The 2012 Global Traveler Silent Auction closes today, and one lucky bidder will win a stay at the Westin Resort & Casino, Aruba. Don’t forget to place your bid! Fresh back from a wonderful week-long vacation in Aruba, I would like to offer my tour-guide services to that lucky winner and stow away in one of their suitcases. But, in case they choose not to bring me along, I’ll give my personal Top 10 list of things to do while on vacation in Aruba:

1. Check in and head straight to the beach or pool to relax and decompress after a day of travel.
2. Find a restaurant right on the beach where you can take your shoes off and eat with your toes in the sand.
3. Order the grouper! We tasted many seafood dishes, and both my husband and I enjoyed the grouper most. My favorite was Parmesan-crusted Grouper at the Barefoot Restaurant in Oranjestad.
4. Go on a guided tour that takes you to Baby Beach (or rent a car and drive yourself for more freedom). There you’ll find the best snorkeling on the island.
5. Animal lovers will enjoy visits to the Donkey Sanctuary, Ostrich Farm or Butterfly Farm.
6. People who like to try their luck can choose from many casinos. (I am not one of those lucky people, so I try to steer clear. I did step in and put a single dollar into a machine, where it instantly told me I’d lost, so I chose to spend my money elsewhere — see number 7.)
7. Go to downtown Oranjestad for a day of shopping.
8. While you’re downtown, find a local food stand and order something you can’t pronounce. (I ended up trying a wonderful meat-and-potato-stuffed dough ball — don’t ask me what it’s called — I simply pointed to it in the window and asked what was in it.)
9. Look for local critters. If you keep your eyes open, you’ll see many different species of birds, iguanas, blue lizards and even small frogs, like the one that my daughter found (see photo below).
10. Take a long stroll on the walkway along the beach that links the hotels and scope out the hotel you’d like to stay at on your next trip to Aruba.

— Tracey Cullen, art director