My husband and I just returned yesterday from Aruba and stayed at the Bucuti. It was our first time on the island and it was FANTASTIC!!! The hotel is just amazing. The best place to stay on the island. Quiet, really clean and beautiful. Aah!! The beach is the most amazing ever!! We were upgraded to a beach front suite our first night which was fantastic, but were also very happy in the superior room which also had a beautiful view of the beach.

The staff is so helpful and we really were able to enjoy everything. Favorite thing: Beach at the Bucuti!!! Also, if you like steak you must go to the "Gaucho Grill". The most amazing meal.

Aruba is much busier and more active than other islands of the Carribbean, but the Bucuti provided a quiet and stunning retreat.

I am also a stickler for extreme cleanliness in a hotel room and the Bucuti was more than I expected.

The free breakfast is more than adequate and if you need a hot breakfast you can always order from the "The Pirate's Nest".

There are many fantastic restaurants on Aruba but they can get pricey. Traveller's tip, on your first day there take the bus to the market and get lunch stuff, then spend the money on dinner. All rooms at the Bucuti have a fridge and microwave and the suites have a full kitchen.

When we arrived we were given a Happy Anniversary basket with Champagne and Cheese which was a lovely and very personal touch.

We also took advantage of the very easy bus system during the day and the did Taxi's at night. Another good tip.

We got massages at the Spa at the Bucuti. They were great.

Such a wonderful resort . So personal and special.!!!!

Melissa and Jeff S.

We stayed at the Bucuti for our honeymoon during the week of August 13.

Arrival:
Immediately upon arrival, our bags were whisked away and taken to our room and we were brought to a reservationists & offered water or champagne and were given an overview of their services. Upon entering our beautiful room, we were greeted by a heart balloon, a bottle of champagne with cheese and chocolates.

Concierge:
The concierge were all extremely helpful as they booked all of our dinners and excursions, which were great!

Car:
The concierge rented our car for us for about $45. We only rented it for a day, which was perfect. We enjoyed not having to drive or park the rest of the days! Though it was nice to be able to go to the store and buy some water and other snacks and not pay the high prices at the restaurants during the day. We also used the car to take us to the amazing restaurant The Flying Fishbone, which is located past the airport and would have been an expensive cab ride. We did not use the car to tour the island and opted for a jeep tour instead which we highly recommend. The back roads are without street signs and our jeep driver knew all the great hidden spots that we wouldn’t have known to navigate.

Room:
We stayed in the Tara Suites and it was amazing. It is worth spending the extra money, as the view is definitely worth it. The suite was spacious, modern and chic. It was the perfect way to wake up each morning!

Food:
The Pirates Nest is nothing to write home about. We ate lunch there a few times and loved the quietness and the amazing view. We also had the romantic dinner on the beach (part of the honeymoon package) and the food was quite good, but we wouldn’t have paid for dinner there ourselves. We had lunch at Pizza Bob’s, which was okay—it doesn’t come close to NY style. We recommend The French Steakhouse (at the Manchebo), Gianni’s (by the high-rise hotels)and Ruins del Mar (at the Hyatt). Though our favorites were Matilde and The Flying Fishbone. Matilde has excellent food and service at a romantic, serene setting, while The Flying Fishbone was an incredible experience all across the board.

Atmosphere:
The beach is amazing, and definitely the best on the island. It is pristine, spacious and incredibly private. There are plenty of lounge chairs available, so you don't have to get up early to reserve one. Also, they are far enough apart from one another, so you have privacy!

We enjoyed our complimentary champagne one evening on the lounge chairs and felt like the only people on the island. The hotel is perfect for a honeymoon or a romantic getaway.

In an overall sense, Aruba was rather a disappointment. It seems like a further south Ft. Lauderdale - just a long line of beach front hotels ranging from high rise to motel type. There appears to be nothing one would truly call a "resort"(even though Bucuti labels itself as a "resort").
Positives of Bucuti (and Aruba in general) include weather, beaches, and water - all wonderful.
Bucuti is probably one of the better places to stay in Aruba. Our room in the Tara suites section was acceptable - it is not quite as dramatic as the hotel pictures make it out to be.
This, however, was the second room we had. We had to be moved out of the first room we were given due to a horrible sewage like odor in the room at night. This odor also seems to pervade the lobby of the Tara building as well. To their credit, the Bucuti staff was as accommodating as they could be in terms of moving us, and we found them , in general, to be pleasant and helpful.
The list of negatives besides the odor is longer than we would have liked. We found the food to be mainly mediocre. Breakfast was included, but it was largely a glorified Continental breakfast along with some meats and cheese - keep in mind that Aruba is Dutch and a large % of visitors are European - breakfast meats are common in Europe. If you wanted eggs there was an additional charge. Breakfast was served either in a room in the Tara suites or in a very dingy inside of a faux pirate ship.
We wound up skipping breakfast at the Bucuti (annoyingly they apply a service charge for breakfast whether you have it or not) and going next door to the Frangipani restaurant at the Costa Linda. They serve "real" breakfasts there, and the place is pleasant. It was worth the walk and the money.
The lunch menu at the Bucuti was OK- lunch is served outdoors at the pirate ship or you may have it on the beach.
We wouldn't hazard dinner at the Bucuti - we went out every night.
Best among the restaurants we found were Madam Janette and Pincho's.
Probably the most annoying element of our stay was the fact that
the Bucuti did not have enough beach chairs for the number of guests. If you wanted to make sure that you had chairs and a beach hut, you literally had to go out at 7:00 AM and lay claim to chairs and a hut. To us, "vacation" doesn't include the need to get up at a ridiculous hour of the morning to get beach chairs. The problem is worsened by the fact that the Bucuti does not do a very good job of policing their area to make sure that people who are not guests of the hotel are not using Bucuti facilities. We saw any number of instances where people would either wander over from an adjacent hotel, or from the street, and plunk themselves down on Bucuti chairs, etc.
It seems that a number of locals like the Bucuti bar - these people are loud and raucous and annoying.

In sum, we would not return to the Bucuti. It wasn't awful, but it was far from great. We would not return to Aruba either. We have had much better experiences in other Caribbean venues - especially Nevis and Tortola.

The Bucuti is exactly as you would expect from reading its website. The rooms are tastefully decorated, it is a good place to stay for couples and it is not your big-box resort. There were zero kids at the property when we stayed there and almost all the guests were couples.

My boyfriend and I booked through AA Vacations and a free airport transfer was included. You needed a coupon voucher for this and even though our friends didn't book through AA Vacations, the shuttle employees were kind enough to allow them on the bus.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by very friendly staff and a glass of sparkling wine at the reception desk. The staff gave us a thorough explanation of the property and points of interest. At this point, our room was not ready yet so we were given free drink vouchers and made our way to the Pirate's Nest restaurant for lunch.

The restaurant food is not terrible, but it is nothing special and pretty pricey. The hot dog is huge and was a crowd favorite on our trip. The drinks are tasty, but not especially strong. Mostly the restaurant is just convenient if you are hanging out on the beach all day and just want to grab a quick bite. On the last day of our trip, we went to the nearby Subway for lunch and we wished we had done that the rest of the trip! It was so much cheaper and probably healthier than the Pirate's Nest food.

I have to say we all really enjoyed the brunches at the Pirate's Nest though, they had extensive cold cuts and cheese offerings, pastries, fruit, cereal, breads, spreads, juice, coffee, hot chocolate and tea. You could also pay extra for omelettes if you were interested.

Other areas of note at the Pirate were that iguanas liked to visit the outside dining area and the guests often fed them lettuce and tomatoes. Also, the music played always seemed to be 80's and 90's romantic ballads, like Celine Dion, the Bodyguard soundtrack and Bryan Adam's song from Robin Hood.

As for the other facilities, we never hung out by the pool, you could always get a palapa (palm frond shade) on the beach. There is a mini mart on the property selling snacks, souvenirs and toiletries, but at inflated prices as one would expect. There is a supermarket nearby that sells everything you would need.

Overall, it was a really nice, relaxing experience. If we were to visit Aruba again, I would probably want to check out one of the larger properties. At the Bucuti, if you need to get out of the sun for a while, there aren't many options for indoor activities. You could hang out in your room, visit the minimart or sit in the Pirate's Nest. It might have been nice to have more restaurants on sit, shops to walk through and bars.