Druif Beach Holidays

Druif Beach is Aruba's answer to a Robinson Crusoe-style set-up. Languishing on the western side of the island, it’s a peaceful place that revolves around a textbook Caribbean beach, unravelling over 11 kilometres. You’ll find a few bars, restaurants and bijou shops here and there – reminders that you’re not totally alone. There are a couple of low-rise luxury hotels at either end of the beach, too, and a nine-hole golf course nestled among wind-sculpted divi-divi trees at Divi Village Golf and Beach Resort.

Alabaster white sands, palm-thatched palapas, neon-turqouise waters – Druif Beach ticks all the tropical boxes. And you’re only ever a stone’s throw from your hotel. The calm Caribbean Sea makes this the perfect place for little ones to learn to swim. Adults, meanwhile, can enrol at the local dive school – Aruba’s multi-coloured reefs are in touching distance.

Just behind the resort is JE Irausquin Boulevard, the coast road that connects Druif Beach with Aruba’s other tropical outposts. Eagle Beach is the closest with a top line-up of restaurants and bars. Palm Beach is further down the road, past the island’s bird sanctuary and butterfly farm. Nicknamed the Las Vegas of Aruba, its supersized malls and casinos pull in the crowds.

Just 15 minutes’ drive away is Aruba's capital, Oranjestad. It’s packed with Dutch-style colonial buildings dressed in pastel hues. Huge shopping malls, like the outdoor Royal Plaza, are a magnet for passengers spilling from the luxury cruise ships that dock in the port. Fort Zoutman – an 18th-century fortress, now home to a history museum – is the most famous landmark.