Gibbs free energy calculations on simple aromatic systems (benzene, naphthalene, and anthracene) in aqueous solutions using computational molecular simulation techniques are presented. In order to investigate the influence of the water model on the calculated free energy values, simulations with the water models TIP4P and SPC were carried out. The influence of the sampling technique was studied by comparing results obtained from Monte Carlo calculations to those obtained from molecular dynamics calculations. Furthermore, the influence of the long-range interaction cutoff criterion on the free energy results is discussed. It is found that results from molecular dynamics using the SPC water model and applying thermodynamic integration along a soft-core pathway give results comparable to experimental values and to values obtained with statistical perturbation theory using Monte Carlo and the computationally more demanding TIP4P water model. Therefore, one can conclude that free energy calculations on large compounds which are currently possible almost exclusively with molecular dynamics and computationally inexpensive water models in combination with simple long-range interaction cutoff criteria are able to provide reliable results.