Aruba

Aruba's Queen Beatrix International Airport is 15 minutes from Eagle Beach — perhaps the shortest airport-to-perfect-beach transfer in the Caribbean. Check into your resort and immediately execute the Aruba ritual: establish your beach chairs at Eagle Beach before sunset. Eagle Beach is large, uncrowded (by Caribbean resort standards), and the water is protected by offshore reef — it's calm, warm, and exactly the shade of turquoise that appears on vacation-rental website headers as an idealized vision of what the Caribbean looks like. Aruba delivers that vision without irony. Tonight, a sunset walk along the beach followed by dinner at Papamento, a legendary Aruban restaurant in a 19th-century mansion.

A full day between the beach and Aruba's charming capital. Eagle Beach morning first — the trade winds keep it pleasantly cool even at midday, and the water is consistently clear with good snorkeling at the reef just offshore. After lunch, drive or taxi to Oranjestad for the afternoon — the Dutch colonial downtown is the most colorful in the Caribbean, with pastel yellow and blue facades lining the main shopping street and harbor. The Renaissance Marketplace and the renovated Lloyd G. Smith Boulevard have the best concentration of restaurants and bars in Aruba; the sunset from the harbor waterfront as fishing boats return and pelicans circle overhead is one of the island's most authentic images.

The Antilla is the Caribbean's largest shipwreck — a 400-foot German cargo freighter scuttled in 1940 at the start of WWII in 20 meters of crystal-clear water off Aruba's northwestern tip, now entirely colonized by coral, fish, sea turtles, and massive moray eels. Snorkeling the upper sections of the wreck (which breaks the surface in places) is one of the Caribbean's most dramatic underwater experiences — the ship's hull sections extend in every direction like an underwater cityscape. Your catamaran also stops at the Malmok reef and Boca Catalina bay for additional snorkeling before sailing back along the coast in the golden hour with an open bar and sunset colors behind the California Lighthouse.

Arikok National Park covers 20% of Aruba's total land area — the island's rugged, cactus-studded interior and dramatic Atlantic north coast, utterly unlike the calm Caribbean resort west. A 4WD jeep safari through the park visits the Fontein Cave (pre-Columbian Caquetío rock paintings on the ceiling), the Natural Pool (a lava rock swimming hole on the Atlantic coast, filled by wave surge and accessible only by 4WD or on foot), and the ruins of a 19th-century gold mine at Bushiribana. The wild north coast scenery — dramatic black volcanic rocks, crashing Atlantic surf, and fields of giant cacti — provides a complete visual counterpoint to the turquoise calm of Eagle Beach.

The Renaissance Aruba Resort operates a private island just offshore from Oranjestad Harbor — accessible only by free boat service to resort guests — that has one of the Caribbean's most extraordinary wildlife spectaculars: a flock of pink flamingos that live on the beach and wade through the shallows among sunbathing guests with complete nonchalance. Non-Renaissance guests can purchase day passes; your Wedding Unicorn concierge can arrange access. Spend the morning with the flamingos on the beach then snorkel the island's calm lagoon in the afternoon. Return to your resort for a spa afternoon and the sunset cocktail cruise that departs nightly from the Palm Beach pier.

Keep today entirely resort and beach focused — Aruba is one of the few Caribbean destinations where doing absolutely nothing for a full day is a legitimate and exceptional choice. The trade winds make beach reading comfortable at any hour, the water stays perfect, and the service at Eagle Beach resorts is consistently ranked among the Caribbean's finest. In the evening, drive to Savaneta on the island's south coast for dinner at Zeerovers — the most famous local fish shack in Aruba, where Aruban fishermen sell their catch at a hatch window and it's fried immediately to order on plastic trays with hot sauce and cold Balashi beer. It costs $8 and is the best meal on the island.

One final Eagle Beach sunrise swim, a proper resort breakfast, and then the 15-minute transfer to Queen Beatrix for the 4.5-hour flight north. Aruba is the easiest Caribbean honeymoon conclusion: the proximity, the reliable weather, the consistently friendly Aruban people, and the specific quality of that trade-wind-cooled turquoise beach make it the most beginner-friendly luxury Caribbean honeymoon on earth. Take home Dutch cheese from the Oranjestad market, a bottle of local Balashi craft beer, and the particular calm of a place where the weather never disappoints.