Having planned a pretty big wedding while working hard in the city…followed by 3 weeks of our activity packed honeymoon, it was time to end the trip with a deep sigh and total veg out on a beach.

Around July/August, beach locations without hurricanes or monsoon are few and far between, which is why Rishi selected Aruba. Its a small island in the Caribbean, with sunshine all year round. Owned by Holland, it is much more Americanified than other Caribbean islands. It even had a taco bell! Yum!

We stayed in a gorgeous room with views over the ocean.

What I loved about Aruba was the stunning white sandy beaches and clear turquoise ocean that is the benefit of a Caribbean island but it also had a life, soul and good food!

Everyone there seemed so happy and loved living in Aruba, even the taxi driver who took us from our hotel to get a drive through taco bell! The staff were friendly and wherever we went, people just seemed to be smiling!

The town centre is a pretty beach front marina, from where many people take boats out to Venezula. They have some nice shops, mainly high end like Ralph Lauren and a couple of cool bars.

We did venture out one evening to a recommended bar. It was actually more of a really chilled out balcony over the port with cool cocktails and played Latin music. Fabulous! The crowd were relaxed but up for a laugh, with both locals and tourists just dancing away. We did meet some people who said there is also a cool club across the road, but decided this was good enough and so headed home.

Perhaps the flash was a LITTLE too strong!

Food choices were good too, from a yummy alfresco Italian restaurant right across our hotel to a hidden away Indian restaurant in town, not to mention the too unhealthy to be good but so delicious American style snacks in the hotel.

Aruba is a really good mix of beach relaxation with all the mod cons we love. Perfect end to our South American adventure! x