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Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort set the holiday season aglow, continuing its tradition of heartfelt appreciation with the return of its private Holiday Shopping Extravaganza at Do It Center exclusively for its Bucuti Associates. The annual celebration honors the dedicated team whose professionalism, warmth, and genuine care define the guest experience. This year’s gathering was a meaningful moment to recognize the people whose commitment has earned the resort the trust of travelers worldwide and travel’s highest accolades.

On the evening of Dec. 19, Bucuti Associates arrived at Aruba’s treasured retailer Do-It Center to find the store opened exclusively for them, aisles stocked for the season and special savings prepared in their honor. Bucuti & Tara’s approach allows for staff to shape their own celebration of the season. All 178 team members enjoyed a AFL. 300 shopping spree, with BAV members receiving an additional AFL. 100, choosing from groceries, home supplies and essentials that would make their holidays brighter.

A festive atmosphere filled the night with music, dancing and community spirit as local performers delivered lively entertainment, turning the evening into a true celebration of joy and gratitude.

“We are delighted to host this event again for the globally celebrated Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort,” shared Lisanne Coffy of Do-It Center’s marketing team. “Seeing Bucuti Associates enjoy this well-deserved evening where they are lavished with care is truly rewarding. Bucuti & Tara’s commitment to celebrating their team is inspiring, and we are honored to be part of it.”

Joining these accolades are top honors from Condé Nast Traveler, Forbes and Travel + Leisure. All are earned through thousands of guest reviews and reflect the resort’s consistent ability to delight the world’s most discerning travelers. That excellence, leadership says, begins and ends with its exceptional staff.

Ewald Biemans, the owner and founder of the resort, who established it 38 years ago with a visionary commitment to staff-centric hospitality, continues to champion a culture of genuine care. Today, he shares this leadership approach with his legacy, granddaughter Crescenzia Biemans, Managing Director of Bucuti & Tara.

“Our Bucuti Associates are the reason we stand among the best hotels in the world,” Crescenzia said. “Their dedication, professionalism and heart are woven into every guest experience. This shopping night is one way we show our gratitude because our success is truly their success.”

General Manager Rik van der Berg shared, “With 61% of our team having been with us for more than a decade, we are more than colleagues, we are a family. Celebrations like this serve as a reminder of how valued and essential each staff member is to Bucuti & Tara’s story.”

Windows on Aruba, at Divi Village Golf & Beach Resort, hosted chef Jermain de Rozario this past weekend. The Dutch-Indonesian chef delighted over 250 foodies, over the span of two days, treating them to a modern tasting menu blending Dutch-Indonesian flavors with Japanese style food preparations, pacing the culinary experience in the tradition of fine European dining.

I met chef Jermain before, at Windows on Aruba in 2019, when he helped sell out two spectacular dinner affairs prepared by nine top European chefs with 8 Michelin stars among them. Chef de Rozario offered the dessert as served at deRozario, his Michelin starred restaurant in Helmond, Netherlands. It looked like an artist palette, dotted with coconut cream, mango ice cream, pineapple, and papaya. Unusual, but a good-unusual.

This time Che de Rozario came back invited by food & beverage director Dominique Bauduin, and together with premium partner Cava Wine and Spirit, presented an exciting menu built around luxury ingredients, bold spices, and precise pairings.

The multi-course tastings fused several Wagyu-centric Japanese dishes. We enjoyed the premium beef, famous for its exceptional and intense marbling in the nigiri amuse, the shabu shabu hot pot dish, and the exceptional steak tartare.

The Indonesian kitchen starred in the main course in a rich, flavorful Rendang, a signature beef stew. The chef uses lemongrass, chili oil, and coconut to add interesting accents to his cooking.

His mastery of Japanese techniques shines through as he serves nigiri, and sashimi, besides minimally seared beef. He pays homage to his tropical roots with mango, pineapple, coconut, and spices, and relies on a thoughtful wine pairing to enhance the experience.

Cava Wine & Spirit offered from Italy, La Gioiosa Brut; from France, Oe de Chardonnay, Languedoc and Château Fontaine Sauternes, Bordeaux, Semillon; from Spain, Emilio Moro El Zarzal, Godello, Bierzo, and Landua Rioja, Rioja Alavesa, Tempranillo; and the especially delectable Elouan Pinot Noir from Oregon, USA.

The Sauternes and Pino Noir hailed from Divino Aruba, a premium wine & spirit provider

Dinner moved progressively from refined raw and lightly seared seafood (nigiri, oyster, tuna) into rich, umami-complex Wagyu courses, then finished with tropical, spice-forward desserts inspired by the Caribbean and the South Seas. Each dish was deliberately paired with Old and New World wines, delivering a balance between richness, acidity, and aromatics.

The gracious service – thank you Carlos, and the festive ambiance added to the overall enjoyment of the globally-influenced affair.

Chef de Rozario had recently suffered some career setbacks. The restaurant business is a high pressure and intense arena, and running a high-level restaurant comes at a cost. The chef reports he is recovering and aims at reaching remarkable professional heights again, as he will be joining the crew of a well-known restaurant in the Netherlands, following a short Aruba vacation, and recharged promises to make a spectacular comeback. Aruba loved Chef de Rozario, the experience at Windows on Aruba was luxurious, and adventurous, reflecting De Rozario’s multicultural culinary wizardry.

Thank you Aruba Tourism Authority, ATA, for documenting the event for social media, and other marketing outlets.

The menu by Jermain de Rozario

Nigiri x Wagyu

Nigiri | seared wagyu | wasabi | soy glaze

La Gioiosa Brut, Treviso, Prosecco

Oyster x Wagyu

Sushi Inspired x Tuna

Sushi rice| wasabi soy | cucumber lightly seared tuna sashimi

OE Le Chardonnay, Languedoc, Chardonnay

Perkadel x Spicy Mango

Spicy mango | coriander | coconut x pineapple x white chocolate x 5 spice

Emilio Moro El Zarzal, Godello, Bierzo

Shabu Shabu Wagyu x Steak Tartare Wagyu Wagyu & morel broth | sautéed morel | pine nut crumble | dukkah | puffed potato

Elouan Pinot Noir, Oregon, Pinot Noir

Rendang x Coconut Lemongrass

Rendang | soy & sesame bimi | bean sprouts | onion | chili il | lime

Landua Rioja, Rioja Alavesa, Tempranillo

Coconut x Pineapple

5-spice pineapple white chocolate | coconut ice cream | coconut vinaigrette

Château Fontaine Sauternes, Bordeaux, Semillon

Aruba Fashion Week, a celebration of imagination and talent

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/aruba-fashion-week-a-celebration-of-imagination-and-talent/

The Hilton Introduces the Shore Club

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/aruba-fashion-week-a-celebration-of-imagination-and-talent/

T;is the season, wrapping renovations up

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/tis-the-season-wrapping-renovations-up/

It’s time for the government to take over the responsibility for pediatric physiotherapy

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/its-time-for-the-government-to-take-over-the-responsibility-for-pediatric-physiotherapy/

Privada Stays celebrates first anniversary

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/privada-stays-celebrates-first-anniversary/

Last night over music, cocktails and a water-ballet show by the synchronized swimmers a circle of friends of the extended Lejuez family and hotel guests reminisced that on opening day, one year to the day, it was pouring and only the brave ones made it to the party.

I did not.

But 200 undeterred individuals showed up and partied heartily.

Privada Stays offers fully furnished and beautifully equipped lofts, each with its own swimming pool behind a walled patio, the type of place you can lock yourself in with your sweetheart, for a week, and throw away the key until departure.

Privada Stays is an initiative by the Lejuez brothers, under the artistic direction of Elisa Lejuez, whose signature good taste, in bold colors, and stylized forms, inspired by Aruba’s landscapes and landmarks, is on display everywhere.

The concept, says the patriarch, Chris Bonki Lejuez, grew organically, and by that he means, that the family had no plans, no strategy. They did not sit around a board room table and brainstormed. They just relied, as usual, on their intuitive drive and their enterprising spirit, and a year later find themselves running a successful hotel property, accommodations designed by X-Ers for generation Y & Z vacationers, relying on digital guest services, loved by Europeans, South Americans, and anything in between

In retrospect Bonki reflects that when the senior family patriarch passed away – legendary local lawyer, Chris Lejuez Sr, the Lejuez brothers stepped into his shoes without realizing that they were taking over the job of keeping the family together.

Privada Stays now has more than one dozen family members working together, and Bonki reports, seamlessly. They did not set out to create a family business, but it happened miraculously, he says, it fell into place providing satisfying challenges and around-the-clock work for the family’s younger generation, incorporating all talents and skills, including a hotel management school graduate, Bonki & Elisa’s son, and the twins, their cousins, by sister Tamara, sister Tamara – a retired school teacher turned barista each morning, and another cousin, who is Omar’s son.

The vacation village is marketed as Aruba newest and only lifestyle Boutique Hotel where every room has its own plunge pool. It is located in between Pos Abou and Bushiri, up the street from Walishhali Condos, an up-and-coming neighborhood that gentrified from a secondary chicken farms and plant nurseries zone to a more affluent hub of residences and vacation rentals.

At Privada Stays, seven symmetric clusters of lofts are served by a gorgeous oblong swimming pool that was deep enough for the synchronized swimmers to use as a stage. Each cluster contains eight lofts, cocoon-like, where you walk in and leave the world behind.

The lofts, hide behind hot pink doors, which open to reveal the pools, just big enough for two, against backsplashes of colorful tile. An outdoor/indoor kitchenette morphs into an open sky sitting area. Then the glass sliding door reveals a large bedroom, dominated by a Heavenly king size bed, a giant TV screen across, and wall to wall artwork by…. of course, Elisa.

What really sets the property apart is the artwork. Each loft features a different monumental work by Elisa, on entire walls, in warm, bright colors. Inspired by American artist, filmmaker and cultural figure in the Pop Art movement, Andy Warhol’s famed Marilyn Monroe silkscreen print and painting, Elisa tackled local elements in Aruba’s nature and landscape.

Her murals interpret the red anchor, the Willem III tower in Oranjestad, local animals, cactus, Cunucu houses, flamingos, the California lighthouse, seashells, the aloe plant, and retro tile patterns, in vibrant colors and dynamic compositions, lending each loft an individual, Caribbean expression.

No front desk staffers, no room cleaning service. The room stylists – we used to call them housekeepers, prepare lofts for arrivals and clean them at departure. Guests self-check-in, an App unlocks the loft, no keys, the App also answers all questions. No minibar in the room, no laundry services. Nice landscaping.

You are on your own, with your smartphone.

Privada Stays is off the grid. Solar panels power it all, and prove that it is possible, to give up the costly relationship with Elmar.

Room rates are reasonable, and Bonki has his hand full caring for 48 pools plus 10 more at the Privada Stays Boutique.

The Lejuez brother have reinvented themselves a vast number of times on the island, and this time, at least for a few years, they are set.