One day, while Danny and I were in the car, I asked him if he would be interested in skipping Thanksgiving for the year. He hesitated, so I let him think on it for a bit. A little bit of time went by, and when I asked again, he was on board.

I knew I wanted to go somewhere tropical, last year was our year of tropical vacations. Since I am originally from Florida, I knew I wanted away from hurricane prone locations, and landed on the idea of the ABC islands. The ABC islands are Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire and they are just south of the hurricane belt, making direct hits from hurricanes rare.

 

After a bit of research, we were sold on Aruba. The average temperature in November is around 82 degrees. It is a small island (19.6 miles long) so we could cover a lot of territory in the full 4 days we were there.

Fun

Seabobbing

Snorkeling is one of our favorite activities to do in any tropical vacation. We bought our own masks and snorkels before our honeymoon and have taken them on every trip. Every Sunday, Danny and I watch the Bucket List Family and recently noticed they were using these cool motorized device called a Seabob. I knew I had to try it.

 

Seabobbing has changed the snorkel game.

 

After suiting up and going over safety measures, we were zooming through the water. We explored a coral reef called Mangel Halto with Aruba Bob. We enjoyed our first round of seabobbing so much, we booked a second-round to go about half a mile offshore and visit the Antilles Shipwreck with Seabob Aruba. Antilles is one of the Caribbean’s largest shipwrecks. It was sunk during World War II.

 

The best part of seabobbing? You aren’t exhausted at the end. The Seabobs do all the work for you and can even go up to 12 mph and 131 feet deep.

Food

Eduardo’s Beach Shack

Eduardo’s is known as Aruba’s best smoothie bar. After seeing multiple reviews and researching online, we knew we had to try it.

 

Eduardo’s serves acai bowls, coco whip, poke bowls, waffles, protein balls, and more. Originally when we went, we each grabbed an acai bowl and sat in the sand to eat. Does it get any better than that? Didn’t think so. We loved it so much, we went twice for breakfast and stopped on our way to the airport to grab some treats for our flight home. It just doesn’t get any better than a delicious, fresh breakfast with a view of crystal clear water.

 

Eduardo’s is located directly behind the Playa Linda Resort right along the pathway. Their philosophy is to provide nutritious and delicious whole foods that are unprocessed and refined sugar-free. They do not have seating as this is more of a grab and go type of shack, but I would recommend going early to avoid the long lines.

 

To find their menu, click this link: https://www.eduardosbeachshack.com/pages/menu

 

 

Experience

Barefoot Restaurant

I don’t even know where to begin on this restaurant. The views are amazing. The food is amazing. It’s overall an amazing restaurant.

 

Luckily, we went during off-season (how can Aruba even have an off-season?) so getting a reservation was pretty easy! Another couple recommended this to us on our ATV tour and I called immediately.

 

We booked a reservation for 5 in the evening. I know it seems early, but truly, the best part of this restaurant is the overall experience, that is including the amazing sunset views.
We were seated directly on the beach with our toes in the sand. Barefoot is near the airport so we were able to watch incoming flights to Aruba. Danny ordered one of their specials and I had the Garlic Shrimp.

 

Based on how delicious our food was, we knew we had to try dessert. I ordered the snickers cheesecake while Danny had the pumpkin cheesecake. This is not a restaurant that you skip dessert at.

Education

A couple of facts about Aruba:

  • They speak Dutch for business, English for tourism, Papiamento is their local language, Spanish, and more people are learning Chinese. It is pretty amazing hearing the locals speak in multiple languages.
  • They have a donkey sanctuary on the island. Donkeys are the largest group of “wild animals” in Aruba. Donkeys are not native to the island but have existed for at least 500 years. Currently in the sanctuary’s care are around 130 donkeys. There is no admission fee, and they love volunteers. It’s worth spending an hour visiting the donkeys.
  • On a clear day, if you visit Baby Beach, you can see Venezuela which is only around 15 miles away. You are also likely to see sea turtles swimming around at Baby Beach. Please do not touch the Sea Turtles or try to ride them like we saw many tourists try to do.