the Hyatt and several other locations.
Unique Sports:
Easy morning registration, nice guides, professional, took gear to the boat for us. Again, not really much of a guided dive.
They are located in the Aruba Grand hotel.
Mermaid:
we were specifically warned to avoid.
Pelican:
we were told to avoid them as well.
Most hotels were affiliated with one of these operators. They usually will push to only book through their preferred operator but if you ask at the concierge they will usually help you (at least place the call for free).
The dive operators on Aruba all seem to run standard weekly itineraries - if it's Tuesday, you're going to see the Pedernales wreck, like it or not. They did not do 2-tank morning dives every day, but only 4-5 days a week.
Alexandra
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