Aruba: Explore the southern Caribbean island with its beautiful beaches and culture

It started with a Beach Boys song. I may have only been five years old when the song Kokomo hit the airwaves in 1988, but the opening line of ‘Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya’ has long stuck with me.

While the latter Caribbean island is well established as a UK tourist hotspot, Aruba has flown below the radar, mostly because it has been trickier to reach until recently.

Now, with direct flights (of around nine hours) operating from both London and Manchester, this tiny sun-soaked island off the coast of Venezuela is increasingly attracting British holidaymakers.

With near-constant sunshine, only 16 inches of annual rainfall and an average temperature of 28˚C, Aruba is the perfect holiday destination year round.

The fact that it lies south of the hurricane belt is good news, too, especially in the wake of the September hurricanes, which missed Aruba but caused widespread devastation across the Caribbean.