Marriott's Aruba Surf Club

Very nice hotel overall. It didn't really feel like I was on a tropical island though. Pools were large and very nice. Beach is clean. Rooms are spacious and nicely setup. There are several bars around where you can get drinks and some food. Main complaint is the Palapa rental and/or getting chairs by the pool. If you aren't down by the pool by before 6:30 am, good luck getting a chair with the tags they give you. Also, getting a palapa that is close to the water so that you actually have a view is almost impossible (also a fee for palapa rental). You also pretty much have to choose whether you want a pool chair or palapa for the day since you need to use the tags. Not a fan of that. Besides the pool/palapa thing, I have no complaints. One small thing to know, they will only clean your room once every 4 days unless you want to pay, so know that ahead of time. The high rise area is nice, but if you want a quiet stay without boats pulling up to the beach every 3 minutes, this isn't your place. If you don't mind that, this place is perfectly fine.

Love the surf club. The location is great, super walkable. Staff is incredibly kind and helpful. The lazy river can entertain me for days - give me a float and a frozen drink and you’ve got one happy girl! Rooms are spacious. Would come here again and again. No fancy restaurants here just casual eats, but there are plenty that are a short walk. Family friendly. All around great!

I was at the Marriott Surf Club July 3-10. I am currently a Points owner. The service has gone down tremendously. They put me in the Spyglass tower on the third floor. I have never stayed in the building before. It was old with no view, and all of the appliances were not in working order. Dishwasher poured out water while running, and when you poured the water into the coffee machine it poured out water as well. The biggest complaint is that my wallet was stolen out of the room on my second day there. Our cash and debit cards were taken out, which ruined our trip as far as being able to take out money or having cash. The hotel Manager never reached out to us during our stay to check on us and never showed us empathy. On the last day I asked for a report of the incident, and it was a fight to get a report. The Operations Mgr said he would take care of our incidentals and tax from our bill. They did not charge my credit card, but 4 days later when I got home the $393.32 was debited from my card after they said they would not charge me. They ruined my vacation.

My party of 10 (consisting mostly of family including young children and teenagers) spent a week in Aruba and while we were unsure of he vibe when we arrived, we ended up loving every part of it. Chi-chi checked us in and anticipated our needs. She was very thorough in explaining the resort rules and processes as it was our first time staying at the Surf Club. All the staff we encountered were friendly and was proactive about being helpful. This resort is great for families especially children. There is always something to do at the resort including the lazy river, hot tubs, pools (one has a slide), beach or even fishing! The kids were never bored. There is a process for reserving palapas and getting your pool towels, but once you adjust to the routine everything was smooth for us. I read the complaints about waking up at 7am to reserve a palapa, but I am surprised that no one mentions you can also reserve them at 5:30 pm the day before. Granted most of them were gone within minutes, but I did not have any issues reserving 2 palapas each day at 5:30pm. This allowed me to sleep in each morning. We stayed in two 2 bedroom villas for the week. They are very similar to other Marriott vacation club villas. We loved the kitchen and washer/dryers. While the furnishings were not brand new, it was not as tired as others made it out to be. It was honestly fine and functional. The villas were ready and clean when we arrived. We could have used a few extra USB ports throughout the villa. They could only be found at the alarm clock next to the bed. We made use of 2 different delivery apps. Aruba to You works very similar to Uber Eats. Food arrives in about an hour. Customer service will call you or WhatsApp you if an item is not available and you can substitute or ask for a partial refund. Food-Aw only worked in the evening and had more selections. The only option for payment is upon delivery and can be cash, debit or credit card. I opted for credit card and the delivery person arrived with a credit card machine. I was quite impressed. If anyone in your party likes fishing, please bring some fishing gear. You can fish right off the dock by the hotel. My nephew caught many snapper and grouper which we were able to cook and eat. The restaurant can also cook them (I heard others say for $20). If you don't bring any gear, you can go downtown to a bait and tackle shop to pick up a rod for about $45. You can also charter a boat. I heard a charter is about $450 for 3 hours. We also liked that the lazy river closes late (at 10pm)! Tubes are not required after 6pm. You can bring your own tubes or grab a free one from people who leave them behind in a bin near where the air hoses are for filling tubes. Tubes are also sold in the market place. The lazy river is an oval and not as impressive as the lazy river at Hyatt Vacation Club at Bonita Springs. It's definitely still nice to have when you want a change of pace from a regular pool. The resort is also very walkable to a mall/ strip of restaurants and shops, which was only a few minutes away. We walked there for dessert and breakfast. It was also a good place to pick up souvenirs. They were right, this won't be our last visit to this One Happy Island!!

This is a typical Marriott Vacation Club Condo Resort setting. Rooms are typical of Marriott. Good sized, well appointed with amenities and cookware. Everything you need to stay in a condo with a washer and dryer, dishwasher. Plus the setting of a resort with restaurant, bar, activity center, gym and concierge desk, pool table, pools. Lazy River. I cannot emphasized how much time I spent in the lazy river. Go when it's quiet and you can fall asleep floating around. So cool. Did a drink class with the Activity Center and learned the Aruba Ariba and got to drink a few. Staff are great and drinks are good. Bar food during the day was good a as well. The Iguanas are so cool. You can go next-door to the Marriott Sands and watch staff feeding them. There were SO many Iguanas of colors and sizes. No problems during our stay and would gladly return.

Was a zoo! Rooms smelly, very dated, stained carpets. Was put in wrong building, definitely would not go back again. I am an owner of MVC and did not like this place at all. Good luck getting a beach chair or pool chair unless you like waking up at 5am in vacation for a pool chair and 7am for a beach chair to which is so overcrowded, you are literally on top of each other- and you still have to pay to book. Most of them are gone at 7am. It’s the most ridiculous thing I ever encountered.

Excellent stay

We just stayed here at the end of May with our two young daughters and it was absolutely wonderful. The room was spacious and clean and the staff was warm and welcoming. The pool area was wonderful with lots of food options and the location of the hotel was ideal so that we could walk across the street to the center of town and have dinner. I would highly recommend!

Love to go every year and sometimes twice a year—amazing location and looking forward to seeing the Lighthouse building renovations this fall. We have told many friends and family members about the Surf Club, and they now look forward to coming. Many are now owners, too!