Aruba has a growing number of fans, from honeymooners and sun worshippers to snorkelers, sailors, and weekend gamblers. When you lie back along the 7-mile stretch of white-sand beach, you'll enjoy an average 82°F daytime temperature, trade winds, and very low humidity. Moreover, you won't be harassed by peddlers on the beach, you'll find it relatively safe, and you won't feel racial tensions.

Don't come for local culture and history--just for the good times, the gambling, and that fantastic sandy beach. The main resort area is a row of comfortable but familiar high-rise hotels along a gorgeous beach, like a beach strip out of Florida. The island's Palm Beach, one of the best in the world, draws droves of tourists, as do its glittering casinos. Aruba is for vacationers who think that sun-drenched flesh is best complemented by a night out gambling, drinking, dining, or merely strolling along a moonlit beach. There are daily nonstop flights from the States; you can leave New York in the morning and still get in some beach time before sunset.

The smallest of the ABC Islands, Aruba is 20 miles long and 6 miles wide, with a land mass of 115 square miles. Its coastline on the leeward side is smooth and serene, with white-sand beaches; but on the eastern coast, the windward Atlantic side, it looks rugged and wild. Dry and sunny almost year-round, Aruba has clean, exhilarating air, like in the desert of Palm Springs, California. Forget lush vegetation here. Aruba lies outside the hurricane belt and gets less rain than virtually any other popular island in the Caribbean.