Best beach option - 2 somewhat senior ladies

[cosytoes]

Recently back from Aruba and thought I would give you an update.

 

we took a taxi to Eagle Beach, Coco Loco Beach Bar. Taxi was $15 each way, there were 5 of us in the taxi. Sunbeds were $10 each, they didn't have an umbrellas left but we put beds under the trees at the back of beach which was great.  We only had beer at the bar and rest rooms were free. Lots of space on the beach and lovely clean sand.  

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 11/17/2021 at 7:19 PM, Hatteras51 said:

 

Are you sure that you don't mean Palm Beach, not Eagle Beach?  Palm Beach has much more to offer with bars, vendors,  lively vibe. Eagle is more laid back, has a few bars,  but a lot of them are at all inclusive resorts and don't allow outsiders.  Even the resort that we stay at every year on Eagle no longer allows outsiders,  due to covid. There are just a few on Eagle Beach that allow cruisers these days. 

would you happen to know whether Divi Phoenix hotel allows people to use "their" beach? When we were there in 2016, we were told that all beaches in Aruba are public and free. I am planning to take a taxi there like last time at the end of the month, but if they don't allow public beach access, I will need to rethink my plan.

[Hatteras51]

6 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

would you happen to know whether Divi Phoenix hotel allows people to use "their" beach? When we were there in 2016, we were told that all beaches in Aruba are public and free. I am planning to take a taxi there like last time at the end of the month, but if they don't allow public beach access, I will need to rethink my plan.

The beaches are public. You can take your towel and sit on any of them but the chairs belong to the resorts. Security spends their days removing people who are not guests from their chairs. If you are content to sit on your towel in the sand, they should leave you alone.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

41 minutes ago, Hatteras51 said:

The beaches are public. You can take your towel and sit on any of them but the chairs belong to the resorts. Security spends their days removing people who are not guests from their chairs. If you are content to sit on your towel in the sand, they should leave you alone.

it was the hotel staff (in 2016) who told us that all the chaises and huts were free.

[Hatteras51]

41 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

it was the hotel staff (in 2016) who told us that all the chaises and huts were free.

The huts are free, buy usually hard to get. If you've stayed there before you're probably familiar with people getting up before dawn to claim one. At most resorts there aren't near enough for the resort guests to use, so it's rare that one would be available by the time cruisers arrive, but you might get lucky. I've never stayed at Divi Phoenix but I've stayed at other Divi properties in Aruba,  so I can't say for sure how they operate,  but the information that I shared is how things usually work on the island. I don't know of any resorts that let outsiders use their chairs.  This has become a very contentious situation between the resorts and the government in the last few years. A few of the hotels removed their huts and placed them further back on their property,  so that they could claim that they were not on public property.  There are vendors on Eagle and Palm Beaches where you can rent chairs and umbrellas for the day.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

13 hours ago, Hatteras51 said:

If you've stayed there before you're probably familiar with people getting up before dawn to claim one.

nope, we went to the butterfly farm first and only then went to the beach across the street - at Divi Phoenix. So, it was definitely nowhere near crack of dawn.

I guess we'll see in 3 weeks. 🙂 I mean - it's ok if the chaises are not free - we are fully capable of paying for them.

 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

we ended up taking a taxi to Eagle beach: