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A table with 18 seats wrapped around an open kitchen. A swim-up room steps from Palm Beach. An afternoon under a palapa on Eagle Beach followed by dinner from a chef serving an eight-course tasting menu a few miles away.
The Caribbean island of Aruba has developed a particularly easy vacation formula, one where a beach-resort stay can include serious food, a compact island that’s simple to explore and a deep roster of nonstop flights from the United States.
Next spring, Southwest Airlines is adding another way to get there.
The carrier is launching Saturday-only nonstop service between Nashville and Aruba beginning March 13, 2027, part of a broader expansion of Southwest’s international schedule from Nashville, Caribbean Journal has confirmed.
The new flight will connect Nashville International Airport with Queen Beatrix International Airport, giving Middle Tennessee a direct link to one of the Caribbean’s most popular resort islands during the heart of spring-break season.
Southwest is also adding Saturday flights from Nashville to Montego Bay, St. Thomas and Liberia, Costa Rica as part of its March schedule.
Aruba may be the most natural fit of the group.
Why Aruba Has Become Such an Easy Vacation
Aruba has always been unusually straightforward from the United States. English is widely spoken, U.S. dollars are commonly accepted, major American hotel brands have a large presence and the island has a long roster of nonstop flights from U.S. gateways.
Once you arrive, most of the island’s best-known resorts cluster along Palm Beach and Eagle Beach, with restaurants, beach clubs, casinos and shops close by.
The weather plays a role, too. Aruba lies in the southern Caribbean outside the main hurricane belt, and sunshine is one of the constants that has helped turn the island into a repeat-vacation favorite.
You can spend the entire trip on the western side of the island, alternating between Palm Beach, Eagle Beach, restaurants and your resort pool. You can also rent a car and head toward Arikok National Park, the caves and rocky terrain on the eastern side, or spend a few hours walking through Oranjestad.
The distances stay manageable. A week here can include a beach day, an off-road excursion, a chef’s tasting menu, a sunset sail and a long afternoon at your hotel pool while still leaving plenty of open hours.
That simplicity has helped Aruba build one of the deepest resort collections in the Caribbean.
Palm Beach Remains the Center of the Resort Vacation
Palm Beach is where you’ll find many of Aruba’s large resorts, a long sandy beach lined with hotels, watersports operators and beach bars.
The Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino, the Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino, the Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort Spa and Casino and the Ritz-Carlton, Aruba all occupy this part of the island, placing a considerable portion of Aruba’s hotel inventory along one strip of sand.
Palm Beach also puts you close to many of the restaurants and bars around Noord, including some of Aruba’s most ambitious tasting-menu concepts.
Eagle Beach, a short drive south, offers another major hotel district with broad white sand and properties ranging from large resorts to smaller upscale hotels.
The result is a destination where a first visit doesn’t require much advance planning. Pick your hotel, reserve a few dinners and decide how many days you want to spend away from the beach.
Aruba’s Chef’s Tables Have Become Part of the Trip
Aruba’s food scene has grown far beyond the large resort restaurants that once defined many Caribbean hotel vacations.
The island has more than 250 places to eat and influences from the Netherlands, South America, the Caribbean and dozens of other nationalities. Some of the most interesting dinners now happen at small chef-driven tables where the kitchen is part of the experience.
In fact, we’ve called it the Caribbean capital of chef’s tables.
Infini by Urvin Croes is one of the names to know. Chef Urvin Croes serves an eight-course Impression Menu from an open kitchen, with roughly 18 to 21 diners around the chef’s table. The menu draws heavily on local ingredients and modern Caribbean cooking, with optional wine pairings alongside the courses.
Croes has also been closely associated with The Kitchen Table, another intimate Aruba concept known for multi-course menus and close interaction between the kitchen and diners.
These are dinners that require reservations and a few hours of your trip. They’ve also become part of Aruba’s appeal for repeat visitors who already know the beaches and want another reason to come back.
Then there’s one of our favorites, Ever.
The broader restaurant scene stretches from fresh local seafood and Dutch-Caribbean dishes to Peruvian, Italian, Japanese and South American cooking. You can eat casually near the beach one night and reserve a tasting menu for the next.
Prime Stay: The Westerly Brings a New Hotel Option to Palm Beach
One of Aruba’s biggest hotel arrivals of 2026 is The Westerly at Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort, the new oceanfront tower that opened in May on Palm Beach.
The Westerly has 161 rooms and suites and operates as a more private hotel experience inside the larger Hilton resort.
Rooms begin at about 460 square feet, with categories that include pool-view, partial-ocean-view and ocean-view accommodations. Private balconies are standard across many categories, while select ground-floor accommodations offer adults-only swim-up rooms.
The upper floors include larger suites and terraces facing Palm Beach.
There’s a private check-in experience and a dedicated concierge team, along with preferred use of selected areas around the wider resort. Your stay also includes the Hilton’s pool, beach, spa, casino and restaurant options.
The most distinctive addition is Terrace on 10, an adults-only rooftop venue on the tower’s 10th floor. The terrace serves food and cocktails and hosts wellness programming, including Pilates and guided breathwork.
It gives The Westerly a separate identity inside one of Aruba’s longtime Palm Beach resorts.
The location is another advantage. Walk outside and you’re directly on Palm Beach, with the restaurants, shops and nightlife of the high-rise district close by. Eagle Beach is a short drive south, while Noord’s growing collection of chef-led restaurants is nearby.
If you’ve stayed at the Hilton Aruba before, The Westerly gives you a different version of the property. If it’s your first Aruba trip, you get a smaller, more private hotel experience alongside the facilities of a much larger resort.
What the New Southwest Flight Changes From Nashville
The new Nashville route is scheduled to operate once weekly on Saturdays, beginning March 13.
A Saturday flight fits naturally with Aruba’s weeklong resort pattern. You leave Nashville at the beginning of the weekend, arrive in Aruba the same day and have 7 nights before the following Saturday flight home.
Southwest already sells Aruba flights from a wide range of U.S. cities, including Baltimore, Orlando, Chicago, Houston and other major markets. Nashville adds another important origin point as the airline continues expanding its presence there.
Nashville has become an increasingly significant Southwest city, and the March schedule brings several new international options from the airport at once.
The Aruba flight joins the airline’s new Nashville service to Montego Bay, St. Thomas and Liberia, Costa Rica, giving Nashville travelers a much larger menu of warm-weather Saturday trips.
Aruba stands apart because of the depth of its resort inventory and the number of ways you can fill a week once you arrive.
What Should You Do on a Week in Aruba?
Start with Palm Beach and Eagle Beach, because they remain two of the island’s defining vacation areas.
Palm Beach gives you resorts, watersports, beach bars and restaurants close together. Eagle Beach has a wider strip of white sand and a quieter hotel zone.
A drive into Arikok National Park takes you into Aruba’s desert terrain, with cactus-covered hills, caves and rocky stretches along the island’s eastern edge. The landscape is dramatically different from the resort corridor.
Spend another afternoon in Oranjestad, where Dutch Caribbean architecture, shops and cafés line the center of the capital.
Then make dinner part of the itinerary.
Reserve one of the island’s chef’s-table experiences before the trip, particularly if you’re visiting during March. Restaurants with limited seating can fill well ahead of arrival.
Leave another night open for something casual: fresh fish, a beach restaurant or a meal close to your hotel.
Aruba rewards a vacation with fewer scheduled hours. A rental car helps if you want to explore extensively, although you can easily base most of a trip around Palm Beach or Eagle Beach and use taxis for individual outings.
A New Saturday Route for Spring Break
Southwest’s new Nashville flight arrives during one of Aruba’s busiest travel periods.
March brings spring-break trips, family vacations and travelers looking for a warm-weather trip before summer. A Saturday nonstop gives Nashville residents a direct option at precisely the point when many weeklong Caribbean vacations begin.
And Aruba already has the pieces in place once you land: Palm Beach resorts, Eagle Beach, intimate chef’s tables, Arikok National Park, Oranjestad and new hotels like The Westerly.
Beginning March 13, Southwest will connect Nashville directly to all of it. And it will make it easier than ever to get to one of our favorite Caribbean islands.
The post Southwest Airlines Is Launching New Flights to a Caribbean Island Famous for Easy Vacations, Chef’s Tables, and Beach Resorts appeared first on Caribbean Journal.
