My friend and I enjoyed five nights at the Arubiana Inn in February 2008. We loved the location (within walking distance of beautiful Eagle Beach) and the affordability. But, most of all, we enjoyed the opportunity it gave us to get to know our fellow travelers and the fabulous owner, Gaston, and his terrific crew.

Gaston was very patient with our many questions and requests, serving as our personal concierge, and we enjoyed conversations and outings with folks staying at the Inn who were visiting from Holland and New York. We rented a car and enjoyed exploring the island, especially the beautiful two-hundred year-old chapel on the hill with the panoramic view of the desert and sea.

“A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles,” wrote the adventure travel writer, Tim Cahill. The small, intimate, yet private setting of the Arubiana Inn helped us measure our Caribbean adventure in more than mere miles. We highly recommend it to anyone desiring a unique and personalized experience.

Aruba keeps offering white sands, emerald waters and an increasing number of fine restaurants but for most people it is an expensive destination. We were lucky to find a small hotel, The Arubiana Inn, which ofers fully equped rooms, wholesome breakfast a small pool and a friendly staff that speak English, Spanish, Ducth and Papiamento. It is basic but quiet and clean and not far from Eagle and Palm Beach. We hope to be back later this year.

Gustavo. <gema1951@cantv.net>

The Arubiana Inn is a great alternative for those who wish to experience the beauty of Aruba but don't wish to break their budgets in doing so. It is an easy 10 minute walk to the beautiful Eagle Beach and I really enjoyed the exercise. I didn't feel guilty about relaxing on the beach all day.

The owner of the Arubiana Inn, Gaston, is very friendly and helpful. Yes, there is something to be said for the large hotels on the beach but there is also something to be said when the owner of the place you are staying takes a personal interest in you. I even invited him to look me up if he ever has the chance to visit Colorado.

The Arubiana provides a comfortable, clean, happy and relaxing atmosphere. I will certainly stay there again when I return to Aruba.

During our stay in Aruba, we were coming off a great three days stay at Paradera Park apartments, which was fabulous! Based on Tripadvisor reviews, we also booked Arubiana Inn. We were sorely disappointed from the get-go.

To start, the place is supposed to be near the beach but it is not at all close enough to safely walk to. When you walk in, it's on a busy road and is just a fancier motel with a swimming pool in the middle, with lounge chairs around it. That point comes in handy later on.

We were greeted by the friendly dutch owner, who showed us to room 2. The furnishings in the room were pretty nice, but immediately upon entering the room, we were struck with a serious smell of poo everywhere. The smell was so strong, we asked the owner if we could change rooms because it smelled. He told us that the septic tank cleaner just came and pumped the tank and the smell would be gone in 10 minutes. He also said he had no availability but perhaps the next day he could find a different room.

We then watched as a cleaning lady came in and poured bleach down the bath drain- and plugged in a Glade air-freshener in the wall. Not a comforting thing to watch, but we believed the owner that the smell would be gone. We propped all windows and left for the next 8 hours. We came back and smelled the smell but EVEN worse. Horrendous smell. We then popped out for dinner and returned at 12 midnight to the most dense smell you could imagine, of feces. We were surrounded by it so much that we considered just sleeping on the lounge chairs by the pool but were scared of the bugs.

We then talked to the couple next door who said their room was fine but that they had seen someone doing work in our room for the past 2 days. We investigated the floor and it looked like it was buckled. We were furious, as we realized we had been lied to about a septic tank guy emptying the tank when there really was a problem with the room.

Fully clothed, and poised above the covers because who knows what else was wrong with the room, we slept until the crack of dawn, the earliest when we knew we would be able to find the owner. We immediately packed up and found the owner and informed him we were leaving. He admitted to lying about the rooms' condition, and to his credit, he refunded us the money for the past night. Apparently, a tree root growing under our room had somehow exposed our room to the contents of the septic tank. Disgusting.

We were fully disgusted and immediately changed rooms to another hotel. While the owner was nice enough, he was dishonest and exposed us to a utterly disgusting room.