de Palm island

[kathanderik]

Has anyone been there? we are sailing on the Crown in Nov, and my husband and I were thinking about going there for an entire day, just to chill out and enjoy the beach. is the beach nice? are we better off going to Palm beach for the day? Thanks for your input!

[10X]

The last time we were at DePalm Island was 2003 and we had a very nice, relaxing day. You can just chill out or do some snorkeling if you like. There are a lot of large, blue parrotfish in the coral. We placed a bet in the hermit crab races and won a T-shirt. There is shade and beach chairs and, if I remember correctly, a restuarant.

 

I can't speak for Palm Beach though because I haven't been there.

 

We were pleased enough with DePalm Island that we will likely go back there when we visit Aruba again in February 2007.

[adbnva]

we are interested in taking the excursion in dec. i googled it & then realized that de palm is the name of a tour co that we had used for an island tour (which, by the way was very good). site says parrot fish & iguanas are interesting, food not excellent. trip advisor gave some reviews not very good, but they were from '04 &'05. we probally will do it. the all day trip includes the island tour.

[stprdi]

We just did the De Palm island excursion off of Destiny and it was really great. We hadnt even snorkeled before so we were awfully proud to do the SNUBA. It's lovely there. Beach clean, white sand. We did the afternoon tour and wished we had taken the early morning one. Some of those folks were able to stay behind and come back with our group so they got the whole day. As it was we barely had time for the snuba class and we were off again. No food no drinks, not even sit and admire the beauty. The parrot fish are huge and you can feed them. They'll come right to your hands. Cost was 95.00 each I believe. Pricey but worth it.

[jacruisers]

Hi stprdi,

 

So you booked the tour through the ship? You mentioned that the tour also included a tour of de Palm Island?

thanks

[Arubalisa]

If the info helps, I just read this on another website, from a couple on a land based vacation (thus bus pickup at their hotel)

 

"Hubby & I did the full day De Palm Island thing in Sept. We much to our surprise had a really good time. The large nice, clean air conditioned bus picked us up at 8:30 AM and we were at the DePalm ferry ramp by 9 AM. The ferry ride over to the island is maybe 10 minutes at the most. Once on the Island they serve all you want to eat continental breakfast and they have an open bar at three sites pretty much all day long. They started serving lunch at 11:30 AM at all three restaurants. Two were serving BBQ Ribs, several types of cold salads, corn on the cob and mashed potatoes and rolls. The bar was open also there was free sodas, water, coffee and tea all day at all three restaurants. The 3rd one was serving burgers, hot dogs and fries and salads. The burgers & dogs were cooked to order. If you went thirsty or hungry it was you own fault as they certainly provided plenty to eat & drink the entire day.

 

The new water park is very small compared to Disney water parks or Wet & Wild here in Florida, but it was fun. The snorkeling was good. You can take your own gear or use theirs. Do take everything you need for the day as the gift shop is very limited in what it has to offer and pretty expensive. The snorkeling is good, but prepared for a fair amount of surge as it is at end of Aruba just before going around the bend to the back side where the open Atlantic is very rough. We saw lots of fish including the largest midnight parrot fish hubby and I have ever seen in all our years of diving. The sad part is the coral is pretty much dead or dying. They tell you to not touch, sit or stand on the coral, but we saw lots of people ignoring the warnings and doing it anyway. If your looking for a fancy place to spend the day, DePalm Island is not it. They offer lots of food, drinks and chairs for laying in the sand, but it is not set up like US water parks. They have a changing room and bathrooms for guest. We as I said enjoyed ourselves more than we expected too, but I think it was because we went with an open mind on what to expect. We also met a very nice couple there from New York and this added to our day as we have been in contact with them since returning home."