Your comments reminded me of the only time we visited Aruba, November 1995, probably for the same reason you went. And we hated it. Trouble was, we also kept comparing it to Sint Maarten where our hearts really wanted to be.

I know it, too, is a Dutch island but it’s totally different from SXM and the only two things we really enjoyed were the roads which were very easy to navigate, as well as the islands great bus system which made it unnecessary to rent a car for the whole trip as we usually do.