Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort Aruba-Beach Resort & Casino

Description:

• Like Avis, this hotel tries harder. Holiday Inn reserves SunSpree status for its best resorts. In this one, the inviting open lobby showcases Aruba's signature trade winds, which blow freely through the louvered teak wood walls, past the Southeast Asian furniture, toward the palm trees, bright sand, and turquoise waters outside. The Holiday Inn can't compete with the ritziest hotels on the High-Rise strip, but it offers value -- something many of its guests return for year after year. You'll find lots of families, couples, and honeymooners here, and many South Americans (although North Americans still account for more than 60% of guests). Distributed among three seven-story towers, the rooms feature wall-to-wall carpeting, handsome hardwood furniture, and cheerful colors. Some have sofa beds; all have full, if only average, bathrooms and balconies or patios. Microwaves are available for $5 per day. Essentially identical in layout and furnishings, units are classified by view -- garden or ocean. Because it's bounded by development on one side only, the Holiday Inn's beach is the largest in the High-Rise area.

  Facilities: 3 restaurants; 2 bars; casino; large outdoor pool; kiddie pool; 18-hole championship golf course nearby; 4 tennis courts lit for night play; small exercise room; spa; extensive watersports equipment/rentals; children's center/program; game/video room; playground; concierge; tour/activities desk; car-rental desk; Wi-Fi ($10); small shopping arcade; salon; room service; babysitting; coin-op laundry; same-day dry cleaning; ATM; nonsmoking rooms; ADA-compliant rooms for those w/limited mobility.

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010