The Mill Resort and Suites Aruba

Initially, the bathroom was smaller than a closet. Our "view" was the roof from a sliding glass window. I prefer to have a cup of coffee and read my book & plan my day in the morning by sitting outdoors. This was not possible. We asked for and got a room change. The new room had tiny ants in the kitchen and the microwave kept blowing the circuit in the whole kitchen so they removed the microwave. When we went to have breakfast, we were told that we were required to have on our bracelets. Really? Plastic annoying bracelets for the entire 7 day trip? It's not an all-inclusive resort, and non-guests were permitted to have breakfast, and we weren't requesting to charge anything to our room. Our money spends everywhere on the island, so we went elsewhere for breakfast. When checking out, I informed them of their ridiculous bracelet policy, especially for breakfast. I was informed that their policy is that guests are to wear bracelets at all times. These bracelets are not removable until you cut them off. Who wants their vacation pictures to contain those stupid bracelets. The maintenance staff and housekeeping were very nice. The staff at the front desk were friendly and cooperative and willing to resolve issues. When checking out, allow for extra time. It seems there is a lot of confusion at the desk at check out time. This was my 3rd stay at this hotel in 3 years. It has gone downhill each year, and I will not be staying there for my next trip to Aruba. I guess I just expected more as a repeat customer.

Beautiful pool area. Guests are young, down to age 3, If you want to converse in English with the other guests; forget it. Many tweens, with and without parents. If you a Gay single male forget that as well.Nice staff, but everything costs you. U.S. phone service is so expensive you really need to call collect. They encourqge it. Your cell phone should work great if you are willing to spend hundreds of dollars to make a few phone calls daily including checking voicemail.Cab to airport will cost $30.00 each way. A beer at $ 5.00 apiece. The Europeans are very well behaved and cluster to each other, probably because of language and culture. Your not going to start a conversation with the Swede, Dutch, Spanish or Columbian family next to you. They keep to their own. Additionally, Idon't think they speak English.The rooms are nice and have really nice Euro bathrooms which are large.Activities are geard to kids and the really dull.. The rooms have full kitchens but the hotel makes sure you do not have a food market anywhere near the hotel zone. You have to drive downtown to get to a market. Which means you have to get a car. You can take a bus, but try that with groceries. A quarter mile to get to good restaurants and shopping is O.K. And you get to sightsee, mostly of more expensive hotels. And getting out of Aruba is pure Hell..It will take 3 hours or more and you and your luggage is checked a half dozen times over. That is of course when TSA shows up, which is not a sure bet at least when the airport says there supposed to be there. So you wait.

fair...the staff and visitors were friendly.

stayed at Westin across the street for 5 nights prior, but this place is a zoo. Music by the pool blaring until 10:00 pm so coud not sleep or hear the TV. Police came at 9:30 to break up a fight near the pool. Beds have no box spring just thin mattress. Lizard in room on wall, a real one. Staff was nice. [...]

It was a good hotel. Definitely good service for the price. We didn't expect a 5-star gig so it was fine. In general customer service in Aruba was not that great and this hotel was no exception. However, the Colombian bartender, Enrique, was amazing. He helped us find the cool places to go to, and would keep us entertained during a short breaks at the bar. He introduced us to a small group of guests staying from Venezuela so we were able to make nice friends that we are still in touch with. The Internet fee at the hotel is a bit of a rip off but I guess one's not there to be on the computer. Also, the beach is not as close as one would think but they have a shuttle and it is within walking distance. Also, they're late night snacks--sandwiches--are horrible. Make sure to buy things at the supermarket if you have a car, or get it from the hotel store before it closes. Otherwise, you'll come back to your hotel at 4am after partying and you have nothing to munch on. :)

* relaxed & sightsee * more activities

The hotel is NOT on the beach. It is across the street from the beach. Our room was MOLDY, our sheets smelled horrible, in fact we had to use towels as sheets b.c of fear of mold. we complained to the front desk and were not moved. The pool is great as is the staff. The DJ is awesome! the hotel parties are wonderful. The drinks are good, but don't count on heavy alcohol content. I loved the hotel but our room was horrible. The view from our room was brown grass, it looked awful. I guess you get what you pay for.

We rent a car to see all the island has to give. The trips managed by the hotel were expensives. The activities were not as discibed on their website because not enough people was there. The happy hour is the only activity.

Although the front entrance is nothing to speak of, you are very pleasantly surprised when you enter and see the beautiful, large pool area. There are two large irregularly shaped pools surrounded by the 2 story units, palm trees, and thatched umbrellas that fit 3 lounges underneath. The bar is poolside as is the restaurant. There are 3 sizes of rooms. The "smallest" has a whirlpool tub between the room and bath area. The middle sized room is larger and has an additional sofabed instead of the tub. All 3 sizes are adjoining to allow combinations of different size units. The largest has a kitchenette. All have a small refrigerator. The only problems we had with the rooms were minor. We had a leak in the bedroom of one room, there was a problem with the satellite tv (not the hotel's fault), and the knobs in the bathroom sink were very hard to turn. This was balanced by the whirlpool tub and the large double sink.While the mattresses are not great,we slept very comfortably. The location of the hotel is very convenient. It is midway between the large hotel area and the small hotel area. The Westin hotel is across the street and the "Mill beach" adjoins it. It is a short walk to the beach(around the Westin), or the hotel has a beach shuttle which will drive you there whenever you like. It is about a 3 block walk to the main restaurant and boutique area. There is also a bus stop right outside the back entrance of the hotel. The ride into the downtown area is about 10-15 minutes and is very reasonable. The bus is $1.30 one way or $2.30 round trip.There are buses that go to just about all the tourist sights and beaches. Renting a car is more convenient, but not really necessary. While we were there, we toured the island, which we found very interesting. You get a much better perspective of what the island is like than by just staying in the hotel area or seeing only beaches. We took the Atlantis submarine and loved it. It is on the expensive side, but well worth the cost. We went down 137 feet and saw ocean life that we would never get to see otherwise. Put that on the top of your "must do" list. There are many other interesting tours if you like to keep active. We spent 1 1/2 days in town which has great shopping. There are a few malls (one, the Renaissance)is very high end with many designer shops. It also has the best casino we went into with MANY slot machines and table games. Most of the slots were penny machines, but you have to put in about $1.80-$2.50 a shot to win the big prizes.We found the atmosphere to be much more fun than the hotel casinos. We spent the rest of the time either around the pool or at the beach. ONE CAVEAT....try to determine if the hotel has a promotion for the locals on the weekend. We came on a Monday and from Monday through Wednesday the pool was totally tranquil. On Thursday, when the promotion started, the hotel was loaded with children who took over the pool area for the next 3 days. There was so much yelling, running around and carrying on that it made it impossible for the adults to have any peace. Adults are supposed to supervise their children, bur few did. This was the one big negative of the week. If you are not planning to spend much time around the pool, this will be a non-issue, but if you want to relax, it will be very difficult. I do want to emphasize that this may not happen if there is no cut price promotion going on. Restaurants in the area and in town are quite expensive. We checked out many menus. The appetizers ran between $10-15 each and entrees were typically in the $20s and up. Desserts ran about $6.50-7.50. The restaurant at The Mill was the best and most reasonable of all we tried. The only problem is that many of the items on the menu have been cut out due to the fact that it was a slow time. The only thing we would have like is more to do in the evening. We did not go into the larger hotels, but in the hotel area and in town "entertainment" consisted mostly of...

This was my second trip to the island, my first trip in 2005 and my 2nd trip in July '09. Previously I had stayed at the Hyatt and choose The Mill this trip due to budget reasons. I found the hotel to be clean although not as fancy as others which is what I expected. [...] at the front desk, was very helpful and friendly. I didn't charge anything to the room due to opinions I had read prior to my vacation so I didn't have any problems with incorrect charges. Upon my earlier than check in arrival, our room was ready, unfortunately that room had only one king bed and we needed two double beds. That was corrected immediately and the new room was also ready. Our room was located on the side of the property facing the Westin on the first floor with patio access to the grassy area by the pool. The furnishings and tile in the bathroom were a little outdated but it was clean and the cleaning staff came each day in a timely manner to perform their cleaning duties which left the room with a nice citrus scent each day. The air conditioning worked great, as a matter of fact I had to use 3 blankets to accomodate my friend's need to stay cool! I didn't experience any problems with bugs as noted by other travelers opinions. My complaints are: the shower pressure was not the best,the towels not the fluffiest(no washcloths available, only hand towels), refrigerator wasn't that cold even on lowest setting,the closet set up with 3 sliding doors made access difficult for both sides at the same time. The pool area was very quiet with no activites as noted on their website. It was always clean of any debris and water just the right temp to cool you off. The beach area was okay, a little crowded with chairs and people but no problem getting a chair in a sunny or shady spot and the shuttle service was timely. No big deal to us to be across the street from the beach. The buffet breakfast offered was overpriced, but we found that 2 bagels w/ cream cheese and 1 coffee @ $6.50 to be sufficient, plus we went grocery shopping at Super Food on Sunday open from 10-1 for our breakfast and lunch food. The hotel location couldn't be better to access downtown and low/high rise areas plus there is a bus stop close. The bus was $2.30 for a round trip, $1.3 for one way and not normal to wait more than 10-15 mins for pickup. A taxi to downtown I think was around $12. I would definitely stay at The Mill again. The concierge was helpful with info reagrding the island and bus routes, the mini mart in the hotel was not overpriced and had most of the things you may have forgot to pack, and the rental car desk clerk got an economy car for us without any reservation for a reasonable price which we were able to drop off at the airport for a small charge the day of our departure. If you are expecting a 5 star resort this is not it, but if you are looking for adequate accomodations with easy access to the island this is your spot.