Aruba.
Aruba is one of the Lesser Antilles located in the Southern Caribbean Sea. Its weather stays fairly constant at 82° F (28°C). It also lies south of the general hurricane paths. All this makes it a wonderful place to visit year round.
We were able to book a direct flight from Washington D.C. (Dulles-IAD) to Aruba.
The flight time was around 4 1/2 hours.
The island was vibrant and full of character. Not to mention i was a welcome relief from a long winter in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Here are five photos of Aruba that will make you want to hop on a plane and go visit the “One Happy Island.”
Palm Beach.
Located on the West side of the island, Palm Beach is two miles of white sand and calm, turquoise waters.
This is the main tourist district and is where we stayed with our three teenagers. You’ll find stunning turquoise waters as well as many water sports. Our snorkeling excursion left from here as well as the tube ride that we took.
Natural Bridge.
Located in Arikok National Park on the East Coast of Aruba, Natural Bridge collapsed in in 2005.
There is still a baby natural bridge located here and amazing views of the ocean crashing into the limestone cliffs.
The winds on this side of the island are much stronger.
Baby Beach.
Baby Beach is a half-moon lagoon near San Nicolas, known for its calm and shallow waters.
Across the rocky outcropping, divers were seen along the reefs.
Boca Catalina.
One of the sites on our snorkeling cruise with Jolly Pirates, which you can read about here, was Boca Catalina.
It’s located in the Malmok Beach area just north of Palm Beach.
Sunset at Palm Beach.
Aruba serves up plenty of beautiful sunsets.
Try to catch as many as you can.
Let your light shine!
Amy
Any one of those will make you want to visit Aruba.
Have a fabulous day. ♥
Thank you! It was a lovely place!
I hope you have fabulous day as well!!
You are right 🙂
I had to make sure the title said it all since it’s Wordless Wednesday 😉
Oh, the color of that water…!!! ❤️💜So gorgeous!! I think I’ll be dreaming of Aruba tonight… ☺️
Dreaming of Aruba would be a good dream indeed!! I think I may daydream of once again floating in those turquoise waters as I sit here bundled in a sweater. 😉
Yes indeed! Gorgeous!
Thank you!!
You were right. Aruba it is.
Thank you! It is a lovely place!
haha 😂I wanted to go before your pics, now I really have the hankering! 💕🐠🌴
It is one of the most gorgeous beaches that I’ve visited!! 🙂
Well… No, lol! But they’re all very pretty pictures and I’m glad you enjoyed it 😀
Lol. I know you like your cold! But since it was wordless, the title had to tell it all (from my perspective 😉)
Love your photos – as always. Of course there’s a part of my head that’s asking “I wonder how many she took?” 🙂
Thanks Jonathan! I have lots more to share. I didn’t get to move around the island as much as I would have liked, so many are at the same beach. But the sky and scenes are always changing and landscape photography is my love.
For some reason I haven’t figure out, when I switched to raw, the camera takes three photos for each shot (massive amount of memory usage) and I need to fix that.
For the record, somewhere between 175-200 on the camera (some are awful and will be trashed though. lol.)
Yes they do! He-Man and I canceled our trip to Cabo last year cause the news coming out of the area wasn’t good with cartel stuff and we never went anywhere really after that.
This year we hope to go somewhere and this went on my list to check out because of you!
I wanted to be sure that I picked a place where the government recommendation was “take normal precautions” because I’m still so knew to traveling out of the country. I though my Aruba was beautiful.
Good thinking!
These photos look incredible! Aruba is definitely on my bucket list. The beaches look beautiful and for a small island it’s so diverse. Beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing.
Sophie | http://thirdeyetraveller.com
Thank you! It was my first visit to truly turquoise waters and they were stunning. Its diverse landscape was amazing. Crossing through a desert landscape and then going from calm waters to crashing waves. There was a lot to see. 🙂
Aruba is definitely on my bucket list! Since I live on the West Coast it makes it more difficult to get to the Caribbean and place like Aruba though. Your photos of the crystal blue water are beautiful and make me want to figure out a way to visit there!
The waters were beautiful. I hope that you get a chance to make it there! I know what you mean about your location making it more difficult to get there. I’d love to travel to Hawaii, but the flight time from the East Coast feels daunting.
The color of the water is stunning. Definitely Aruba is the place to go if you like beaches
Aruba does have some stunning beaches!! It’s a great getaway…especially to get away from winter weather 😉
We only had a day in Aruba for a cruise, but we missed so much it seems. We’d love to go back and see more!
We saw the cruise ships come in. That’s something I haven’t done yet. I hope that you get a chance to go back an visit! We had a great time and still didn’t see all there was to see. 🙂
Ugh! It is so darn cold here in Kansas City, too. Thanks for “taking” me to Aruba with you to warm up and gaze upon the water!
I’m definitely ready for winter to be over!! I’m glad you enjoyed the “trip” to Aruba and could imagine the sunshine. 🙂
Enough to make me very jealous from my Canadian winter! Aruba looks beautiful!
Aruba was very beautiful! I could not imagine a Canadian winter. Virginia winters are brutal enough for me since I am originally a Floridian.
Sold! I am ready to visit Aruba after these beautiful photos. The water is so blue and pretty! And that sunset photo with the sailboat silhouette is absolutely gorgeous! Nice job capturing the beauty of the island.
Thank you! I’m glad that you enjoyed the photos!! I hope that you get a chance to visit Aruba. Its waters and sunsets are stunning!!
Gorgeous! I only spent a few hours there on a cruise and loved it. The water is so clear. I would love to head back there for a longer stay.
I haven’t tried a cruise yet. It seems like a great way to visit many new places.
I was amazed by the clear waters! We heard great things about it before traveling there and we definitely weren’t disappointed. 🙂
Now that I live in the NL ant there are good connections to Aruba I have decided to go soon! It has to be amazing! I loved your pictures…!
I’m glad that you enjoyed the photos! It is amazing there. You definitely won’t be disappointed with a trip.
Gorgeous! Where did you stay! I always am up for traveling but back out because nervous about making wrong choices of where to go exactly.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort Aruba- Beach Resort & Casino. We were there in 2018 and the rooms were a little dated and run down as most of the reviews say. However, we needed two rooms at a reasonable price and the hotel was right on the beach in the middle of all the restaurants and water activities. And I thought the grounds were gorgeous. You will need to rent a car or take a taxi from the airport. We rented a car, but only ended up using it to go to the grocery store and over to Baby Beach. We just walked up the beach to our snorkeling trip and to any restaurant we visited. For our jeep tour, they picked us up at the hotel.
I tend to struggle with choice around where to go and what to book, but I guess that’s part of the adventure. I struggle with pre-booking adventures because then there’s a set timeline and getting 5 people on a schedule is tough. lol.