I love travelling, but dislike flying. I get claustrophobic, antsy and bored easily. But to travel to cool and distant places, there’s no escaping it, you need to fly, and usually for longer flights. I’m no stranger to flying on long flights, whether it was Europe (twice), Asia and South America, I’ve been on some long flights and had some nasty layovers. I always try to make my experience as comfortable and entertaining as possible.
We wanted to have a fancy dinner for my wife’s 40th birthday dinner; we originally thought about one of the many beach restaurants in the hotels on Palm Beach, but most had limited reservations available or looked too expensive. Aruba has good food, but it’s mostly westernized. The meat is okay, but the specialty of the island is seafood; so that’s what we knew we had to get. We decided to go with Pinchos Bar & Grill in Oranjestad.
Aruba is famous for good weather, beaches, the flamingos and the Fofoti Trees. But Aruba is more than beaches, a lot of people don’t realize Aruba is a desert, so there are lots of cool things to do that involve exploring the island’s landscape.
I’ve always been a fan of beaches, after visiting Flamenco Beach in Puerto Rico, I knew I wanted to visit more of the world’s best beaches. I had always heard about Aruba and knew Eagle Beach has been rated as a top 10 beach on TripAdvisor, but Aruba was never really on my radar. But last month we ended up heading to Aruba, and I knew we had to spend some time on Eagle Beach. We ended up staying at Eagle Aruba Resort, so it’s safe to say we spent a lot of time on Eagle Beach.
Aruba is synonymous with Flamingos. But it’s not actually Aruba that is known for iconic Pink Flamingos strolling along the beach, it’s Renaissance Island. Unless you are staying at the Renaissance Hotel or book a day pass to Renaissance Island you won’t see a Flamingo on your entire trip.
When travelling to Aruba, there are a few main areas to stay in. There’s Palm Beach, Arashi Beach, Oranjestad and Eagle Beach. Palm Beach and Arashi are expensive, Oranjestad is nice, but I’d rather be on a beach. Then there’s Eagle Beach, a top 10 beach in the world, with more affordable low rise hotels. It was a no brainer. We found Eagle Aruba Resort for a good price of $250 CAD a night. It was on sale and I thought the hotels.com sale would last forever… turns out it didn’t. The price went up to about $350 a night, so instead I booked with my Aventura Points and saved about $800. It was totally worth it.
I’ve always heard of Aruba and the phrase " One Happy Island" and heard about pristine beaches, Flamingos and have always thought that it was some far way and lavish destination. So, I thought Aruba would be luxurious and super expensive; so it was never really crossed my mind as a future travel destination. But when we decided to go somewhere for my wife’s 40th birthday, which is in November, we had to think outside of the box since most Caribbean destinations are prone to hurricanes. That is when I found out, being so far south, and just above Venezuela, Aruba is outside of the Hurricane Belt. I got down to planning and realized that flights and hotels weren’t too expensive. So, I attached my 3 personal days from work to the weekend and the Remembrance Day holiday, and we booked a trip to Aruba!
We only had 3 nights in Dublin, but wanted to devote one of those days to exploring outside of the city. We debated about going to the Cliffs of Moher, but since we were already in the Isle of Skye in Scotland, we realized it’d be better to add something a bit different; instead we booked a day trip to Northern Ireland. We got to add another “country” to our vacation and got to see several unique places. We booked through Viator, which is nice because for each booking you earn dollars to use on your account in the future, and the tour operator was Irish Day Tours. The tour included a lot of things (Belfast, with the option of a Black Cab Tour, the Dark Hedges, some viewpoints of the Atlantic and of course, The Giants Causeway), our daughter was free, and it only cost us $120 per adult, making it very affordable.
Everyone knows that Guinness is synonymous with Ireland, so when in Guinness you definitely need to sip a few pints of it. Back home, I’ve never been a fan of Guinness but in Ireland it tastes much better. I think the shelf life isn’t as good, also Guinness is one that needs to be flowing through the taps frequently, which it is in Ireland. So from being fresh to being pumped through fresh taps, Guinness tastes smooth and great and was something I really enjoyed drinking. But not only do you need to taste some Guinness, when in Dublin going to the Guinness Storehouse is essential.
Dublin was our last leg of our European vacation, and I was hot and cold on it, I was excited about some things, but not as excited as I was as I was to visit London, York or the Isle of Skye in Scotland. Dublin didn’t seem to have as many things to do; but I was kind of excited for a more chill few days to end our trip. We stayed for 3 nights and stayed at The Hendrick Smithfield which was located in a good location outside of Temple Bar.
Our last leg of our UK and Ireland trip was Ireland. Hotels were ridiculously expensive in Scotland, and they looked pricey in Ireland, albeit not quite as bad. Little did I know, in addition to being the busy summer season, while we were there, the American College football game was going on, as well as a big concert. So, this led to even higher prices. But it was the last leg of our trip, we only had 3 nights in Ireland and wanted to be close to the action, so we decided to splurge. We came across The Hendrick Smithfield. We paid about $330 CAD a room, which was similar to what we paid in Scotland, but The Hendrick was much nicer. Based on the circumstances and looking at other prices, the price was decent.
The food in Scotland was good, but after coming from London, there weren’t many British dishes we hadn’t tried, and despite being a diverse country too, the diversity and size of Scotland doesn’t compare to London so there are fewer options. But there was one dish I hadn’t tried that I wanted to and that was Haggis. For those who don’t know, Haggis is minced sheep pluck (heart, lungs and liver) with onions and oatmeal, spiced up and drizzled with Whiskey sauce. Sounds delicious, right? I was nervous to try it but knew that it was a must eat in Scotland.
