I get to thinking about people dissing those who return to Aruba year after year. "Why do you go back to the same old thing?" "Why not try something new"? "Where is your sense of adventure?"
All are valid points for sure. Heard Hawaii is beautiful, but unless I can afford first class plane tickets for my entire family, that 8 hour flight each way is going to keep me away permanently. Parents went to Hawaii last year and did that 8 hour flight in coach (and they are a lot older than I am) and said they would take Aruba over Hawaii any day. I trust their judgment and value their opinion. Dh has also been to Hawaii and he too agrees, so who am I to argue?
But it is difficult to go elsewhere you find a place which pretty much fits the bill for what you are looking for. Sure dh and I love the restaurants and the friendly Arubans. We love nothing better than to sit on the beach all day long. But you know what appeals to me the most about Aruba and makes it difficult to travel elsewhere?
Ever been rained out on a week long Caribbean vacation? I have, first week of January 1971. 
That is how well I remember it. AND I was not even paying [my parents were] those big $$$ to sit in a hotel room and watch kiddy cartoons in Spanish and play cards. Slim to none chance of that ever happening in Aruba, no matter what time of year.
Worse yet, let's consider hurricane season. Aruba is not outside of the hurricane belt as some so-called experts tout, but it is pretty far south from where hurricanes, normally venture. In the report Hurricanes and Tropical Storms in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba compiled by the Meteorological service of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba,
"Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao are on the southern fringes of the hurricane belt. They are not outside the hurricane belt as many consider. History learns that roughly once every 100 years considerable damage is experienced by tropical cyclones passing over or just south of the islands. Although the hurricane experience level for the islands may be regarded as nihil, well known is the minor hurricane which passed just south of Curaçao on September 23, 1877 causing an estimated structural damage of US$2 million, mainly to the coastal section of Willemstad. A nunnery was completely washed away (remnants still visible with low tide), many ships were lost and at least 70 persons drowned."
They go on to report:
"Extremely dangerous hurricane Ivan on September 7, 2004 became a serious threat for the ABC Islands and a Hurricane Warning was issued on that day. Its eye passed during the late evening of September 8 and the early morning of September 9 at a distance of approximately 130 km north of these islands. Although the destructive winds failed to impact the ABC Islands, the swells it generated were large enough to batter several constructions on its coasts. The greatest damage however was caused in Aruba during the early morning of September 10. A developing spiral band of the hurricane caused very heavy rain over this island which resulted in significant flooding in several locations and material damage at a cost of at least two million florins...On the average, once every 4 years a tropical cyclone occurs within a radius of 100 miles, but mostly passing to the north of the islands without causing serious bad weather."
Of recent note, Category 4 Hurricane Dean passed well to the north of the island resulting in minor beach damage, erosion and total rainfall of 0.18 inches.
Only 2 maybe 3 other islands in the Caribbean which I want to see or get back to, one of which is Grenada. Was there for the day on a cruise in December 2006 and this island for many reasons, some purely sympathetic, I just love this place to death. Now if I could just get to Grenada from Atlanta without having to fly half way around the world just to get to the Caribbean or overnight somewhere...
My "dream" has always been to go to Anguilla. A playground of the rich and famous. My luck, we will be able to afford a trip there around the same time we can afford the first class tickets to Hawaii and then dd will announce she is going to Cornell University. Go do you spell..."o-h w-e-l-l ? 
