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Which Palm Beach resort is the BEST for your Aruba vacation?
A comparison and review of RIU Aruba Palace, RIU Aruba Antillas, and Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino
In October 2022, my mother and I visited the small and beautiful island of Aruba. Aruba’s moniker is “One Happy Island” and it definitely lives up to it! With a cultural mix between South American, Spanish, and Dutch, you experience a unique blend of languages, food, and traditions. Most people I talk to don’t realize Aruba is so close to the equator, making it warm and breezy year-round, and also making it out of the hurricane belt!
If Aruba is on your bucket list, or your cruise is making port in Aruba, you might be wondering where to visit. Here is my honest comparison of three neighboring resorts that share Palm Beach: RIU Aruba Palace, RIU Aruba Antillas, and Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino. While on vacation, we stayed a week at the Hilton Aruba, but purchased a day pass at RIU Aruba Palace next door.
RIU Aruba Palace
RIU Aruba palace is family friendly but when I visited there weren’t a lot of kids running around when we were there. It’s possible there weren’t many kids because we went in October when school was in session. Unlike other RIU properties with large water slides, RIU Aruba Palace didn’t seem to have water amenities for children, but did have a daycare off of the pool area for children.
The swim-up bar is located in the main pool and there is a separate elevated section of the pool adjoined to it that is accessible by stairs. Because the pool is in a large clearing with only shade coverings over lounge chairs, the ground bakes and feels quite hot on bare feet once you’re out of the pool.
Lounge chairs are first-come first-served and can’t be reserved or claimed in advance. Other resorts I’ve been to, allow guests to “squat” and put their towel on a chair early in the morning and leave it all day, or pay to reserve a particular spot. At RIU Aruba Palace, they made a point to say they don’t allow people to reserve loungers when they’re not actually at the pool.
RIU Aruba Antillas – Adults Only
Upon check-in at both RIU resorts, guests are given a towel card. You take the card to the towel hut and exchange it for a towel. When you’re done with your towel, you return it to the towel hut and get a card back. If you don’t turn in a towel card at check-out, you’ll be charged $20.
RIU Aruba Antillas has been remodeled more recently than RIU Aruba Palace. The resort and rooms have a more modern and mature feel than their sister resort next door which feels more authentic and classic. The “stay at one, play at two” feature is a very nice perk for those adults who want to escape to a kids-free zone for a while. Regardless of which RIU resort you chose, if you’re an adult you have access to both!
Now, let’s talk about the swim-up bar at RIU Aruba Antillas. It is in a separate and much smaller pool than the main adults-only pool with spots for people to congregate and drink. What I didn’t like about it was the actual bar seemed small (or was possibly just more crowded), and the water looked cloudy and not clear. I have convinced myself it was because so many people had spilled their drinks and not because of another reason….
In October 2022, the construction of the St. Regis next door was loud, distracting, and right next to the adult pool. The new resort shouldn’t obstruct, but will be visible from RIU Aruba Antillas’s ocean view rooms.
Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino
When it comes to outdoor ambiance, Hilton Aruba is leaps and bounds better than the RIU properties. Nearly every walking path is shaded by palm trees or lined with lagoons at Hilton, which I appreciate as someone who burns easily.
There are two pools at Hilton Aruba: one is a lazy river style pool that is long and winding, and the other is a wider and deeper pool with a volleyball net. Both have stairs and zero-entry options which is great for smaller children and elderly visitors who find stairs difficult to traverse. I do have bad news for some guests – Hilton Aruba doesn’t have any swim-up bars so you’ll have to get out of the pool to order a drink or order from waitstaff in the pool area.
When it came to restaurants at Hilton Aruba, I was a little disappointed. Not at the food – everything we ate on property was delicious – just at the number of options. For breakfast, there is only one restaurant option, lunch has four options, and dinner has one sit-down option. There is also a market and room service available most of the day.
The best about all three properties: you can walk across the street to bars, restaurants, and souvenir shops. Willem’s Dutch Pancakes restaurant (https://www.willemsdutchpancakes.com/) was so good, we went there for breakfast multiple times! One reason not to go the all-inclusive route: to experience the local food spots without feeling like you’re “wasting” the money you’ve already spent for the resort.
If you’re interested in going to Aruba, you can learn more by reading about Kate’s trip to Aruba a few years ago: https://pineappleescapes.com/aruba/, or reach out to a Pineapple Escapes agent.
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