Last Updated on June 12, 2026 by Adrienne
My husband and I recently visited Aruba and stayed at Bucuti and Tara Beach Resort, an adults only boutique property that is routinely ranked among the most romantic resorts in the Caribbean. In addition to its prime beachfront location, Bucuti and Tara is known for its eco-friendly practices and focus on sustainability, as well as elegant dinners served on the beach, which attract guests staying all over the island. Read on for a detailed review of our weeklong stay, with everything you need to know about Bucuti and Tara before your visit.
Welcome and Check-In
Our first impression of Bucuti & Tara was great. We were welcomed with a chilled glass of champagne and a personalized check-in service. If you’re celebrating a milestone like a birthday or anniversary, you’ll get complimentary champagne, cookies and cheese in your room at check-in, which was a nice touch. Honeymooners also get a complimentary beach bag, and everyone visiting gets a free metal water bottle with the resort logo, which is useful while there (tap water in Aruba is safe and excellent) and makes for a nice souvenir to take home.
Resort Location and Grounds
One of Bucuti and Tara’s strongest selling points is its prime location in the “low rise” section of hotels in front of Eagle Beach, one of Aruba’s most beautiful beaches with powdery soft sand and turquoise water. The resort is also well-located for foodies, about 15 minutes north of Aruba’s capital city of Oranjestad and less than 10 minutes from Palm Beach, which also has a cluster of good restaurants. Although the grounds aren’t as landscaped as many resorts, there are scads of wild green iguanas all over the place, which was a real treat.
Rooms
We had a standard room with garden view. Despite being the cheapest category of room at the resort, our room was spacious and comfortable, and although it was sold as garden view we could actually see a sliver of the ocean from our patio. Because Bucuti and Tara is such a small resort, most rooms have pretty direct access to the beach, which is nice. The rooms have small kitchenettes, with a fridge, microwave and coffee station with a Nespresso coffee maker.
Dining
Bucuti and Tara is not all-inclusive, but does offer all guests a complimentary breakfast buffet, which we found gave us a nice balance between relaxing at the hotel and still being able to check out Aruba’s food scene. The onsite restaurant Elements also serves lunch and dinner, including a multi-course dinner on the beach in a palapa, and the hotel also has a bar that offers snacks throughout the day. Although we ventured off the property for most dinners, we had each meal at the hotel at least once.
Breakfast
Breakfast is served outdoors at Elements and indoors at the Tara Lounge. Although the buffets are similar, there are some subtle differences, so you may want to visit both. In general the breakfast buffet is not as expansive as the buffets I’ve seen at all-inclusive resorts, but it has most American breakfast staples including eggs, bacon, potatoes, pastries, fruit, yogurt and oatmeal. You can order eggs, waffles and crepe-like pancakes made to order, and I especially enjoyed the waffles.
Lunch
Elements serves a Caribbean “buffet” for lunch, but the selection is unfortunately quite limited and you only get one main course. I think this would more accurately be described as a fixed price menu, and although the quality of the food was good, it was a little disappointing since we had gone into it expecting a buffet and a large selection of the foods listed on the website, most of which were absent. We also ate lunch a couple times at Sandbar, the bar at Bucuti, and really enjoyed both the food (especially bitterballen, a Dutch specialty that’s like a meat-filled arancini) and the beach views.
Dinner
We did the six-course romantic beach dinner one night, and it was a definite highlight of our time in Aruba. There are two seatings each night, at 6 pm and 8:30, and I recommend the former for sunset views. The food was excellent – even judged on food alone, I think this may have been our best meal in Aruba – and the beach ambiance was lovely, although Aruba’s strong tradewinds may mean parts of your meal go flying once in a while. The staff were pros and taught us how to tuck our wine glasses under our plates to prevent a spill, while also snapping lots of photos for us.
Beach and Pool
As mentioned above, its prime location on Eagle Beach is one of the best things about Bucuti & Tara. The resort has a reservation system for beach umbrellas that is fairly unique: rather than rushing to get a chair in the morning, you reserve them the night before at 5 p.m., from either the in-room iPad or from the resort’s app that you can download on your phone.
Although this reservation system seems to have mixed reviews on TripAdvisor, I thought it was fine. There are more umbrellas than guests so there’s no competition just to get one (a nice change from many resorts!) and although you need to log on right at 5 to get a front row umbrella, as you can see from the photo below all of the umbrellas have great views. Once you select an umbrella, it will be set up for you with towels, pool noodles, and a red flag you can raise for food and beverage service. We’re not people who spend a lot of time just lounging on the beach, but the beach setup here couldn’t be better.
Sea turtles nest on Eagle Beach and if you visit Aruba in the summer months, you may be lucky enough to see new hatchlings making their way to the sea. If you’re trying to plan in advance, Bucuti maintains a calendar with expected hatching dates.
Although it doesn’t really matter with such a great beach, the pool at Bucuti is underwhelming. It’s about the size of a typical backyard pool and not heated. We did appreciate that it gets some shade in the afternoon, since the beach is pretty much always in direct sunlight.
Amenities
Bucuti and Tara advertises itself as a quiet resort and lives up to that, with very little in the way of scheduled activities other than a weekly movie night on the beach (which is very sparsely attended) and early morning beachfront yoga classes. There’s no watersports equipment to borrow, save for the pool noodles, but that’s probably because the beach is rough and not sheltered enough for things like paddle-boarding. The resort also has a fitness center, spa and small gift shop, in addition to a well-stocked library of physical books that I didn’t see mentioned anywhere on the website.
Is Bucuti and Tara Right for You?
The resort’s website has a “what we are not” section that may be helpful in determining if Bucuti and Tara is right for you. In general, I would recommend Bucuti and Tara to couples who are looking for a quiet ambiance on a lovely beach, enjoy wildlife and are happy to go off resort for most meals and activities. Bucuti and Tara is probably not the right resort for you if you’re traveling with children, in a large group of friends, hoping for a lot of entertainment or a large variety of dining options on site, or care about having a great pool.
Ready to plan a trip to Aruba? I’m a certified travel advisor who has traveled extensively in the Caribbean and would love to help you plan the perfect beach escape to Aruba or another island. I can book hotels, resorts and cruises at no extra charge to you with lots of great perks included at many properties, including room upgrades, early check-in/late check-out, resort credits and complimentary breakfast. Reach out to me today at adrienne.miller@fora.travel for more info or to start planning a trip!
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