The short answer: the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino is the island's original luxury hotel, opened in 1959 as the Aruba Caribbean Hotel and still sitting on 15 acres of gardens and beachfront in the middle of Palm Beach. It is a proper full-service resort with two pools, a beachfront spa, a Las Vegas-style casino, and six dining venues, but it is not all-inclusive, so you pay for meals and drinks as you go. In 2026 it added The Westerly, an adults-leaning boutique tower that gives the property a second, quieter personality. We have not stayed here overnight, so what follows is our local team's read of a hotel we know well from the outside, not a room-by-room stay report.
What the Hilton Aruba actually is
Start with the history, because it is the whole story. The property opened on July 18, 1959 as the Aruba Caribbean Hotel, the first major beachfront resort on the island and the building widely credited with starting Aruba's tourism industry. It was designed by Morris Lapidus, the architect behind Miami Beach's Fontainebleau, and that mid-century glamour is still in the bones of the place. It joined the Hilton brand in 2015, and a full renovation in 2016 leaned into the retro heritage rather than papering over it.
What that means for you today: this is the grande dame of Palm Beach. Not the newest and not the flashiest, but the one with the deepest roots and the most established grounds on the strip. Those 15 acres of gardens matter more than they sound. Decades of growth have turned the property into genuinely mature tropical landscaping, complete with two large pools, a hot tub, a freshwater lagoon, and even caged macaws, rather than the thin, still-filling-in plantings you get around a brand-new tower. Our local team's honest framing: you come here for the sense of place and the grounds, not for the shiniest hardware on the beach.
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The pools, spa, casino, and food
The resort is a full-service operation, and the amenities are the reason to book it. There are two large zero-entry pools set into the gardens, a hot tub, and a stretch of Palm Beach that is as wide and calm as any on the island. The beachfront eforea spa is a real draw, with a sauna, a plunge pool, and treatment space set among the gardens rather than tucked into a basement. There is a Las Vegas-style casino on site if you want a night that does not involve leaving the property, plus a fitness center.
Dining runs across six venues, from the long-running Sunset Grille steakhouse, which has been an island sunset-dinner favorite for decades, to the poolside Shore Club and the Laguna breakfast room, along with beach and lobby options. One thing to be clear about up front: the Hilton Aruba is not all-inclusive. Meals, drinks, and most extras are paid as you go, the same as any standard resort. Hilton Honors members do get a continental breakfast benefit, and this is one of the few true Hilton-brand properties in Aruba, so if you are chasing points or status, that is a genuine reason to look here over an unbranded resort next door.
The Westerly: what the new tower changes
The biggest change to this property in a generation arrived in 2026 with The Westerly, and we cover it in full in our guide to the new hotels in Aruba for 2026. The short version, kept consistent with that guide: The Westerly is a 161-room oceanfront tower built directly into the existing Hilton campus, functioning as a resort-within-a-resort. It has its own check-in, its own pool, its own rooftop terrace, and its own concierge, while giving guests full access to the main Hilton's beach, casino, and dining.
What it adds is a second, adults-leaning personality the Hilton never had before. The Westerly rooms are oversized with deep balconies facing the Caribbean, the ground floor includes adults-only swim-up units opening onto a private pool, and the crown feature is Terrace on 10, an adults-only rooftop bar and dining space on the tenth floor with panoramic Palm Beach views. If you want the polish and amenities of a big resort without sharing every elevator with a kids' camp, the Westerly is the answer, and it is still a five-minute walk to the family-friendly main pool when you want it.
The practical takeaway: the Hilton Aruba is now effectively two hotels sharing one address. The historic main towers are the classic family-and-couples resort. The Westerly is the grown-up boutique layer on top. Which one you book changes the whole trip, so decide before you reserve rather than assuming a Hilton room is a Hilton room.
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The location: mid-strip by De Palm Pier
The Hilton sits in the middle of Palm Beach, the island's high-rise hotel strip, right by De Palm Pier. This is one of the calmer ends of the strip, a short walk from the main restaurant-and-shopping cluster but not directly on top of the busiest boardwalk noise. For a lot of travelers that middle-ground position is the sweet spot: close enough to walk to dinner and the shops, far enough that your room is not sitting over a bar.
Palm Beach itself is the wide, calm, powder-sand beach most people picture when they imagine Aruba, with reliable water sports, catamaran departures, and sunset views straight off the sand. It is the livelier of the island's two famous beaches. If you want the quieter, more wide-open feel, that is Eagle Beach down the coast, which is worth knowing before you lock in Palm Beach as your base.
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Who it is for (and who should pick something else)
The Hilton Aruba main resort is a strong pick if you want an established full-service resort with real gardens, two pools, a casino, and a spa, and you value Hilton Honors points or a mid-strip Palm Beach address. Families do well here: the grounds are big enough to roam and the main pools are genuinely family-friendly. Couples who want the boutique, adults-leaning experience should book The Westerly tower specifically rather than a standard main-tower room.
Who should look elsewhere. If your priority is the absolute top of the luxury market and formal, ritualized service, our Ritz-Carlton Aruba review covers the property that owns that tier, and our Aruba luxury hotels guide lines up the full high-end field. If you specifically want a high-energy, all-inclusive family resort with a bigger built-in activities program, our Riu Palace Aruba review is a different trip entirely and worth reading. And if you are still deciding across the whole island, start with our best hotels in Aruba pillar, which ranks the Hilton against everything else on the strip.
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The honest caveats
A hotel this old carries some age, and the guest feedback reflects it. Guests commonly note that room quality varies by building and floor: the renovated rooms are lovely, but some sections read older, and a room sold as "ocean view" can turn out to be more garden view than sea. If a specific view matters to you, confirm the exact building and room category rather than trusting the category name alone. Guests also commonly point out that the property is large and garden-heavy, so from some rooms it is a real walk through the grounds to reach the sand, which reads as charming to some people and as a hassle to others.
None of this is a dealbreaker, and it is exactly what you would expect from the oldest resort on the beach. But it is why we tell people to book with eyes open: this is a characterful, historic, well-located resort, not a brand-new build, and those two things come as a package.
Bottom line
The Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino is the island's original luxury hotel and still one of its most reliable full-service resorts: mature 15-acre gardens, two pools, a beachfront spa, a casino, and a mid-Palm-Beach location by De Palm Pier, now with an adults-leaning Westerly tower layered on top. It is not all-inclusive and it is not the newest hardware on the strip, but the sense of place and the location are hard to beat. Compare live rates for both the main resort and The Westerly on our stays hub, and if you want us to weigh it against the rest of the island for your exact dates and travel style, tell us on the trip planner.
