TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

My husband and I stayed at the all-inclusive resort- Tamarijn- for about 3 nights/4 days. We absolutely loved our room- with its beach access and amenities- however, our room was a little dirty/not as updated as we expected. We were confused on how the all inclusive thing worked, but thought it was great that they offer an orientation to help people understand (although we missed it). We enjoy the food and activities offered; but definitely felt that the ambience was more lively/energetic than we thought. In other words, this would be a great place for big parties (i.e. families, friend groups) than just the two of us. We also liked that they had shuttle services and a variety of excursion/activities to do and try! While we would have picked a more relaxing/romantic resort to celebrate our honeymoon, we would definitely come back with friends or family in the future!

I would recommend this resort to anyone. Have been there msny times and each time is better. The service was great,, the room was cleaned daily. There were a lot of activities and the beach was the best- The people were so friendly, especially YeeTing who made our stay very enjoyable. I will be back.

The Tamarijn was AMAZING! We came for our 10 year anniversary and I was blown away. Our room was right on the beach, we literally walked out our door and in a few steps we were on the beach. This was exactly what we wanted and everything about this trip was honestly breath taking. All of the restaurants had delicious food and the breakfast and lunch buffet was delicious and so fresh! The concierge desk was so helpful, they booked our restaurant reservations and answered any questions we had.The views, the food, the staff were all lovely. We ended up doing the UTV/ATV tour through De Palms Tours and the pick up and drop off went flawlessly (highly recommend that tour, SO much fun and a great way to explore the island; Ricky and Luis were the best tour guides also). The only thing I regret is not staying for longer lol. We will be coming back here every year!

NOTE: TRIPADVISOR DO NOT DELETE OR MOVE THIS REVIEW FROM THE TOP. THE WEEK OF MY STAY I SAW THAT THERE WERE 3 1-STAR REVIEWS SIMILAR THAT ALSO MENTIONED THE APP AND SHUTTLE ISSUES THAT DISAPPEARED WHEN I CHECKED AGAIN. THIS IS NOT OK! PEOPLE CHOOSE THEIR VACATIONS BASED ON THESE REVIEWS AND NON-DISCLOSURE OF POOR REVIEWS IS DESPICABLE. REVIEW FOR five-day stay at the Tamarijn All-Inclusive Resort from May 26, 2025, through May 30, 2025. From the moment I arrived until the moment I left, I experienced horrific circumstances—poor customer service, inept management, and broken facilities and apps—that interrupted and halted any chance of enjoying or thriving during my stay. I was consistently lied to and misdirected by staff. The concierge’s lack of basic knowledge and utter unprofessionalism was appalling. Overall, management and staff were completely tone-deaf and vulture-like.                                                                                                                                  Prior to my arrival, I received a message via Expedia from the resort. The email referred to features that “make your stay stress-free and effortless,” boasting about the Divi/Tamarijn app, which “allows you to make dinner reservations up to three days before you arrive and, while on the property, check out menus, see a list of daily activities, and reserve e-bikes, tennis courts, and gym time.” This is false. I was unable to make dinner reservations through the app; in fact, the concierge informed me on the property that the only way to secure a reservation was to physically go to the concierge desk.   Upon arrival, I was given no orientation or instruction. There was zero direction from the front desk and misdirection from the concierge. The shift lead, Ms. Singh, told me they could not provide a printed map because they were “going green,” but I could take a photo of the one map she had with my phone. The map contained so much information that trying to get an overview on a small cell-phone screen was impossible. At no point did Ms. Singh offer any additional guidance.   I contacted the resort on May 24, 2025—two days before my trip—to find out which room I would be in, and I did not receive any response until the day of arrival, May 26, 2025. I needed to know whether my room would have a clear beach view or be next to the rocks so I could properly prepare for my stay. Later, I was told they never confirm room assignments in advance because things could change last minute. During my stay, it became clear that because of all the functional issues, this was indeed why they could not confirm a booking so guests could prepare properly.   When I took my first shower, the shower-gel pump did not work. I notified the house cleaner and it was replaced. For four of the five days, I ended up taking cold showers because there was no hot water. You may wonder why I reported the pump issue first and not the hot-water issue—there were so many problems that I didn’t report the lack of hot water until the final day, when the toilet wouldn’t flush and got backed up. There was no clear indicator on the dial for hot and cold. Maintenance told me they had already informed management that they should install a visible marker on the knob; all I could make out was a barely visible indentation of an “H” and a “C.” Apparently, I wasn’t the only one experiencing this problem—because a guest overheard me telling a supervisor on the 5th day, in the lobby, about the shower issue. The guest confirmed he’d had the same issue and had to leave the knob in the center position. As the days passed, I noticed this was a cycle: everyone I ran into had similar complaints. On the second day of my stay, the resort’s incompetence and dysfunction became even more evident. I checked the app the night before and saw a schedule for a salsa class at 12:30 p.m. I planned my day accordingly and dressed for salsa—but not in street clothes. When I arrived in the lobby, there was no salsa class. I was told the app schedule wasn’t updated and that the class wouldn’t be until 4 p.m. This was upsetting, as I had already planned my day around a noon class. I was told to go to the concierge for the correct schedule. Since I needed a purse and didn’t have time to buy one at home, I decided to find one locally. The concierge couldn’t give me a printed activity schedule, so again, I had to take a picture of it. They said if I wanted a hard copy, I needed to get it from the front desk—yet the front desk never gave me one upon arrival, which would have saved me valuable time and energy.   I was told there were shops by the casino. Because I was staying in building 25—completely at the far end of the resort—and getting a shuttle took forever, I decided to save time and take a shuttle from the lobby to the casino, hoping to return in time for the 4 p.m. salsa class. When I arrived at the casino shops, there was not much there, and I couldn’t find a suitable purse. I then walked to the Divi (sister resort) concierge for more assistance. Both concierges I encountered were young and immature; they constantly gave me misinformation. When I asked if the downtown mall would be the best place to find the purse I wanted, I was told it was “too far” and that I should take a taxi to a shop called the D-Shop. I was also told the mall only had high-end stores like Gucci and other top designers, which would be too expensive. So, I took a cab to the D-Shop, only to find chic, expensive bags—none of which were what I needed. I asked them to call me a cab, and I asked the driver if the street market might have the bags. The driver said yes, but when I got to the market, I still could not find a simple white or black purse. I walked through about six blocks’ worth of stores in the sweltering sun, dressed in an outfit I would never have chosen for shopping. Then I walked over the bridge near the cruise port to another market and found nothing. Finally, I met a restaurant host who told me to go to the mall and look at Zara. Once I got to the mall, a woman directed me through the mall to a store right next to Zara, where I finally found the purse I needed at a reasonable price. In other words, the concierge sent me on a wild goose chase—and the purse was right where I initially thought it would be: in the mall! By the time I got back to the resort, it was past 4 p.m.; I missed the salsa class and lunch. I was hot, exhausted, and was told I could only get food from the bar. I went back to the concierge and recounted my ordeal to two young women; one of them asked, “You didn’t bring anything back for us?” This response was totally unprofessional and inappropriate.  Then another told me there was a Tiki bar “not far” from my building. Hoping for convenience and to familiarize myself with a close by option for future reference, I decided to try the Tiki bar.   I took another shuttle toward my room and saw a sign for “Tiki.” I asked the driver to stop there. When I entered, the bartender informed me that the Tiki bar was not included in the all-inclusive package and that they had already finished serving food for the day. Now, with no shuttle in sight, I had to walk to another concierge desk—most likely at Divi Dutch (I think, all I knew was it wasn’t the Divi or the Tamarijn), since it wasn’t part of the Tamarijn or Divi—to ask them to call a shuttle. This Tiki bar was completely in the opposite direction of my room. It was now 6 p.m., and I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast.   Shuttle service on the resort is time-consuming and unreliable. It can take 20–25 minutes to get a shuttle if they even show up, and often you must call more than once. During one call, they said, “Oh, you called already,” making it clear that even the first call doesn’t guarantee a pickup. Another guest suggested calling 10 minutes early to avoid long waits, so I did exactly that. I got dressed, did my hair, foundation, and lipstick, and left my eye makeup for last—an operation I expected to take less than 10 minutes. Within three minutes of calling, the shuttle horn beeped. I was furious—I wasn’t ready and did not want to miss my reservation. I rushed out, without any eye makeup, only to have the shuttle drop me off at the Tamarijn lobby. Apparently, that shuttle wasn’t meant for me. The driver insisted it was for Tamarijn—how could I have known when my door is so far from the road?   I exploded in the lobby, complaining about how awful the shuttle service was. An employee standing there offered to drive me to the Red Parrot at the Divi. Once there, the host seated me outside in the heat—even though I told him I could not stand the heat after being outside all day. The menu wasn’t appealing, so I left and went to the buffet.   There are no buffets—period; they simply display a sample of food, you have to wait for them to cook, and they give you a buzzer to come back. There were maybe two or three dishes out; I chose one, supposedly a paella, which was horrible: super dry, with only a few shrimp. I ate it because I needed something—again, I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. I was exhausted and miserable. An entire day wasted because of total staff incompetence.   I decided to return to my room to finish unpacking and organizing, so at least the next day I wouldn’t waste another minute of my vacation.   On the third day, staff called to say they would upgrade my room and move me closer to the resort’s center. Why they hadn’t offered this the previous night was beyond me. I could not possibly repack and unpack, and I was completely exhausted! I also had a horrible feeling the new room might be no better, given their incompetence. Later, I learned I had made the right choice: another guest told me she stayed in three different rooms because her first had a bug infestation; the second had more issues plus a menacing security guard who refused to move all her bags at once; and the third had a broken sliding-door alarm, making her feel unsafe all night.   Another issue: the TV in my original room was pixelated. I reported it, and the next morning they said they had “already repaired” it. I wondered when and how but took their word. The next time I turned it on, it was still pixelated. There was some “info” on the TV about Aruba, but I couldn’t get all of it due to the pixelation.   That same day (Wednesday), I decided to stay on the resort and enjoy my beachfront room—only to discover rocks and seaweed in the water, and rocks that could cut my feet. I had to buy water shoes for another $20. I was informed that the resort’s “beach” was man-made, not a real beach, and that I should go to Eagle Beach at the Divi. I had also scheduled a massage at the Indulgence Spa on the premises for 10 a.m. the next morning, prior to taking the shuttle back to the Tiki and my room the following day.  This was day 3 and I still hadn’t been able to enjoy the water!   What I found at the spa was downright negligence. I am a licensed massage therapist with the highest credentials in the USA. The spa made me fill out an intake form, which aligns with massage-therapy protocol: the purpose is to discern any medical conditions that might be contraindicated or to guide the type of massage you receive—to avoid injury, bruising, and protect the guest’s health and safety. The person assigned to me, supposedly a licensed professional, never did a verbal intake. A verbal intake is required to review the intake form and determine what the client wants from the session as well as any medical conditions and approach to massage customized for that client. This person simply told me to get on the table. The room was cold, and there was no heated table. I thought perhaps she would do the intake before beginning while on the table. She returned to the room and said nothing. I asked if she had read my intake form; she admitted she hadn’t, but said she could “go look at it now.” I asked if she was a licensed massage therapist; she said yes. I told her that if she were indeed licensed, she would know she must review the intake sheet and provide a verbal intake. I told her I did not want her to work on me and asked for another therapist. After she left, I decided to leave for my own safety; it was obvious she was not licensed. This spa was clearly hiring unlicensed, incompetent staff—a liability that I informed the owner about when she called my room. Before leaving the spa, I told the front desk what happened and insisted they not charge me. Later, when I told Ms. Singh of the front desk what occurred, she responded, “Well, I told you I didn’t know if they were licensed,” implying she knew they weren’t licensed but did nothing.   That same day, Ms. Singh suggested I speak with the head of activities—her superior—about my suggestions. Despite all the incompetence, I tried to be constructive: I offered resolutions to better inform guests of activities given how useless the app was. I even complimented Ms. Singh to her superior, just trying to keep the peace after 2½ days of hell. After speaking with him, he made the “grand” gesture of booking two dinner reservations for me—reservations at restaurants already included in the all-inclusive package, so I didn’t understand how that was anything special. That evening, I went to my first reservation at The Margot Restaurant. The host—a so-called “professional”—decided to pretend there was no reservation for me as a misguided prank. He thought it funny that I was highly upset. I refused to react. When he showed me to the table and pulled out a chair, I chose to sit on the couch instead. He rolled his eyes and made a mocking sound at me. Yet another “professional” employee at the Tamarijn. Just despicable.   The next morning at breakfast, I met a newlywed woman also dissatisfied with her so-called “Honeymoon Suite.” The resort charged her $4,000 for it but made zero gesture to acknowledge their nuptials—no wine, flowers, chocolates, not even a note. When she inquired, they brought her a cheese board (and charged her for it!) and snapped an unsolicited photo of her without permission. This is important because it illustrates just how tone-deaf and exploitative this resort is.   She was kind enough to invite me off the resort at Eagle Beach, which was an absolute joy compared to the Tamarijn debacle. When I returned and was sitting in the lobby—finally calm on Day 4—Ms. Singh asked how I was doing. I replied that I was good. She then said, “You know we have a gift shop and maybe I can order something for you, like a cheese platter or chocolate strawberries.” Trying to be polite, I opted for strawberries. Later, when I returned to my room, there were no strawberries—only a bottle of wine with two glasses. I do not drink alcohol. I called the front desk, thanked them for the gesture, and asked them to send someone to collect it so it wouldn’t go to waste. I waited—and waited—and waited. It was getting late, so I decided to get undressed and take a shower to prepare for my dinner reservation; I didn’t want to be late. As soon as I was completely undressed and about to step in, there was a knock at the door. I said “one moment,” but they knocked continuously; I had to get redressed to answer. When I finally opened the door, three people were standing there: one woman holding the strawberries, another gentleman, and Ms. Singh with her cell phone in hand. I remembered what the other guest told me about unsolicited photos. To protect myself and enraged at their audacity, I handed the wine to the man, took the strawberries from the woman, and shut the door in their faces before they could take my photo. I’m sure they thought I was rude—but what they didn’t know was that I already anticipated what was going to happen, thanks to the other guest. This was literally insane. I have never had a hotel do anything like this. Typically, they leave gifts in your room; they do not bang on your door, ask what you want, and then deliver something completely different. Ms. Singh, management, and the entire resort are rude, tone-deaf, self-serving, incompetent, and downright cruel.   Throughout my stay, every server and staff member behaved like a hawk waiting for a tip. This is an all-inclusive experience—they are not supposed to act this way. I tipped all servers, but their attitudes remained money hungry. The shuttle driver seemed miserable until the end of the trip; once I tipped him, he suddenly became friendly, telling me to come again with my family. No, I’m not bringing my family to a blood-sucking resort so they can be harassed, tortured, and injured by unlicensed people.   Let’s talk about the outdoor showers: some worked, some didn’t; sometimes only one function worked. Maybe the shower worked but the foot shower didn’t, or vice versa. And all the chairs were covered in bird droppings that were never cleaned.   On Thursday night, I went to the front desk to ask if there was any evening entertainment. The woman told me there wasn’t because “we have carnival tomorrow night.” You might wonder why I needed to ask, given that I had taken a photo of the activity schedule after being told the app wasn’t updated. That’s because even the paper schedule didn’t indicate any activities after Wednesday. If I hadn’t asked about Thursday night, I would never have known about Friday night’s carnival. And did I participate in any of the few activities on the resort? No. I was too busy dealing with all the crap, poor service, and explaining to managers how to run a functional resort.   On my final day, I woke up to a backed-up toilet—something I half expected, given the noise I heard the previous night. I called, cursing that this resort sucks—and it does—and asked how long it would take to fix. I needed to know so I could navigate around yet another of their screw-ups. The woman on the phone refused to speak to me because I was “screaming.” I asked for her name; she transferred me without identifying herself, to someone who also wouldn’t answer my question and hung up on me. Enraged and with my hair uncombed, I threw on the first thing I could find, put on my sneakers (my toes had blisters from walking long distances when shuttles took too long or never showed up and not being in appropriate sneakers or comfortable walking shoes), and stormed to the front desk. I unloaded on the person there and informed her supervisor about the horrible service.   Later that evening, once again waiting for a shuttle that never arrived, I began walking down the path hoping to flag one. A security guard, who had been in the lobby during my complaint, offered me a ride and also mentioned that staff wanted me off the property.   I have been in upscale customer-service positions; if you can’t handle an enraged customer who has every right to be enraged at a complete flop show, you need to find another profession. There wasn’t a single person on that resort who handled themselves competently; the entire place was completely shady.   I never even made it over to the Divi beach because, after everything, I did not want to be anywhere near that resort. That cost me extra money and effort, after having spent $2,558.50 for this stay (not including clothing, taxis, airfare, etc.).   There wasn’t a single day of pleasure at this resort.   Finally, upon checkout (with a zero-balance signed off on), I asked for a copy of the bill and was told it would be emailed to me. I checked out on May 31, 2025, and still have not received a copy. I called the resort and was told that since my balance was zero, I wouldn’t get a bill. When I sent a message to the resort through Expedia, I was told I needed to email request@diviaruba.com. This was yet another act of incompetence, after I was promised by your front desk that an email copy of my checkout receipt would be sent. More misinformation.   The worst vacation of my life. Do not recommend.

Incredible resort! Staff are amazing and helpful. The rooms are clean. Beautiful grounds. The food and drinks are excellent! Of course, the beaches are amazing! This area is quieter than the resorts and hotels further up, but you can take a bus or taxi up to that area, too. We highly recommend this resort! We’ll be back!