What to expect: Popular with families and couples, Aruba Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino features a sizable atrium lobby with marble and warm-wood trim, chandeliers, potted plants, and cushioned seating as well as an expansive courtyard containing cactus gardens, bamboo stands, palm trees, oversized pottery, and teak benches.

Amenity highlights: Furnished with thatched shades, a 100-yard-wide, 60-yard-deep section of Palm Beach fronting the resort slopes down to the turquoise sea. The Aruba Marriott Resort's lagoon-style pool features a rock-grotto waterfall that bends around a pool bar containing a swim-up counter. On the other side of the rock formation is a nine-person free-form spa tub. The pool's sundeck is furnished with cushioned lounge chairs. On the beach are both a windsurfing center and a watersports center.

Insider tip: Connected by a covered walkway to this resort, a companion resort, Marriott's Aruba Ocean Club, offers hotel guests a Balinese-style health spa featuring couples rooms with two-person spa tubs and a private relaxation garden with cushioned lounges.

What to expect: This contemporary Hyatt Regency resort faces Palm Beach, one of the island’s best beaches for water sports and sunbathing. Thatched shades shelter lounge chairs arrayed on the soft sands. Guests, primarily families and celebrating couples, are welcomed into a long, breezy lobby with limestone and shellstone tile floor, wood-paddle ceiling fans, stainless steel chandeliers, and chaise lounges and rattan armchairs.

Insider tip: Macaws, Amazon parrots, and a black-and-yellow toucan with a giant Technicolor beak are scattered throughout the central gardens. Most are housed in cages, but an uncaged, raucous choir of macaws enlivens the pool scene.

What to expect: Although the Occidental Grand includes a children's club, the principal attractions—swimup bar, casino, disco, fine dining—appeal primarily to celebrating couples and other adults seeking beach holidays in the center of the Palm Beach scene.

Insider tip: Enticed by bits of food, neon-green and neon-blue lizards entertain guests in the outdoor pizzeria.