We stayed at the Holiday In Sunspree April 27 to May 3.

The stay itself was good. The hotel staff seemed helpful with any requests. The concierge will make reservations for dinner for you.
They suggested some good restaurants.
The restaurants in the hotel are ok. Breakfast at Corals was good with a decent variety , about $40.
We ate at the Italian Restaurant in the hotel one night because it got too late to go out . Dinner was about 65 dollars without drinks. We did not go all -inclusive. There are too many good restaurants within walking distance to be tied down to the few in the hotel. Tony Roma's , Texas De Brazil and Smokey Joe's are right across the street . Look at your bill carefully, most restaurants add a 15 to 18% service charge to the bill without telling you, although it is mentioned on the menu.

The worst part of the stay was the rude people from "Monique's" wedding party. There must have been about 25 people that were there from Boston to attend "Mo's" destination wedding. These people had absolutely no regard for the people around them. The huts on the beach are for the people who get up at 6 oclock and wait on line until 7:30 for the towel guys and assign the huts.

These people would come down to the beach at 10:00, park their chairs so close to other people and take over their palapa hut that they could not move their chairs and stay in the shade as the sun came across the sky. One morning I went back to my room after getting my palapa and the wedding party had moved my chairs and took over my hut. When I came back, they gave me a hassle about wanting my hut back. If you get a hut and see a wedding party, claim your space and don't leave your hut unattended. Other that that issue, I would go back to the Holiday Inn.

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.

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My husband and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Aruba from 4-14 to 4-22 2008. For us it was a long-delayed honeymoon we did in conjunction with my sister's wedding. All of the wedding guests stayed at the Holiday Inn.
First the good stuff. We had a 3rd floor room in the Bonaire Tower, with a king bed. The room itself was great- very clean and neat, overlooking the pool and the ocean. Considering we had reserved an Island View Superior room on PriorityClub.com, we were very pleased with the Ocean view we got for no extra charge. Noise from outside was manageable- the balcony doors are good solid glass so blocked out most noise. The room was a good value for what we paid- $144/night, half of what we were going to pay at the Marriott. The bad- check-in was really long- they obviously don't have express computer check-in systems. Some of my family members were put in the wrong rooms and had trouble changing them.
The beach was pretty crowded- apparently we were there during the last week of 'high season." A personal annoyance of mine is people who 'reserve' chairs and tiki huts by placing towels on them all day long, and then barely spent any time sitting there. I have no problem with folks who leave stuff on their chairs while they are in the water, but please. It is rude and selfish to reserve chairs and tikis for a full day and only use them for an hour or so. Some of my sister's friends were treated very rudely when they sat down on unoccupied seats, only to have the irritated "occupants' say nasty things to them when they wanted to reclaim their seats. This is the sort of thing that gives Americans a bad name when we travel- that ridiculous sense of entitlement. So, if you want to reserve a tiki hut, either get up and in line by 7 am, or do what my sister's fiance's male relatives did- slipped the tiki hut staff some bills!
Now, a HUGE problem- the elevators!! They were being replaced/repaired in EVERY tower while we were there. The staff refused to unlock the outside stairway doors (there are no indoor stairs) 24/7 until 3 days into our stay. You usually had to wait at least 5 minutes to get on on elevator, and then you were lucky if the staff weren't taking up the whole elevator with their bins and cleaning supplies (no, they don't have a separate staff elevator!!). My husband and I didn't have any problem once the stairway doors were opened, but this caused real issues for the disabled and elderly folks who were staying there. Staff didn't seem to care at all about the inconvenience to their paying guests.
Food- we didn't really eat at the Holiday Inn. Keep in mind, Aruba is a desert island and imports everything, so all food and beverages are EXPENSIVE!! For breakfast and lunch, Amici's cafe, right next door and across the street, was great. You could get eggs, toast, and a beverage for about 8 bucks. They had awesome sandwiches for lunch (all under 10 bucks), and the best gelato. For dinner, i HIGHLY recommend doing the Wine-Around (got to the Aruba Gastrnomic Association's website for more info, www.arubadining.com/winearound). It seems expensive ($85 per person per meal), but it's really a bargain considering the quality of restaurants and the wine that is included. Our favorite was Chez Matilde, in downtown Oranjestaad. Even if you don't do the wine around, it is a great place for a romantic, fine French meal. Our 2d favorite was Hostaria di'Vittorio, right down the street across from the Hyatt. Mauricio, one of the chef-owners, was so enthusiastic, and we got 4 BOTTLES of wine, not just glasses!
For excursions, we would definitely recommend Pelican Tours Aqua Safari Champagne Brunch. It's 4.5 hours, you go to 3 snorkeling spots, you get a continental breakfast and tasty lunch, and all beverages (the mimosas are great!). The Pelican Tours dock is right on the beach at the Holiday Inn so it's easy to reserve.
We won't be going back to Aruba. It's nice if you like laying on the beach and partying, but it's pretty much your basic Caribbean island (with less to do). Also, it is really windy ALL the time. We like to have more variety in our vacations, so we will probably cruise again the next time we do the Caribbean so we can go to a few different places with other things to do.

We booked this hotel because we thought we were getting a decent price at a decent hotel chain. $1700 for 8 days with airfare. We weren't expecting a 5 star hotel, but we were expecting more than what we got. We decided against the all-inclusive because of the reviews from tripadvisor & we were happy that we didn't get it.

When we got here, we found that front desk staff wasn't very helpful or knowledgeable about hotel offerings or things in the area from the start. We were sent over to the concierge desk for everything we needed info on.

The staff at the concierge desk were rude as well. One woman rolled her eyes at me when I said "excuse me" to get her attention. Another was on a personal phone call & stayed on the phone a good 5-7 minutes while looking at us waiting for her to do her job. We were there to make reservations for a restaurant off the hotel. Which is part of what they do. The 1st day we were here the concierge at the desk had no idea where anything was or what was offered by the hotel. We found that all of the concierge staff we had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with basically told whatever sounded good that day. They were consistently wrong about the bus schedules, how much things in the area costed, amount of time it would take to get places, how much the bus costs, whether or not you needed reservations for specific restaurants, etc.

We had to call housekeeping in order to get another blanket for our bed because ours was obviously damaged either from age or the dryer. We waited 2 days to get one and ended up taking one off the other bed in our room.

The bartenders couldn't have cared less if you were standing there waving tips around like candy. We waited over 20 minutes to order a drink by the pool & eventually trekked back into the lobby to get a drink.

We were so happy not have gotten the all-inclusive because the food here was terrible. We had the unfortunate pleasure of eating 2 times. Once for dinner the very first night were here and once for a breakfast. The buffet dinner on the beach had a nice view & that's about it. The staff was not knowledgeable about what seafood & fish was being offered & I have to be careful what I eat from the sea. The other food offerings weren't good either.

We had breakfast there because we had an early morning excursion and we paid $36 +tax per person for terrible food being served in what reminded us of a school cafeteria. Even if the food had been good it wasn't worth $36 + tax pp because there wasn't a huge selection. The wait staff was rude. When I asked for tea instead of coffee I got a huff & eyes rolled at me.

We weren't impressed with the pool area either. The pool was too small for the amount of guests wanting to use it. Every time we went in we were uncomfortably close to people and their children. If you're coming down here to be by the pool just trying to relax, this is not the place for you. They either need to expand the pool they have or install a 2nd one.

We weren't told of the severe drop off just 1 foot or so into the water at the beach either. It's a severe drop into what seemed like very mushy almost quick sand like sand. I immediately twisted my ankle the 1st day here. We also weren't warned of all the coral at the bottom. My husband scraped his knee & toes more than once on all the coral. And we were not more than 2 feet from the shore. I bought water shoes the 1st day here because of it. If you wanted a palapo or palm hut you needed to be standing in line at 6:30am in order to get one & even then it wasn't a guarantee you'd get one. So you're either stuck hoping by the time you got down to the beach there was enough of a shadow from a tree or you were stuck in the sun.

We were given a card to charge things back to the room. We found that the only things that could be charged back to the room was the food. All of the stores have signs up that say they are not part of the hotel & will not charge things to your room. We weren't even able to charge floats back to the room. They were $5 a piece and in the same hut as the towels. And still we had to pay $5 cash each. We went to the store & bought them for $10.50 USD each and used them the rest of the week.

We stayed in the Curacao Tower, which I was leery about because of the reviews here, but they seem to have updated them at least a little bit. We did notice some mildew in the bathroom & none of the fixtures had been updated. There was no ventilation in the bathroom so I'm assuming that would contribute to the mildew. The sink fixtures were cracked & had mildew in the cracks. Being the neatnick I am, I brought lysol wipes & lysol spray & sprayed & wiped everything down once we got here.

We found that the hotel didn't have many offerings for things to do. We once saw a calendar of events that were supposed to take place everyday & we never saw/heard it happening. We did see the bingo, but didn't play that.

The casino was old & smelled like old carpeting. It was also smoky. And I know people smoke, but maybe they should invest in a smoke eater or at least get better ventilation. That way those of us who don't smoke can enjoy ourselves in there. The slot machines that I like were broken for days without being fixed. The dealers never smiled, they weren't inviting at all to play at their tables. The casino was small and I recommend going to any other casino, but this one if you stay here. This casino reminded me of a seedy strip joint converted to a casino.

The highlight of our stay here was the fact that were able to do things off the "resort" and swim in other hotels' beaches. The only staff member that was worth her weight in gold was our housekeeper. She was very helpful & pleasant.

My advice is if you're coming to stay in Aruba, book a better hotel.

This is a good place for people who just want to get onto the beach and into the sun. The beach is beautiful but if you want to get a tiki hut for shade you have to line up at the crack of dawn. The food is average and ok for a couple of days but by day 4 we needed to eat out to get better quality and variety. The buffet is very limited and it is cold and sterile. Not the kind of place my husband and I want to spend having dinner. If you need a cheap place to go with the kids this is it.....