Bon Bini! 🏝️

Jun 21, 2024

The Journey

The day has finally arrived! We are officially on Aruba and the adventure has begun! We left the house this morning at 6:15am to catch our flight from Harrisburg, PA to Charlotte, NC. The flight was just under 2 hours. Luckily we were able to upgrade our seats to ones with extra legroom, so the flight was pretty comfortable.

Once in Charlotte we had just about an hour to wait to board our flight to Aruba. We grabbed a quick snack at Starbucks and headed for our gate: D12. Upon arriving at the gate there was an excitement in the air as the time ticked closer to us boarding. The boarding process was pretty painless. As part of the check-in process, we had to verify our identities for international travel via the VeriFly app. So once boarding begun, we only needed to show our passport and get our picture taken for barometric facial recognition.

Once in the sky, our pilot informed us that the flight should take just over 4 hours. Beautiful weather and blue skies awaited us. Overall the flight was very comfortable. In order to, once again, have extra legroom, we opted to sit in an exit row. The only downside was that the seats didn’t recline, so by hour 3 my back was starting to get sore. The onboard WiFi and entertainment options were pretty good. I ended up watching the Hunger Games prequel about president Snow’s backstory.

After four hours in the sky, we finally started our descent into Aruba. The views over the island are some of the best I’ve ever seen! The excitement grew in the plane as we got lower and lower, culminating in an eruption of applause as we touched down.

Upon deplaning we were met with the familiar sights and sounds of the Queen Beatrix International airport. We swiftly headed for the customs area to be cleared for our stay. In years past, we had to fill out a form while on the plane that detailed the purpose of our visit. Now the entire process is online and is to be completed prior to flying. Because of this the customs process was quick and painless. Within 30 minutes of deplaning, were through customs, had our luggage, and were headed to Dollar to pick up our rental car.

The trip from the airport to our AirBnb was about 7 minutes. I chose a location in the Papilon, Santa Cruz area because it was close to the airport, making it easier to pickup/dropoff family that was joining us on this trip. It is also right off of Route 1, so most attractions are within 20 minutes driving distance.

Arriving at the house, it was better than I initially expected. The location was mostly private, with no houses across the street (we did have neighbors on either side but they were rarely seen). The house itself was very modern with most comforts of home included. There were enough bedrooms/beds for all five us to to live comfortably together. There was also a private backyard, complete with pool. Definitely a great place to spend 2+ weeks! The hosts were also top notch!