Boardwalk Boutique Hotel Aruba — Hotel in Aruba

In December 2020 my wife, son (2 at the time), and I stayed at Boardwalk for three weeks as part of the One Happy Workation program. We didn’t know much about the hotel, but we loved the location and thought it would be a great warmup for our two week vacation at the Surf Club across the street. Three weeks later we were sad to leave our “Workation” for a vacation. So much so that we ended up returning to the Boardwalk for a week before we went home.

This year we decided to do the same thing (with a 9 month old daughter now too), but instead of adding one week at the end, we added seven! That’s a total of 14 weeks in the last 16 or so months.

The Boardwalk is an oasis amongst mega hotels. You have access to just about everything that the Ritz/Marriott offer, but you can also step back across the street to a quiet—but family friendly—property with stunning landscaping and amazing casitas. We have stayed in two different two bedroom casitas as well as a one bedroom casita. These are not hotel rooms! They are perfectly designed to allow you to relax however you see fit. We had plenty of space for a family of four—even in the one bedroom, though it was only for a night. The housekeeping is phenomenal. They figured out our schedule and would come while we were out. It was like magic. Every morning we would come back to a room that was as clean as when we checked in (and you should see the cleans they do after people check out!).

The pools are amazing. The beach has the clearest water on Palm Beach. The palapas and trees provide a ton of shade, and the chairs are extremely comfortable and well cared for. The walk to the beach from your room really isn’t much longer than it would be if you were on an upper floor at one of the big hotels. The only real downside is that you have to cross at a somewhat busy roundabout to get there.

The staff at the Boardwalk were constantly going out of their way to make sure our stay was as perfect as possible. When one of my fishing reels broke and I didn’t have the right tool to fix it, one of the maintenance guys brought me the exact tool I needed within 15 minutes. When I mentioned that the pillows were our a bit dense for our liking, new pillows appeared on our bed later that day. The guys at Eduardo’s would have my son’s favorite “booster shot” (juice) ready for him every morning, even if the booster shot of the day was a different flavor. The owners (Kimberly and Stephanie) even brought Christmas presents for the kids to make sure their holiday was extra special.

My family hasn’t just stayed at the Boardwalk—we’ve essentially lived there. Our only true complaint is the mosquitoes. They aren’t consistently bad, but if you get a few days in a row with rain (we had no wash out days during our entire trip—Aruba weather is amazing), they will show up. The Boardwalk staff and their pest control contractors are doing everything they can to eliminate the mosquitoes, but the beautiful gardens and a bird sanctuary that surrounds the property are both breeding grounds. The situation has definitely improved since our stay in 2020, but my son and wife both got bites.

What else is there to say? Wi-Fi coverage and quality is excellent. Other guests are overwhelmingly friendly and interesting. Eduardo’s food is awesome. The drying racks for wet clothes and towels are so clutch. The private patios are amazing. The gym is small, but the Yoga Deck is an excellent place to exercise. The palapa reservation process is simple (via app) and non-competitive. No waking up at 5 AM to fight other people for a chair!

Everything at the Boardwalk is thought out and designed to give you the best vacation (or remote work) experience possible. They love getting feedback and will act on it immediately. The Boardwalk is the perfect place for our family to vacation, but I’m also dying to return without the kids and try one of the rooms more geared...

The Boardwalk Hotel is wonderful and we can't wait to go back. We wanted an excellent, smaller hotel, one that wasn't a chain, without large crowds and noise. The Boardwalk doesn't allow children under 12 and it was lovely to hangout by the pool or in the gardens without screaming children or people playing loud music. There is a happy hour by the main pool from 3 - 5 and they play music, but its not very loud and there is a second pool close by for quiet.

You can order food and drinks to be delivered poolside or to your casita, but we highly recommend eating at the Coco Cafe because there are lizards and a chicken who wanders around hoping you'll give him some carrot strips or a fragment of bread. The cafe has a roof, but no walls and you'll see lots of small song birds.

There are also two cats, but they don't come near the cafe. Gordo and Shadow moved into the hotel on their own. Shadow (the black cat) will come into your unit if you let her and sit with you for a few minutes before moving on to the next place. She goes on rounds every night. Gordo doesn't like to be pet as much, but he came in one night and played with a string.

Our little casita was comfortable and afforded us privacy even though it was a short walk to the cafe for meals or to the pool. We didn't mind the short walk to the beach, but there's an adorable little shuttle bus that will take you there and back if you don't want to walk or deal with crossing a somewhat busy road. At the beach, the waiters from the Ritz come by on their segueways to take orders for food and bevarages. The pool/beach menu is surprisingly reasonable, which the rest of the Ritz restaurants are not.

The food and drink at The Boardwalk was excellent and the staff were all friendly and helpful. Casitas have a stove top, sink, and fridge if you want to cook and there is a grill. We didn't get any groceries because we were feeling lazy and we'd prepaid for breakfast. They do have some wine, beer, crackers, tiny jars of pasta sauce, chocolates, cookies, and chips at the little stand in the lobby. You can order groceries to be delivered to your casita. If you like to eat after 9 or 10 pm you should get some food or snacks because the cafe and bar are closed. It is very easy to get to the Ritz or the Marriott nearby to dine later, but check the hours before you go.

The hotel is cashless and we wished we'd brought more small bills to tip cleaners and serving staff for breakfast. If you prepay, you cannot add a tip to your bill.

The sun is very strong, but there are lots of shady little nooks around the pool. The trade winds provide some relief from the heat, but you have to wear sunscreen. You have to hydrate well and the hotel provides refiallable water bottles and places to refill them. I sometimes have trouble with water when visiting other places, but the water in Aruba is clean and tastes fine.

In Aruba the beaches are public, which made us more comfortable than visiting islands where the locals can't use their own beaches. You can stay at the hotel and not venture out, but there is a lot within walking distance. Taxis are plentiful, but may take a while to get to you. Island time is more laidback so be patient or rent a car.

Read the information about visiting on the Aruba tourism site. You need to fill out a disembarkation card before you can get on your plan to fly to Aruba. If you are from the US you go through Aruba customs and then take your bags through US customs before you board your plane home. You don't have to go through customs once you land at home. You must leave enough time for this. They say to arrive three hours before your flight and you should. The lines are long, but they move pretty quickly. We arrived three hours before and were relaxed about it all. The people in front of us arrived less than 2 hours before their flight and had to ask for help so they did not miss...

BEWARE OF THIS PLACE!!!

When we first arrived all seemed very nice. The property is situated in an ideal location right at the corner of two main intersections. This could also be considered a negative as there is an awful lot of traffic which makes it difficult to get in and out of the property. The parking is horrific! The driveway is very narrow and it's difficult to turn around in if there are other people parked there. The property is landscaped very well with several tropical plants that are native to the island as well as from other places.when we first checked in our reservation was booked for three people. They claim that the reservation was only made for two people but did not make much of an issue out of it. I was going to sleep on the couch as they only gave us a one bedroom casita, but they told me that it was not allowed to sleep on the couch. So they had their intern bring up a cot. There is a pool at the facility, but the paint on the pool bottom was peeling off in several places and little chunks of the plaster were floating in the pool. There is a hot tub in the pool but the jets do not work very well as it was broken when we were there. As someone commented earlier there are many mosquitoes noted on the property and we were all bitten several times. There is a small do not disturb sign on the door which we did not see was flipped to do not disturb, so our room was not cleaned while we were there. This was not a very big deal. As for the room itself there is nothing special about it! There is a sitting area with a television, a small kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom area. Opening the door in the bedroom to look outside there is nothing but a construction yard that you can see, so the view is terrible! Several areas of the room needed renovation as there was peeling paint and dirt noted on the walls. At a price tag of roughly $400 per night, I do not know how they could possibly charge this legally! The best part about the stay was chatting with the intern who is from Europe. The owners of the hotel are not very friendly at all! They seemed very snappy and stern. We never once saw them smile. There are several stray cats running around the property with fleas. One of them managed to find its way into our room, which is bad because I am allergic to cats. When we tried to check-out of the hotel, they tried to tell us that they explained certain charges and policies at check-in WHICH THEY DID NOT! They threatened to charge our card with this and they did AFTER we had left! We will be contacting our credit card company to dispute these charges.

Overall, this is a poor facility in my opinion. It is especially a poor value for the money. I would never recommend this place to anyone. They lie and also try to apply HIDDEN CHARGES! I would recommend renting a small house in the area, which is much cheaper and with no...