Save Money in Aruba |
9 Comments |
[Note: While this article is focused Aruba, there's a lot of universal tips that can be used on many vacations.]
Recently, I spent a week in heavenly bliss in Aruba. If pressed I'd say it's my favorite place on earth. There's perfect weather, perfect dining, and relatively affordable luxury accommodations (more on those later). Lastly, since a few airlines fly directly from Boston for relatively cheap prices, there's always a lot of Red Sox fans making it what my wife likes to call, "South South Boston."
If Aruba sounds like it's out of your price range, read on. You may find that you can fit it in your vacation budget after all. Here are just a few ways that we saved (or could save) money in Aruba:
Tip: Go on RedWeek.com a good 9 months ahead of time and rent someone else's timeshare for a week. You can get a great place in the Marriott that will sleep four for $150 a day.
Tip: The bus, Arubus is your best friend in Aruba. It's $2.30 round trip per person and goes around in a big loop taking you to most places you'd ever want to go. It hits every stop every 15 minutes, so you are never waiting long. It's airconditioned and though it's not well cushioned, it's a tremendous value.
Tip #1: If you have a timeshare rental like I mentioned in hotel section, you'll have at least a small fridge and a microwave and other things necessary to cook your own breakfast and lunches. You may even have a small stove and some cookware as we did. Take the Arubus to Ling and Sons and stock up for the week. We spent around $60 for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. We didn't do any major cooking (it's vacation after all), but cold cuts and bread is not exactly work - even if you are as Lazy as I am. I saw a lot of people spend $5.50 on a two liter of Diet Coke in the hotel's shop, but it was only $1.25 at the store in town.
Tip #2: You can sign up for timeshare talk and receive $100 in free money. It took 90 minutes of our time, but it was well worth it for us. They will try to give you a hard sell on buying a timeshare, so you really have to stick to your guns and not buy into their myriad of sales techniques (they use all of them). This $100 was in the form of a gift certificate, but it can be used at many of the restaurants on the island. We had a great dinner at El Gaucho that came to exactly $101.68 (I wasn't keeping track, but it worked out so well.)
Tip: when you are at the store picking up your food for the week, grab a bottle of the local rum - I recommend Palmeria. While you are there pick up some mixers. It helps to have a backpack to get it back on the bus.
Once we added up all the savings, we were able to maximize our dollar for a great vacation.
This post deals with: ... and focuses on:Vacation
Stumble
Reddit
Digg
Del.icio.us
Tipd9 Responses to “Save Money in Aruba”
Leave a Reply
Next: Things I’m Thankful For This Thanksgiving
Awesome, that sounds like fun. I’ve been toying with the idea of a timeshare as well but I’ve always heard bad things about them. I guess it boils down to how often you would actually use it. My girlfriend and I definitely need to get away and aruba sounds really nice I’ll look into it. Thanks for the tips.
It’s funny how the local alcohol always tastes better when it’s cheaper, don’t you think?
Aruba sounds nice.
I love Aruba! My wife and I stayed at the Ocean Club for our honeymoon and we couldn’t help but go back the next year! The Kong Hing grocery store in Orenjestad is a really great place to shop and save some money on going out to eat; it is also a near necessity for me since I’m vegetarian, and seafood is awfully popular…
Aruba’s really nice, and I recommend the IGA grocery store near Eagle Beach. Good prices and it’s frequented by enough locals so it’s got enough local variety. For housing I was lucky enough to have a friend working on the island and was able to stay for free for a few days, something that not everyone can do.
We’ve been to Aruba twice already and loved it each time. I think our rental car was around $20-$25/day. If you don’t mind a cheaper breakfast there’s a couple of Dunkin Donuts on the island. What’s really nice is it has some of the most beautiful and free beaches anywhere! We went with our own snorkeling equipment and it was amazing.
Thanks for the tips. I’ve been trying to find a reasonably priced island to visit and Aruba sound like just the place.
We loved Aruba as well. Went there on our Honeymoon two years ago. You’re right, the food is excellent. El Gaucho was my favorite. We stayed at Bucuti Suites and I would heavily recommend that if you’re going to go the hotel route and aren’t bringing any kids.
Hi,
We have just added your latest post “Save Money in Aruba” to our Directory of Honeymoon Travels and Locations. You can check the inclusion of the post here . We are delighted to invite you to submit all your future posts to the directory for getting a huge base of visitors to your website and gaining a valuable backlink to your site.
Warm Regards
honeymun.com Team
http://www.honeymun.com