TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

All in all, a wonderful stay. Already talking about returning. Meticulously landscaped and beaches well maintained, this all inclusive with step out onto the beach rooms and really wonderful and kind staffing is worth it. Highlight was e-bike tour to snorkel with the sea turtles with Zef and Donny. This was absolutely amazing and worth the sore butt and those guys kept us safe and constantly entertained.

This is a beautiful resort and the "in the trenches" staff ( housekeepers, wait staff) are top notch! Special shout out to Renata, Marcelino, Miguelena and Nelson at the breakfast buffet! Wish I could remember the names of our bartenders. They were competent and efficient but not chatty unless you were a "regular". Many patrons at the Tamarijn are part of a vacation club or come more than one time per year. The groundskeepers take pride in their work and work hard. There is a Hertz car rental onsite that was very convenient and the staff there were very nice. Driving in Aruba is easy if you are from the US. There are no stop signs or stoplights, just lots of roundabouts and they drive on the right side of the road. There is also usually a line of taxis out front at key times if you want to go explore. If you need a taxi don't stand in line for the front desk to call one. Stand in line and the concierge will call one for you. Overall the front desk staff were terrible. ROOMS All rooms have a view of the ocean (just steps away) and you can hear the waves in your room. Sand is powder white with clear turquoise water. You should know that rooms in the center of the action are in the lower number buildings and all front a rocky shore and are loud. If you want quiet, or to walk out onto the sand at ocean front you will need a room in building 22, 23, 24, or 25. As four women traveling together we requested adjoining rooms on the second floor (for security) in one of these higher number buildings immediately after we booked (about 5 months in advance). Since we did not receive any communication back from the hotel we re-requested about 1 week before we traveled. When we arrived we were placed in the building right next to the pool, lobby & restaurants. We again mentioned our request to the front desk only to be ignored. They did not even acknowledge or say the rooms were not available. It was like we had never spoken! One of our rooms (with an adjoining door to a stranger's room) was on the ground floor. It was a handicapped accessible room. Quick note: the bathroom layout was cramped in this room and it would not have been usable for a wheelchair bound customer. The patio door was broken and WOULD NOT LOCK. Trying to get this repaired was a nightmare with the front desk continually saying we must have the "do not disturb" sign up. The only reason it got at least partially fixed was because I saw the maintenance person standing outside the door talking on the phone to someone and I walked up and showed him the do not disturb sign was NOT up and I knocked on the door so my sister would open it and let him in. He had not even knocked! I think he knew the door was not something he could fix properly and just did not want to be bothered. Our group's second room (also with an adjoining door to a stranger's room) was on the second floor of the same building. Note that THERE ARE NO LOCKS on the adjoining doors. We pack door stops we buy at the dollar store for extra security and were glad to have them to stuff under the adjoining doors that we barricaded with our suitcases. Rooms were standard hotel rooms with two queen beds. Nice and firm mattresses but not bricks. Good air conditioning that did not require a card to stay on. There is an odd bench jutting out from the wall and 1 or 2 chairs in the room. No desk or work space. Showers are large and (if requested with a tip) bathroom towels and washcloths were plentiful. Bathrooms are showing some wear. Safes do hold a laptop. Mini fridges are in all rooms but they are NOT stocked with anything. No water, pop, beer or snacks in the room, The Tamarijn did leave 2 metal water bottles in each room as they are working to decrease single use plastics (so also no straws). Bring your own drink cup. These amenity bottles have narrow mouths so are hard to clean and they are not insulated so they do not keep drinks cool. There are bottle refill stations and ice machines sprinkled around the resort (but not near each other). A note to let guests know there is no extra charge to use these, and a map of where to find ice and refill stations would have been really helpful! FOOD We did get the Divi app and requested multiple restaurants each night 2-3 nights before we wanted to eat there. We were able to get in an al la carte restaurant most nights. Note that you request a reservation in the app. They email back that you can get a reservation. You go back into the app to get your time. Then the day of the reservation they email again and you have to confirm the reservation again before 2pm. There are Asian & Italian restaurants at Tamarijn and Mexican & seafood at the Divi. The main dinner buffet is located at the Divi since the dinner buffet at the Tamarijn was changed to a set menu tapas dinner club. The tapas was nice to do once but since I was the only one interested in trying it in our party they shoved me in a back corner behind a post, even though I was the second patron of the night to be seated and I requested an ocean side table. I was told it was "too hot with the sun going down" to seat me there, but the very next party of 2 was seated at that same "too hot" table. The Tamarijn does have a breakfast and lunch buffet. It is important to note that the "buffets" are mostly live cooking stations. That means multiple strangers are not handling your food and probably less food waste, but it also means you cannot sit and enjoy your meal all at once and trying to have a family dinner together was useless. You stood in line to order what you wanted and got a buzzer (sometimes multiple buzzers) and went to collect your items as they became available. Sometimes you had to stand in line again to collect your food. Overall this led to lots of cold plates. SHARED RESOURCES Four resorts: the Divi Aruba & the Tamarijn Divi are both fully AI. The Divi Golf Resort and the Divi Village are the vacation club resorts (but you could also book rooms there) and you have the option to pay extra to get an all-inclusive plan. It was confusing. We stayed at the Tamarijn and could use the pools at the Divi Golf and Divi Village but could not drink at the swim up bars in those pools as part of our all inclusive package. They happily let us start a tab. The Tamarijn does NOT have any swim up bars. The Tamarijn does not have any hot tubs. Those are both only at the Divi Village and the Divi Golf Resort. We had to walk by a great looking Beach Bar attached to the Tamarijn to get to the Divi Aruba for dinner each night but could not get drinks or food at that location as part of our AI. There are golf cart shuttles between the resorts but there can be a wait at peak times (like trying to get to dinner.) POOLS The fact that the wind is always blowing on Aruba also made swimming a bit colder. The Tamarijn had 2 small pools that were not very warm since we went in December. One pool had a few loungers in the water and was a shallow kiddie pool, with a couple of massaging waterfall features that were usually just trickling. The other pool was deeper, but still just a rectangle about half the size of my local YMCA pool. My sister got up between 6-7am to reserve pool loungers for us. Not a lot of shade at the main pools. I believe pools were open 9-7. Bars opened at 11. Two beach towels are in your room when you check in. You can exchange them at any towel hut across the multiple properties but they ask your room number to make sure they are getting turned back in. Staff puts towels on loungers in the morning so you usually have no trouble getting a beach towel. ENTERTAINMENT There was usually 1-2 people playing live music in the lobby at the Tamarijn each night. The app did not have an accurate activity schedule. Pool bingo never happened and the local craft vendor fair happened on a different day than advertised. The dance program we went to see one night after dinner at the Divi was just a local kids dance troupe performing. I did see people borrowing and using the e-bikes. There are no kayaks, no Hobie cats, or other water toys. You can borrow snorkeling equipment, floats, and pool noodles but we took our own since you have to turn them back in by 3pm. BEACH There are plentiful beach loungers with shady palapas on the property and they work very hard to keep the beach seaweed-free. There are occasional rocky areas so water shoes could come in handy. The days we were there the waves were low to moderate and children could play on the sand with close supervision. The resort beach looks out on a Venezuelan oil rig, the cruise port/downtown, and has large "public" beaches used by the locals on both ends of the resort. Note: ALL beaches in Aruba are public and can be used by anyone. Be sure to check out Aruba's burrowing owl! A pair have a burrow set up near the walkway (by the street, not the ocean boardwalk) to the Divi. BOTTOM LINE Probably would NOT stay at this resort again. The 20-something in our group said she like the RIU better when they came a couple years ago. Demographics here seemed to skew to the 40s-60s year olds.

Beautiful island-- perfect weather, everyday. I really do not enjoy complaining, but let me just lead with them to get them out of the way: First off, the photo used here for the Tamarijn indicates that the beach is right there at your door. It is not-- they have placed rocks to avoid erosion. Not a big deal to me, but figured it was worth noting for those who might plan their vacations around that. -check-in was a little stale. It felt like we were casually checking into a regular hotel and not an all-inclusive resort. No literature containing a resort map and all of the info in one place. Sure, the internet exists, but I shouldn't have to be putting in effort whilst in vacation mode at an all inclusive resort. -Dinner reservations were all over the place. The desk confirmed us for one place and then we received a confirmation for another place at a different time. This happened every night the entire time we were there. I am not exaggerating. Definitely annoying, but we were on vacation and the buffet was decent so it wasn't the end of the world. -BATHROOM DOORS KEPT LOCKING PEOPLE IN! This is HUGE! It happened to 3 different people, including 2 of my small children, in our party of 6. I casually mentioned it happening whilst in the public bathroom and not one, but TWO separate women confirmed it was happening in their room as well. I recommend you pack a flat-head screwdriver (I'm not joking.) BUT, the weather is perfect, the food is fantastic (my kids LOVED the buffet,) and the vibes are just shy of immaculate. The resort is also clean (I figured that's worth noting.) Locally: I implore you to rent a car and tour around the island. We checked out the mining ruins and the National Park (don't miss the caves!)

My family and I stayed at the Tamarijin for a week. We shuttled or walked to the Divi for the shared experience offered by both resorts. Although there were parts of the experience that we really enjoyed, there were too many instances that were disappointing for me to give this stay more than three stars. I have extensive notes regarding certain instances and particular staff members who either exceeded our expectations or fell way short of our expectations. I will be sharing those with the Tamarijin and Divi directly but feel it is necessary to share that it took an hour and 15 minutes for the front desk to check us in. There were 7 in our party and we had three rooms. The location of the rooms was wrong and they claimed we only had 6 people on the reservation. Our credit card charge and printout of the reservation that we provided as proof summarily contradicted that claim by the Tamarijin. However, they still had trouble finding rooms for us. This certainly put a damper on our initial impression of the resort. Furthermore, beware when booking at this location, as the rooms are touted as having beach access. Although most rooms have a view of the beach, most do not provide direct access to the ocean. All rooms are either on the first or second floor. The first floor rooms have patios while the second story rooms have balconies. Many of the rooms have a boundary of rocks between the room and the water, making the ocean inaccessible. The rooms are average. The bathroom is tiny. Please note, I am an average size person and when I would turn around in the bathroom I would hit either the counter or the shower. Therefore, larger people would find it difficult to navigate the space. We stayed in the 2300 block which was a 5-7 minute walk to the main area of the resort. I didn’t mind this, but I think some people might. There are golf carts that arrive every few minutes to shuttle guests back and forth in the event that mobility is a concern. So if you want a room closer in, be aware of this. The bunker bar was a great place to stop and enjoy a drink. It is located around the 1800 block and is not very crowded typically. The restaurants were all very good with the exception of the bar food at the main bar by the pool. That food was at best, sub par bar fare. The dinner locations, such as Club Margot, Papparazzi, Ginger, Pure Lime and the Red Parrot were all very enjoyable and offered great food and drink offerings. Make sure to set reservations as soon as you arrive to confirm you get a seating every day. The breakfast location, Barrista, was great for morning coffee and a pastry. This location had plenty of seating to accommodate card games or visiting among larger groups. The activity center was disappointing. They claim to have 20 e-bikes available for daily rental. A few times we attempted to get bikes and were told not all 20 were functioning. One day only 8 bikes were in working order, leaving several guests in line without a bike. Additionally, there is a bike ride and hike touted for guests to enjoy on Wed and Fri. However, you are unable to reserve a slot until you arrive. Both times we attempted a reservation, we were told it was full. I did not go to the gym but was told by other family members that it was average. There is a small rock climbing wall outside the activity center and gym for use by guests. There were a few souvenir and jewelry and clothes shops in the Tamarijin and a few in the Divi. All were nicely appointed with vacation need items or souvenirs. The pools and accompanying lounge furniture were nice and were cleaned nightly. The concierge desk offered excursions outside of the resort which was helpful for a holistic island experience. In the future, I will consider a non inclusive location as this price was pretty hefty for the experience we had.

Lilly at the front desk was wry helpful and did an amazing job accommodating our large group after a schedule change! She was great!