Beach of the Day: Palm Beach, Aruba Is the Island’s Hotel Capital and a Picture-Perfect Stretch of Sand 

There’s a reason that the first major hotel in Aruba (the Morris Lapidus-designed Aruba Caribbean Hotel) opened on Palm Beach. If you’ve been there, you know. If you designed a beach in a lab, this would be it. 

The sand is sugar-white and flour-soft. The brilliant turquoise water has a satin sheen and, more importantly, it’s deliciously shallow. The feeling is something like wading around in your own ocean pool. 

And everybody here just seems to be having the time of their life (a sentiment you seem to notice a lot on the island of Aruba, to be fair). 

The new St. Regis. The Ritz. The Hyatt. The massive Marriott complex. The latest edition of Lapidus’ vision, which is now a Hilton. The list goes on and on. This beautiful beach is the home of the island’s famous High-Rise Hotel District, and it’s in many ways the “town square” of Aruba tourism, whether you’re on the shoreline or walking around its plethora of restaurants and watering holes.

But no matter where you’re staying, no matter what floor your room is on, you’ll come back here, descend to these sands, fall in love with this sand and this water. 

And for a moment or a week, it’s pure perfection.