Frommer's Favorite Experiences

Bake on the beach. This is why you came: powdery white sand, turquoise water, and soothingly monotonous waves. Whether basking at Palm, Eagle, Manchebo, or Druif Beach, close your eyes and feel the stress evaporate. You're a beach potato; use sunscreen or you'll be a fried potato.

Get dirty. If you love the rugged outdoors, spend the better part of a day hiking, biking, driving, horseback riding, or off-roading through expansive Arikok National Park to marvel at Aruba's diverse ecosystems and rural past. Ramble over hills strewn with boulders and cacti, visit old farms (known as cunucus), spelunk through caves in search of Indian rock glyphs, and slide down sand dunes. Along the way, you'll meet hummingbirds, hawks, iguanas, goats, and donkeys.

Chow down. Dining in Aruba is a daily ritual of indulgence and romance. Most restaurants have picturesque settings, with both indoor and outdoor seating, often on or overlooking the water. The service is consistently good and the food is among the best in the Caribbean. Whether you opt for a local favorite on the cheap, or a French classic that breaks the bank, you are guaranteed to stagger back to your hotel room sated and happy as a stuffed clam marinated in a dry martini.

Play Jacques Cousteau. Aruba has some of the best wreck dives in the Caribbean. In fact, Aruba boasts the largest sunken vessel in the Caribbean and has some of the most haunting and accessible sunken ships this side of the Titanic. If you'd rather not get wet, you can still descend 45m (148 ft.) below the surface to make friends with a variety of marine critters from the comfort of a tiptop submarine or semisubmersible boat.

Come sail away. The turquoise Caribbean water that surrounds Aruba is even more captivating when you are sailing across it. Whether you choose a sleek catamaran, teak schooner, teeny trimaran, or a windsurf board or kiteboard, as the saying goes: Just do it!

Toast the setting sun. Aruba's picture-perfect days almost invariably melt into picture-perfect sunsets. What better way to round off the day than with a tropical drink at sunset; so grab a front-row seat at one of the many stylish bars on the beach, or on the water, or overlooking the harbor and drink up while you drink in the view.