Aruba at the Vistalmar

Staying at the Vistalmar, owned by Alby and Katy Yarzagaray, gives you the chance to interact with locals far better than you could at a hotel. Alby is an engineer while Katy is originally from the Midwest. The Vistalmar is located right on the water, only separated by a road. Katy will deliver fresh bread daily, which we most often fed to the stray dogs walking on the island. Not that the bread wasn't good and really fresh, we just felt the dogs needed it more than we did.

It's a lot cheaper than staying at the hotels on Aruba, and we even got a free car with the condo. It is located behind the airport, but that really doesn't matter as there aren't that many planes landing there as it's a very small airport.