Go during the off season. Peak season is too hot and too crowded. Almost impossible to get reservations at the restaurants within the resort. Had to wait to get towels because cleaning service was so far behind. Get a beach seat area early in the morning or you will be lying on a towel, in the sun. Everyone was SO super nice. After all, it is the Happy Island

Excellent service by a very courteous staff. The best location on the beach and access to Aruba's version of South Beach (Miami). Great shops and restaurants a stone's through away

Don't do it to yourself. The food was horrible. The drinks, beach and room is what saved this review. I was so disappointed that they served the same food every day with barely any flavor. Thank God the food at the wedding was better but I couldn't wait to check out and taste food outside the resort. My friends and unlimited drinks is what made this resort fun. I will not be visiting another Barcelo again.

Been there many times always always love it but this time the lobby casino seemed like it was pumping cigarette smoke into the non smoking lobby area. We didn't even want to be in the lobby to enjoy the entertainment because it was so overwhelming. We really had great service Reno at the buffet, Nathalia and everyone at first club and Gerald on the beach were all amazing. I would give 5++ to our experience if not for the smoke in the lobby and the shows changing... they ruined Grease I hope they make it a show and not a variety show.

Best vacation ever. We chose Aruba to honor my little brothers life. He had passed away 1year prior. The Barcelo Aruba did not disappoint. The people of Aruba we're exactly what we needed to put the past year in perspective. Be happy...life is short...live it. Thank you Barcelo!! You are top notch!!

What a Great Resort! We enjoyed the trip very much and can't wait to return. The staff was very helpful, the food was Great and the grounds of the Resort were very clean and peaceful. The resort pools with swim up bar and ocean views were so relaxing! A Great place to get away for peace and rest!

Very good food without being over the top. This is a fantastic resort, and my wife and I had a great time here on our anniversary. We enjoyed the nightly entertainment in the ballroom a lot.

This place is amazing! Its beautiful, peaceful and such wonderful people working there. Jenny who works there was very welcoming and helped me in so many ways! The resort, pool and beach view were phenomenal! I definitely recommend this place.

Lounge could have quieter lounge music for conversations in the evening. Restaurants are excellent, except for a strange lack of ketchup at the buffet. Only issues I experienced tho, friendly service everywhere and got my money's worth out of that vacation!

My stay was first class. The hotel lives up to its rating, reputation and claim. Good food, clean environment, friendly staff and something for everyone.

Great hotel, great stay, amazing staff awesome food, it is worth the price. Ask for the ocean view! Worth it!

Cant stop talking about the buffet, great selection of surf and turf. Best hotel bar so far with a wide variety of mix drinks and cocktails.

ALL INCLUSIVE +

Quick note: allot of big iguanas, friendly, id avoid the pool/waterfall area of not an lizard fan. Than again its Aruba baby!

Very nice rooms, friendly people and decent food. But even though the staff was friendly they seemed to be in no great hurry. Bartenders were slow, and disinterested even for decent tips. We also had issue during check-in we arrived in our room to find it clean and almost ready. We had no towels and even though we requested towels at 3pm, when we returned to the room after dinner we only had bath towels. No wash cloths or hand towels. We had to call down twice more until they showed up almost an hour later.

This was a nice place but the beds are not “crowne plaza” soft but VERY HARD so if you thinking plush mattress WRONG besides that it was a great place to go the staff was very friendly but the drinks are not strong ... stick with straight liquor drinks... and the food was ok 😕 a lot of times the buffet food is cold even though it’s on a warm tray. I loved the kids club, my daughter loved the staff there very nice with the kids and that was the most important to me knowing I left her in good hands.

Awesome so far.... People are lovely and the food and drinks are great. The place is clean and beautiful.

Clara, Gilmer, Jermin, Gerald and Victor from the Royal Bar were so kind. Excellent service from them, really recommended if you want the best service and attention at the beach.

This place is just OK. Not horrible, but not on my list of places I'd recommend, either. We visited on a day pass as cruise ship passengers. The beach and pool are nice enough, and the all inclusive nature of the place removes any worry of running up an excessive tab. But the food was mediocre at best, and my wife saw one of the table servers take silverware that "looked clean" from a used table and re-set it at another table. We still enjoyed the day, but I'd try someplace else next time.

Beautiful beach! Hotel staff is unorganized yet friendly. You have to fight for shaded chairs. You can only make 2 dinning reservations per stay. Rooms are nice. Entertainment is what you might expect but nice to have something to do after dinner. Wait service good some excellent.

First time here, great rooms modern and clean. All inclusive plan abundance of good food, only drawback some potato dishes are sometimes cold. Not always. Quality alcohol in drinks, not skimpy servings. Would try the Barcelo brand on future trips.

We had an awesome time. Jenny at the front desk was awesome! The staff was very friendly and helpful. We will definitely be going back soon!

Very nice rooms, friendly people and decent food. But even though the staff was friendly they seemed to be in know great hurry. Bartenders were slow, and disinterested even for decent tips. We also had issue during check-in we arrived in our room to find it clean and almost ready. We had no towels and even though we requested towels at 3pm, when we returned to the room after dinner we only had bath towels. No wash cloths or hand towels. We had to call down twice more until they showed up almost an hour later.

Very nice rooms, friendly people and decent food. But even though the staff was friendly they seemed to be in know great hurry. Bartenders were slow, and disinterested even for decent tips.

Great room and service and drinks. Food leaves a bit to be desired. However, the Japanese restaurant was fantastic.

This is an awesome place to stay. It is next to the beach and the pool is very clean.Great service ande very attentive. Special thanks to Kimberly and Mr. Maurtie for their great hospitality and for their very respectful manner with elderly people. My grandmother stayed here for a couple of days and she had an amazing time.

Had an awesome time. The staff was polite. The rooms were clean. The food was great.

Highly recommended. Staff is so friendly and polite. Cesar the bartender was such a nice person with us also Eric and Diana. I also have to mention the waiter Rodell who was an excellent waiter at the Palm Restaurant. These people definitely made our stay even better. Barcelo needs more people like them

Highly recommended. Staff is so friendly and polite. Cesar the bartender was such a nice person with us

i stayed at the Barcelo from 10/15-10/22 with my fiancé, we absolutely loved our stay! Kevin and Charles at the front desk were more than accommodating. The pool bar staff was excellent along with the buffet staff. We loved it so much we are coming back to get married!! We can’t wait! Thank you for a great time. This hotel will not let you down!

got keys to 3 different rooms, 3 hrs later,got upgraded Didn't get in room til 6 pm so a whole day wasted..... bartender 's in lounge very indifferent Didn't seem to be attentive. beer included was never on tap,had to have cans, Upgraded bracelet .....at outside beach bar....asked Multiple times for Miller Lite had like 3 out of 7 days Island Beautiful ,hotel not well organized.

LOVE IT, LOVE IT.. The Beach is Awesome, n the Water..(Carribean Sea) is warm...and the sand doesn't sink beneath your feet! The food is good, and the speciality restaurants are RSVP only...and you must reserve it the day before. The only thing I don't like are the bathtubs, they are too high. You must step up n over to get into them. So be careful, you could get hurt!

Reservations for restaurants are.. troublesome. Email ahead to make them or prepare to be disappointed, then angry when you wander by early and see it barely half full.

Otherwise, staff is very friendly, and the manager of the Kyoto is super accommodating and nice. The buffets are mostly good, and the rooms seem to be in generally good repair. The beds are great, at least ours was.

You only get an hour of free WiFi a day in the lobby, but just use the casino's free WiFi as long as it is open and you're in the lobby- no time limits! It just gets shut off when the casino closes.

The pool area is beautiful, and they have these awesome covered bed things out there that are great to lay on and be lazy. There is a poolside bar, but no service outside, you have to go to the bar.

We stayed here on the "all inclusive" Royal level. The grounds & buildings were very well kept. The staff were all very helpful & friendly. The food was good, just wish it was a little less gourmet. We would stay here again!

Absolutely wonderful experience! Elegant, comfortable beachfront resort. Staff was extremely helpful and attentive! The all-inclusive package was excellent!

Aruba was absolutely amazing. The Resorts and most of the locals are extremely friendly. They know 7 languages and are willing to make your vacation seem like your a King or Queen. I will definitely revisit this 19.6 mile of an island again in the near future. I have seen a true Paradise this year for the very first time. Thank you Lord for a safe travel to and from the islands.

The best time ever! I want to come see Aruba again! Great selection of restaurants and food and drinks. We were there in October, about three years ago, after the "peak" season, which was the perfect time, in my opinion, there weren't many kids or huge crowds which made for a more relaxed vaca! There was so much to do that we didn't leave the resort at all! We need to return to the happy island so we can see more of it! I recommend everyone stay at The Occidental Resort and we will stay there each time we visit "One Happy Island!"

Staff is excellent, specialty restaurants are great, just walk in when you run out of reservations. Pool and swim up bar is great as well. Overall, a wonderful all-inclusive experience!

The Barcelo was a great choice for an all inclusive hotel in Aruba .The food was above what you expect at an all inclusive The staff were very courteous. The nightly shows were outstanding production and better than other hotels through out the Caribbean that I have been.

Excellent staff and service I must say. I wish you didn't have to make reservations to eat at some of the places in the resort, but I loved the italian restaurant the most . Breakfast, lunch, and dinner was ok and could improve a little more, I love the fact they made fresh smoothies at breakfast. I think they need a better selection for room service and that it should be apart of your package. I didn't like the fact I had to pay almost 40 dollars for wifi the six days i stayed there , they should include that in the package. We rented a jeep and the guy was so helpful and made the process smooth, you should explore this beautiful island if you can. The beach was like 2 mins from our room, they had a nice pool area where you could swim up to the bar.I think it's a great location and clean because the staff takes care of it so well, they are so friendly and helpful 👌🏾

The beach was clean the water was beautiful the place was clean the help was very nice and accommodating and the food was okay

The staff was amazing during our stay here. They upgraded us to a huge room which was so nice since we stayed 6 days with them. The pool is large, clean and has a swim up bar. The beach is a 2 minute walk outside the back of the hotel and we never had trouble finding seats either. In the morning lizards will come up to you as you are sitting outside (if you choose) and eat food that you give them or just let you take pictures. The only thing I wanted to bring to the management's attention was when I forgot my key on the beach with my friend I went to the front desk and forgot that my name was not on the room, but they still issued me a key. I use to be a supervisor for front desks in hotels so I took my friend to the desk with me later on in the day to get my name added, and they still did not add my name and said anytime I need a key just come ask for one. That was very alarming to me. They should always be checking ID's and should never issue a key to someone that is not on the room. If the person does not have their ID with them (because they were at the pool etc) then they should have a front desk staff or bellman walk with the guest to the room to verify the name. Other than that, the whole staff was simply AMAZING! Thank you for a great stay! Also - look into skydiving here......we did it and it is something you will never forget and takes only 2 hours out of your day!

I wish they had free Wi-Fi! Besides the Wi-Fi, it was wonderful. Food was delicious.

The staff are friendly and helpful. The food at the restaurants​ is very good, especially the Ital and Aruban. The pool and B
beach are great. It is my 4th visit.

This place is clean. Staff very friendly and helpful. The location is beautiful😎

My husband and I enjoyed our stay at Barcelo. We did notice that the hotel has changed since changing names from Occidental Grande, the bar on the beach was gone and the food choices were not as abundant. We were given two cards for free gifts from the hotel. The woman at the Switzerland jewelry store in the hotel was extremely rude and told us that that they usually don't give away free gifts after 6 pm. We received our free gift. Additionally, the Silverado store in the hotel told us that the free gift was only supposed to be for the month of February and blamed the hotel for giving us a card. We received nothing from that store. I was pleased to see that a lot of the staff were the same people as we saw about 11 months ago. They're always pleasant to us.

My wife and I had to get out of Dodge for a mental break and a friend recommend Barcelo Aruba. We are very happy that we took his advice and booked the trip. Words cannot describe how amazing the rooms beach, grounds and staff are. 15 minutes from the airport and we are in Paradise. If anyone is contemplating the Barcelo, make sure you book a room on the Royal Club level, 9th floor. The perks that come with this package are awesome. Unlimited reservations at the restaurants, top shelf alcohol, private club restaurant, private club beach bar and an amazing concierge service.

We just got got back from our stay at Barcelo Aruba. Overall, we thought the resort was an average experience. Hard to complain when you are in beautiful Aruba! The main take away from our stay at Barcelo was the food was just average. When we were able to get a reservation at one of the restaurants on site, we were very pleased with our meals. However, you have to make the reservations a day or so in advance, otherwise there will be no room, and you'll be left with the sub-par buffet or dining off the resort. The late night food that is advertised in the bar area is peanuts, over done hotdogs, or a pre-made ham sandwhich. That was pretty dissapointing. The only other gripe of our stay was the air conditioning in our room was not working right and left the room stagnant and stuffy. The staff was great, and the beach and pool were both amazing.

We stayed here from Dec 16 to Dec 23 2016. It has been a great experience. Don't listen to the whiners and complainers. Those types of people are never happy. We recommend the Gold or Royal upgrade. The food in the Royal lounge is amazing. The staff is friendly and helpful. Shout out to Hazel and Marco who are the concierges for the Royal Level. They made this vacation enjoyable with great advise for excursions and great organizational skills. Shout-out to Clara who was the best bartender at the Royal level beach bar. Hotel has security 24/7 and we had no problems. We will be coming here next year because it was a wonderful experience.

The name is now Barceló. It's ok. Not great. If your a detailed person who looks for quality and details with your room and service then this isn't the place for you. Some of the negatives are people reserving pool seat 8 and 10 at a time with just a few towels and get out at 5:30 am as people would do this very early. We would come out at 9 and there was no chairs available. Also, food is ok
If you have been to other good quality all inclusive places then this will be a disappointment. No pool side service. Bar was slow to make drinks and in many cases it was a struggle to get to the bar with many people not allowing us to get to the bar as they would get a drink and not move for people in back of them.

The Occidental Grand Aruba is now Barcelo. This is a very nice and friendly place. Attention to detail is lacking and there is a ton of room for improvements. No drink and food service by the pool. I think the biggest thing was the place is getting a bit tired. Broken toilet seat, batteries died in the door locks, hit or miss if the refilled your mini bar and art on the wall not level. The staff was mostly nice and want to serve. The beach was nice and the pool was nice as well. The people that come here were very nice and didn't see anyone partying and abusing the resorts privileges. The pool bar is a bit of a hassle to get to. People seem to like to hang out and drink and block people from getting drinks better to get out of the pool to get a drink.

The resort is amazing, food and drinks are good However I would suggest keeping absolutely everything of value on your person because I had everything and an hour later $200 was missing from my beach bag, plus a few other minor things and the poor kid next to us had his GoPro stolen The day prior, security came and took our name I even waited for the police but over an hour later no tapes have been seen even though we were siting right where a facing camera was and at the end of the day it was just a report. Convenient that we were leaving soon after the same night but whatever it is what it is karma catches up.

Very nice and quiet hotel. In the middle of everything, restaurants,stores jewelleries. We had a great time.

Nice place. I especially liked the iguanas that freely walk around.

The place is nice but had a couple of problems... The wifi is really bad.. it will disconnect many times .. Please not you cannot bring guest onto the resort. It is a place that shuts down like 1 am so there will be nothing to do late night..

Really nice rooms, great view, nice amenities. Bartenders weren't the most joyous people, which was easily ignorable. The basic buffet food was average. The japanese restaurant was really good. The views were amazing. Pretty great for the price.

We had the hibachi experience at the kyoto restaurant The cook Boy was awesome cook and provide us was a funny and enjoyable dinner.

Beautiful Beaches are a plus, Top shelf Alcohol is not available at all bars. Customer Service could be better and the food is just ok.

Great resort and staff. Currently making some improvements so it should only get better. The Asian restaurant is the best on the resort.

Have a Grand time in Aruba!
It rained every day, but the sun did shine. I won't repeat what the other reviewer said, but I do agree with most of the statements. I found the staff to be not as friendly as other staff at other resorts we've been to. The exception was the waiters at the restaurants-they were fantastic. By the way you should reserve one of the 4 restaurants the day you arrive or you may not have dinner one night as one couple found out. This all inclusive didn't compare to previous all inclusive's I've been too. At other all inclusive s there was always something to eat and you didn't have to always eat at the restaurants. We had Mexican food one night at the Mexican restaurant and had a Filipino waiter-who by the way was excellent and trilingual. The next restaurant we ate at was the Italian and again we had a fantastic Filipino waiter. The next restaurant, Caribe, we had another excellent Filipino waiter. We went to the buffet and our waiter was Filipino!. The last restaurant we visited was for Japanese hibachi style and our wait was… Filipino and the Chef Boy was also a Filipino!
They had a variety of shows many nights and had a theme for each night. Many shows were audience participation. The sad part was most people didn’t want to participate. They had dancing every night, but the crowd was sparse. And for the exception of one night no one was dancing. Bars available everywhere with a swim up bar by the pool and hot tubs. The beach was nice and they had games of beach volleyball every day.
The Casino was adequate for a hotel casino and the drink servers were sexy wearing short black minis and high heels.
7 days was more than enough, I think 4~5 days would have been better. The Island is 16*9 miles and we covered it in one afternoon. You have to visit once, but check out what important to you before you go to decide where you will stay.

Stayed here for a week getaway for no special reason. Good location with other shops and restaurants near by. Staff was always nice. Pool bar was awesome. Room had some small maintenance issues but nothing that hindered our stay. Very safe to leave the hotel and wonder around.

Service was great and pool is awesome! All inclusive alcohol only included house liquor. Italian resturant was the best, the buffets could have been better. NO air conditioning in hallways and out side dining for moat resturants, but inside was also available (just ask!). Casino was shut down most of the time. When the casino was open, many machines were broken.

The best time ever! I want to come see Aruba again! Great selection of restaurants and food and drinks. We were there in October, about three years ago, after the "peak" season, which was the perfect time, in my opinion, there weren't many kids or huge crowds which made for a more relaxed vaca! There was so much to do that we didn't leave the resort at all! We need to return to the happy island so we can see more of it! I recommend everyone stay at The Occidental Resort and we will stay there each time we visit "The Happy Island!"