My husband and I stayed at the Tamarijn Aruba from April 6 - 13 , 2007 , along with our grown kids and grand kids , and we had a very nice vacation . We knew that the hotel was older , but the rooms were in very good shape , nice bathrooms , comfy beds , great location . We never had a problem finding chairs & palapas on the beach. The staff were great , our housekeeper was a sweetheart - Louisa - bar staff were good , wait staff was pretty good also. I was especially impressed by the food - i had read all the reviews , but i really didn't get it until we got there. We do not like buffets , and it was possible to make reservations for up to 3 days in advance at the ala carte restaurants , so we got to eat at the " good " restaurants every night except our arrival day. We LOVED the Italian restaurant , and liked the asian restaurant a lot , and loved the concept of the Palm grill ( where you cook your own food ) - it was fun and tasty . The Red Parrott at the Divi was super - we ate there twice and found the menu to be excellent , and the pizza / grille was very good for snacks , pizza , sandwiches , etc. All in all , it was a really good value and a great vacation. My best advice is to request rooms in bldg 13 or 14 or 15 or 16 - anything higher than that is too far to walk .

our family just returned from a week stay at the Tamarijn All Inclusive. We had a great time! It was our first family vacation with our 20 month old toddler so we were a bit worried. but he loved it more than us. if you're traveling with a small child, here's what you need to know:

we had a room on the ground floor in block 1900. excellent location - not far from the cunucu terrace restaurant (buffet and bar) and a great beach area with no rocks and lots of palapas and lounge chairs. this block of rooms is also directly next to the towel hut and activities center. we were very pleased with the location.

rooms are small and outdated. be realistic though - you will not spend much time in your room. we used it to shower and sleep. they were clean and neat. we've stayed at the Radisson the last time we were in aruba and we've stayed at other amazing hotels so we're a little jaded. but the Tam made up for it with hospitality, friendly guests and staff, and a gorgeous beach.

all-inclusive feature: came in handy for bkfast & lunch and snacks and drinks. aruba has so many wonderful restaurants that we never had dinner at any of the Tam's restaurants. we usually took a cab ride into downtown aruba or into the High Rise hotel area for dinner - always an $8 cab ride. no car seats and we didn't bring one. but driving is slow and cautious so we didn't worry and our son enjoyed the little trips on our lap.

if you're traveling with a small child, each room is equipped with a mini fridge. every few days, i would ask one of the restaurant staff to please give me a box of milk (a liter of milk) for the baby. they were happy to oblige and i always had milk on hand for our son. we requested a crib, but it's a portable crib size and it is small. they also don't provide bumpers so if you're worried about your baby bumping their heads, bring a portable crib size bumper. we got rid of the crib because it was too small for our son and the baby slept in bed with us. he loved it and the beds are big enough that 2 1/2 people sleep comfortably.

it was so great to lay on the beach and be able to take a few steps back into our room for a bottle or a diaper change. we brought enough sand toys to keep our son occupied. he loved the ocean and the aruba breeze - he would nap for a good 2 hours every day on a lounge chair under the palapa.

we would definitely go back to the Tam with our baby. it was such a great place for him and very family friendly.

We love Tripadvisor; it helps us so much in booking vacations every year, so I always try to make my own reviews as specific and helpful as possible. With that said, I will break our stay down into categories and use note form to keep it as brief as possible:

From airport: paid @$22 for taxi from airport (a few $ more than reviews said we'd pay, but , hey, it was Good Friday-- considered it a holiday tip for transport of 3 people) -- anyway, only paid $17 on way home, so it evens out to about $20 (what we'd heard)

Check-in: arrived @ about 4 p.m. on 4/6/07; whole process pretty quick (no problems like in other reviews); paid extra$2/day for safe, then walked few steps over and booked first 3 dinner reservations in specialty restaurants (no wait at all); SMOOTH

Room: not huge, but immaculate; cheerful; 2nd floor balcony GREAT; loved location in 1200 bldg. -- close to gym, restaurants, bar, PERFECT! (Couldn't see how ANY room would be BAD though -- all locations have advantages); A/C not central, but NO LOUDER THAN @ ANY HOTEL -- WHY ARE PEOPLE COMPLAINING? all areas of hotel clean and well-maintained

Pool: Who cares? Not the biggest but appeared clean & little kids seemed to enjoy -- we were there for the ocean!

Restaurants: best food we'd ever had at any all-inclusive (this was our 6th in various areas of Caribbean); great beef; especially recommend Ginger & Red Parrot (in that order); Palm fun though food only so-so; did not go to Italian rest. but heard others say it was not so hot; breakfast FABULOUS, esp. melon and other fruit every day; never a long line in buffet at any meal; never got tired of selections -- usually do at other resorts we've visited; food at Pizza Pitutti (sp.?) great -- kids esp. love it; tuna salad esp. good there, and thin pizza terrific

BEACH: to DIE for; one review said "like living in a Corona commercial" -- says it ALL!!!! So true! Proximity to gorgeous water unbelievable! Water beautiful. Sand soft and white. Easily compensates for any MINOR shortcomings of resort

Weather: a bit overcast first two days; other days mostly sunny; consisent highs of 90's and lows of 80's (F) daily -- perfect!

Bar: good drinks -- always asked for name brands and got them, in generous quantities; tipped a few times, but got good service even when we didn't; specialty drinks too syrupy for our taste, but that's not unusual; can get your own sodas or water (safe to drink and tastes like Dasani) at bars if you don't want to wait

Staff: some friendlier & more helpful than others (like any other place) but no one rude enough to elevate our blood pressure; least helpful were at check-in when we needed things like internet use tickets (couldn't get internet tickets one day, but it was Easter, so . . .)

Watersports/Rock Climbing Wall: our one disappointment -- no Hobecats; Sunfish available only ONE day but only for a few hours; staff often not there on time and not helpful when they WERE there; kayaks generally available, as is snorkel equipment, but staff seemed to make up own rules about when to stop lending it (one day wouldn't let us have kayak w/ 1.5 hours to go till closing because they said it was "too late to take it out"; waited 45 minutes for rock climbing guy to show up one day

Chairs: never tried for a hut (we WANT sun), but NEVER had a problem getting a chair at ANY time of day -- could usually get one facing ocean at pool

Gym: used it every day; well-equipped and cool; some equipment broken all week, but we improvised & still got good morning workouts; went @ about 8:00 and seldom had to wait more than 5 minutes for anything; Miss Aruba (bodybuilder) works there -- friendly and helpful

Excursions: went on Happy Hour Snorkel -- 3 hours -- doesn't take up whole day, relatively cheap fun; recommend it; HIGHLY recommend FREE bike/snorkel tour through resort; don't expect breathtaking sealife anywhere, but some saw some huge starfish, squid, sea turtle, a few colorful fish - -fun

Entertainment: pretty nonexistent -- low-key @ best; don't expect spectacular shows -- just "lounge-type" music; no real activities during the day -- a few staff members who take you on bike tour, etc. , but not a festive atmosphere w/ entertainment staff running around encouraging participation in games, etc. -- make your own fun and have a blast -- they WON'T make fun for you to join in as entertainment staff does @ other places we've stayed (like Club Med Punta Cana); no music playing loudly enough to hear from wherever on the beach -- kind of missed that festive feel created by steel drum or Latin music @ other resorts -- but got used to the more laid-back atmosphere

Attention surfers: got locals to take us to other side of island for great surf (though a bit scary compared to that in good old NC -- coral, rocks)

Shops in resort: surprisingly, souvenirs pretty reasonably priced -- don't gouge you like in many other resort stores

Have teenagers?: Our 15-yr.-old was never w/o companions; had a blast meeting people from all over & hanging out. Felt safe letting him have the run of both the Tam & Divi; he loved the golf cart transportation between the 2

Checkout (4/14/07) : do pre-checkout night before you leave (you will get info under door on next-to-last morning) -- then checkout is painless and quick

OVERALL -- LOVED IT! BEST VACATION WE HAVE EVER HAD! WE WILL BE BACK & WILL STAY @ TAM!!! WORDS CAN'T EXPRESS HOW BEAUTIFUL THIS PLACE IS -- GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Tam:

We really like the Tam. It is very laid back, t-shirts and shorts, even for dinner. check out the pics at http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t87/paulfredricks/?action=view&current=1177638733.pbw

The Beach

We always felt that we had the beach to our selves. Very uncrowded. We never fought for a Palapa, but then again I don't think we tried to. If we wanted shade we sat on our patio or shared a Palapa. We did see that they are putting in new Palapas. I think they are replacing the existing ones with bigger or newer ones.
The beach in front of 1800 to 1400 had rocks, but kind of like a stone wall. In front of 100 to 1300 and 1900 to 2400 were free of rocks. In the water is a bit different. there is rock in the water at various places. The only place we went in was the 1900-2400 beach. Probably the best place to walk in was around 2100-2200, but nothing really too bad.

We saw very few green towels from the time shares at Dutch village which kind of surprised me.

Food:

There is the buffet, which was the same for breakfast and lunch. Dinner switches between Italian and Oriental, though it seemed more Dutch which makes some sense. Food there was fine, some not so great and some good. The Ginger and Paparazzi restaurants were great. We were very happy with the food and service. THe Palm, where you cook your own food, was good. More interesting than delicious, but we are easy to please. The Red Parrot at Divi was very good. Service was good at all, but better at the Parrot. I felt I needed to be a bit more dressed for the Parrot, at least a Polo shirt.

If you are looking for gastronomic pleasure, this may not be the place for you. It was just what we wanted.

We arrived on Sunday, ate at the buffet for dinner, then made reservations on Monday. I had heard that it can be tough to get reservations, but we had no problem. We were able to make reservations for the next 3 days. Someone else said that they could only make them for the next day, so I told him to talk to the other concierge and presto, he had his reservations. Which now brings me to...

Bars:

The bunker bar. The simplest things in life can be the best. I love the Bunker Bar. It didn't hurt that it was less than 50' from our room.
Later each afternoon I'd head up for Balashis or the drinks of the day, or both. Balashi and Miller lite was all they had for beer. Balashi was fine. I spent Saturday afternoon as the lone Yankee fan surrounded by Red Sox fans watching game 2 of their 3 game series. Still had a good time. Friday night people were dancing on the bar to Motown.

Coconuts is between the pool and the buffet Terrace. Nothing special. Add Amstel on tap. I never saw any canned or bottled beer at the Tam, but it may have been there.

Pizza by Tutti bar serves pizza, sandwiches, ice cream, and a few other food items as well as drinks. It's on the other side of the pool.

We didn't spend any time at the Divi except for the Red Parrot so I don't have any info on their bars.

The Room:

It was a bit tight, having our 2 teenagers with us, but we were fine. The room had been redone, but nothing special. I was told by a Divi guest that ours was nicer than theirs. The bathroom is also a bit on the tight side, but fine for us. I wish it had an exhaust fan instead on just a high window. It would have been better at getting the humidity out.

The through the wall A/C is a bit loud. The trick is to leave the fan on all the time. This way when the compressor kicks it's not much louder.

I'm glad we chose the lower floor. It was nice to leave the slider unlocked when we were near by and just pop in and out when we needed something. My wife would have liked the upper floor, mostly for sitting out in the evening.

From 1900 - 2400 your view to the right is of the cruise ship/ cargo ship area. At first I thought this was a bad thing, but it was interesting to watch the comings and goings.

Everything else:

I never did get to sail. We were to busy earlier in the week, and later in the week either the wind was wrong and they wouldn't let the boat out, or there wasn't enough wind so it wasn't worth it.

The Divi common area was a bit nicer than the Tam. We also saw a DJ there and people dancing. I didn't see anything like that at the Tam. But were so exhausted from sun and surf everyday that were were always in bed by 10. I really have no idea what late night is like there. I think I need to go back and find out.

Enough for now. Look for part 3.