My family and I returned May 22, 2008 from our first trip to Aruba. We booked privately directly with an owner at La Cabana through their website. We had a beautiful D unit on the fourth floor with gorgeous ocean views. Unlike the other units, the front door opens unto a den/kitchen area that has a queen murphy bed that is stowed up and out of the way during the day There is a separate bedroom with a king size bed, two full baths, three closets and two balconies.. a very nice unit. We loved this place they keep the rooms and the grounds very clean, the staff is friendly, they have many activities for the kids as well as adults. I had a hot stone massage at the outdoor spa..wow! it was great!
The pool area was wonderful and clean with a great happy hour from 4-6pm with live music. We always were able to get a front palpala on the beach when we went out at about 8-9am. Although we did see people reserving palpalas by the time we got there. They tip the beach staff to hold them until they get there around 10 -11am.. no policy was enforced. The food was good in the outdoor restaurants (my kids loved the pizza) but so-so at the indoor restaurants and I would recommend spending the same amount of money and walking down to "TULIP" at the MVC hotel. We loved that place. The food is delicious and reasonable and the maitre-d is a very kind and nice gentelman. We also ate at iguana joe's intown. food was ok, but waitstaff a little reserved. We had drinks at la trattoria near the lighthouse. This place is expensive but the view in the early evening is outstanding! Gorgeous place. We ate at Mango's at the Amsterdam Manor and liked it also. We were approached a few times (each time I went by the customer service desk) and one phone call, about timeshares but they were not pushy when I told them we werent' interested. We went snorkeling on arashi, baby, catalina and at spanish lagoon we went diving with private divers. Ron at private divers was very patient with teaching our two daughters (11 and 19) about scuba diving.. They had such a great time and I recommend his diving services highly. We loved Aruba and my husband is already talking about going back next year but after driving around the island he says he only wants to stay in our same room at the la cabana!!

My husband and I have just returned from a 2 week vacation in the Caribbean. We have the best travel agent; she booked us into condos on each island, which turned out to be time share units. I say the BEST because she promised us we would not have to attend any sales presentations, and that we would be happy with the accomodations, which turned out to be true. While having never stayed at a time share resort, I would stay again at this resort.

Our first week was spent at the La Cabana Resort on the island of Aruba, the second at Bluebeard's Club on St Thomas, Virgin Islands. Aruba details first, and then will post on the second week.

Our condo was clean and adjacent to one of the pools. The sandy white beach was across the road, but so close that we didn't care. The views were fantastic, and can't say enough about the great beach area. Our travel agent provided us with a list of attractions/things to do on each island, but we did the tour bookings ourselves. On Aruba, we did the DePalm tour, which was a tour of the island. Our bus guide was funny and informative; the day was one of our best. We did not know that Aruba was a desert island! The resort had a pool side cafe that was resonably priced, and their sister resort (same area/different name), The Aruban, had a pool bar that had the best burger and fries we have had outside of Chicago.

Our favorite restaurant on this island was The Promenade, (review on this later also), which was a gem. There are so many great places to eat on Aruba; we tried as many as our budget would allow.

Can't think of anything negtive to say about Aruba. We even tried our luck at some casinos, and came away with a (little) cash.

La Cabana and Aruba could become our favorite vacation spot!

La Cabana is in a great location Eagle beach is beautiful and our condo was beach front..The condo was clean and the
furniture and bed were in great condition..The kitchen had
a dishwasher and granite counters I cant believe it's being updated because it was nice the way it is. The bath tub is jetted.
The condo is cleaned everyday and towels are replaced sheets are not changed who changes sheets everyday at home.. once a week is fine by me

The bus stop is close and casino is just steps away..I didn't see one fly or smell anything bad at all..I think the bad reviews are from the competition so don't hesitate to stay there its Awesome!

This is not a party place but a relaxing place I can't wait to go back!!

We made our reservation through our time share exchange. Since I never received any correspondence directly from the hotel, I called to confirm our reservation. For three weeks, we left multiple messages and sent multiple emails to several people at La Cabana, but no one returned our phone calls or emails. I finally reached someone the evening before our flight out. I was appalled to learn that they couldn't find our reservation and were not going to honor our confirmation number. I contacted our time share exchange and they convinced La Cabana to honor our reservation. The folks at La Cabana later said our name was "misspelled," but never explained why they couldn't find our confirmation number.

Once we got there, we found unpaved, dirt parking lots. Although they had promised our time share agent that we would have an ocean view, we looked over a tiny garden and a dirt parking lot right into a gaudy neon hotel. If we strained, we could see a sliver of ocean somewhere past the gaudy neon.

The room was filthy. The floor was stained, chipped and dirty, complete with gum and tar stains. The bathroom sink was sticky and showed obvious dried spills of some brown substance. The furniture was so worn and dirty that neither my husband nor I would sit in it.

The kitchen was dark, dreary and considerably less than expected. It consisted of a newer refrigerator, a miniscule counter and an old electric burner that reminded me of a camping stove.

The front door of the suite opened to the bedroom area. We had to walk through the bedroom to get to the "kitchen" and the living room. The noise in the walkway outside was very audible in the bedroom.

This hotel was represented as a five star. If they cleaned it and paved their parking lots, it might become a 2 star. If they replaced furniture and updated the kitchen, it might even be a 3 star. It will never be a five star.

The hotel manager was very nice. Unfortunately, this couldn't offset the rudeness and lack of concern exhibited by the front desk staff we encountered. The pool area was large and full of activity. Restaurants were closed at 3pm, but a grill by the pool was open, and the food there was fair.

We stayed only long enough for the time share to find us another hotel in Aruba. We checked out within 90 minutes of checking in and spent a wonderful week at the Marriott.