This was my second visit to the Radisson and I won't stay anywhere else when I go to Aruba. I am a vey picky traveler and was treated wonderfully by the whole staff. The beach is never crowded, you can walk to the pier to sign up for activities. The pool was also great. The only thing that needed improvement was the food, especially breakfast at Laguna ot lunch at Gilligans. It was very expensive and just "OK". Luckily, there are many restaurants and cafes that are within short walking distance. Be sure to try Salt and Pepper's for breakfast, thier pancakes are dutch pancakes and Texas De Brazil is with in walking distance. We were upgraded from a concrete view to a water view at no charge and got a great deal with our fourth night being free and a $250 food and beverage credit. I am 5 1/2 months pregnant and felt this was a great relaxing place to stay. We were in the Aruba tower and could also hear the parrots in the morning, but it didn't bother us.

My husband and I are very selective when it comes to our accommodations and dining. Trip Advisor reviews helped us to decide between the Hyatt and the Radisson. Our garden-view room was decent and met our needs. We only used the room to change our clothes between activities and sleep between 11/12 and 7am. We only had 2 minor problems. Our tub had a slow drain (we realized it after we unpacked, so decided to just take out the stopper). Like one other reviewer, our safe became stuck 2 times which required security to come to our room. The first Pillsbury-like security guy they sent was irritated and admonished us for adjusting the a/c. He felt that the humidity caused the safe problem. Then he went to great extremes to ensure that we were legit in accessing the contents of our safe. The second guy was much nicer and indicated the safes are sometimes persnickety. He opened it, apologized and left.

We had lots of pros to share: The beach sand beyond the Radisson (headed toward Hyatt) deteriorated. The Radisson had the best sand! It was soft, meticulously cared for daily and clean. The other beaches had really rocky, hard sand (some with tree roots growing out). Radisson's beach was never crowded. Palapas were easy to reserve. There were no bad sections. The beach and pool area staff were extremely friendly and helpful. The pools were absolutely great and never congested. The accessibility and close proximity to a multitude of motorized and non-motorized equipment was awesome!

In terms of the food, we ate at the Laguna and Gilligans for breakfast. Both places were fine, but the best dining experiences were a short walk across from the Hyatt. We enjoyed Salt & Pepper and Fishes& More. I'm a vegetarian, but I went to Amazonia with my husband and truly enjoyed the rodizio experience (arrive on an empty stomach). A wooden spool with a green (keep it coming) side and a red (slow it down) side will let the meat carvers know your needs. The salad bar was great for me. We really enjoyed the buffet lunch at the Occidental (courtesy of a timeshare tour that we seriously considered until we realized that it would cost 4 of us $6,000 to go each year not including airfare. We are already timeshare owners. Their offer was not a deal! If you tell solicitors that you already spoke to Maggy, they will leave you alone.

Must do activities include:

We did the Jolly Pirates 4 hour trip. This excursion offered 3 sites, lunch and a wild rope swing. If you prefer a more modern, luxurious-like boat, then try the DePalm. Jolly Pirates is no-frills but adventurous.

Kukoo Kanuko- Do not attempt to do this on your first or last night! I promise, at the end of the evening, you will be hugging and exchanging email addresses with total strangers. Wear comfortable shoes; avoid short skirts (you have to climb up and down to board and exit the bus several times). This is also a great way to see much of the island.

Tattoo- Dinner and dance. The crew, especially the MC and DJ were TOTALLY AWESOME. They were so entertaining that I tried to figure out how I could get them to DJ/MC our July 4th party in the US. The food aboard is not great, so don't come on an empty stomach if you plan to drink. You can order food before you leave the Pier (the bathroom there is gross despite the 25 cent you pay the woman at the door who cleans it). There is a wild slide and rope swing at the end of the night.

Rent the jet skis! Tube rides are also a must-do, but not after a Kukoo Kanuko night! On our last day, the waves were a little torrid. It was the only day that we saw the tubes and banana boats capsize frequently. No one was hurt and most climbed right back on and continued. A couple of others opted to ride back in the boat.

ATV tours allow you to experience the beauty of the dry land. We couldn't fit this in and already have plans to do this in Vegas next week, but watching the drivers and passengers was actually exhilerating. We watched these activities from the Kukoo Kanuku bus.

This is an excerpt from my overall review of my Aruba trip from 6/14/08 to 6/21/08. You can find the whole review in the Aruba forums link.

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Radisson Aruba - mixed reviews on this place. Paid the internet “HotDeal” of $235 per per night instead of the next cheapest deal of $275 per night knowing that this is the offseason and that they would probably give me a pool/”ocean-view” room, which they did, therefore saving about 300 bucks (after bullshit taxes) on the trip. However, I have several positives and negatives to report:

Positives: Great attitude by staff, very friendly. Great pool and beach and they were not crowded. Victor the “bird-man” and his parrots. The poker room. Free internet is nice and was about 1.5M down/.7up per second on average.

Negatives: Main elevator to Guest rooms was shut down during my stay leaving access to my room available only by the service elevator which appeared to be like a Motel 6 at the entry way. Later in the trip I was awakened (during a hangover recovery brought on while losing a few hundred at their main casino the night before) at 9am by the sound of drilling and pounding hammers as workers repaired the main elevator just down the hall from my room. After calling the front desk to no avail and then confronting the workers personally (which resulted in about an hour of silence before they started again), I was rewarded with a (expletive deleted) fruit basket and a written apology. And this is supposed to be a 5-star hotel? Give me a break. Their rooms are small and fairly clean, but the beds are not 5 star. Also, very hard to believe for a $300 per night room they come equipped with an old 27” tube TV instead of a plasma. Finally, the in-room safe SUCKED. I had to call security 3 times to get my damn passport and cash out because the electronic interface would not release the door.

The Radisson needs work. I will probably stay at the Hyatt next time.

The Radisson Casino – Table games are fine, but the staff are dicks. The roulette dealer yelled at me for picking my money up too early after hitting a number even though I was down about 400 bucks. Also, they don’t serve you anything you want in the casino. If you want a Bud Light, you have to pay for it. The only free beer is Balashi on draft (not a fan). The girl next to me got into it with them when they wouldn’t give her a Miller Lite and she was also down several hundred. This casino sucks.

The Radisson Poker room – Great room, friendly staff, you can have whatever you want to drink here. The poker room is run by a different company than the casino. Good action too…I played mainly 5-5-10 no-limit and came home about +$650.

pokerman

I stayed at the Radisson with my wife and infant son. All in all, it was a nice place to stay.

* Property - Very nice, especially the pools and beachfront
* Staff - Great. We were there for a family wedding, so the staff was very nice and accomodating.
* Rooms - Decent. Our carpet was a little dirty (due to high traffic), but the rooms were nice.

The only negative comment I had was that the bar serves the weakest drinks. :)