Jucasa Ocean Breeze

The house was what we needed: in a quieter/local part of the island (Aruba is small so its mere minutes driving from the beach) with lots of scenic views (waking up watching the ocean waves!), plenty of space inside and in the yard to spread out in, and all the things we needed to make our visit comfortable (kitchen items, linens, etc). Wifi was fast, water pressure great, and the darkening curtains were fanatstic. Opening up the windows and doors gave you the classic Aruba breezes which I am jealous that I cannot replicate in New York! The owners were responsive as well. We had debated on a few different properties but this house was such a good choice and I wholeheartedly recommend it (and hope that when I come back to Aruba I can stay here again!).

Overall, this is a beautiful property removed from the touristy sections of the island. It has great views and outdoor sitting spaces. And, it has everything you need to make trips to the beach enjoyable. Also, the book of recommendations from the hosts is wonderful. We tried a number of the restaurants they recommended and were not disappointed once! You'll definitely need to rent a car if you stay here, but it was totally worth it. We've been to Aruba twice now, and with the small size of the island and all the public beaches, a car rental so you can explore on your own is definitely the way to go. I'll say the main drawback of this property is that there is no AC in the main living spaces, and it was just too hot. After spending all day at the beach, we'd come home to a house that was even hotter inside than it was outside. Even after opening all of the windows and turning on all of the fans, the main living area was just not comfortable to be in. One of the main reasons we chose this property was because of the nice large kitchen, but the kitchen has a gas stove top (which I normally love) but with the high temperatures already in the house, it made cooking over an open flame not desirable. Thank goodness there are great AC units in the bedrooms, so sleeping cool was easy! Eventually, after a couple days of the overwhelming heat in the living spaces - we actually turned on both of the bedroom AC units and left the bedroom doors open during the day. While I'm sure this is not ideal, it did finally manage to cool down the whole house to make actually cooking and sitting in the living room to watch tv at night enjoyable. I will add that we there during a particularly hot week with even the locals at Cafe 080 complaining about the heat that week, so perhaps this would not be such an issue other times of the year.