[TRAVEL] Aruba
I rounded off this winter break with a spontaneous trip to Aruba with my boyfriend, Richard! It’s a destination I’ve always eyed, and been interested in vacationing at because of its beautiful scenery, rich culture, and popularity among travelers. I had been to the Caribbean before for a volunteering trip, but never on a full-fledged vacation— the entire trip felt like a dream!
Aruba is a super interesting island because of its geographic location but also its blend of cultures that make up the island’s population. Placed directly above Venezuela but still considered a part of the Caribbean Islands, much of the food in Aruba was a fusion of Caribbean and Venezuelan cuisine. The island’s roots date back to the Caiquetio Indians, yet have also endured Spanish and Dutch Rule. Today, they are a constituent country of the Netherlands. In addition to this, Aruba’s population is very ethnically mixed, including people of American Indian ancestry, often in combination with Dutch, Spanish, and African heritage. We even came across a few Chinese grocery stores towards the bottom of the island, to my surprise!
The island itself is easy to navigate, with three main beach areas for public and private use, a ton of historic landmarks along the coast of the island, and a huge national park that spans over 50% of the island that contains numerous hikes, caves, and view points. That being said, I appreciated the blend of indoor and outdoor activities available in Aruba. If you wanted to spend an entire weekend trip at your resort, there a ton of shopping malls, spas, restaurants and casinos to make that a reality, but across the island also contains a ton of beaches and outdoor activities for those who like to explore. We rented an ATV since the Car rental age in Aruba is 23 years, and it took us about 2 hours to drive from one end of the island to the other — about the same as Maui, Hawaii!
The three main beaches on Aruba were Eagle Beach, Palm Beach, and Baby Beach. Palm Beach is where most of the hotels/resorts are located, at the Northwest coast of the island. The beach appears to be sectioned off for access based on which hotel you are a guest at, but offer a ton of jet skiing, snorkeling, and boat ride excursions at the bottom of the beach (near Rui Hotel) if you are interested in going without staying at one of the hotels. Eagle Beach was my personal favorite— we took Bird Scooters from Palm Beach to Eagle Beach and found that it was less crowded, and had a ton more authentic restaurants that offered seating/tables in the sand. Super romantic, a ton of shopping nearby the beach, and a beautiful walk if you’re up for it! Finally, Baby Beach is a fan-favorite, although I preferred the others over this one. Baby Beach is a local favorite, with beautiful clear waters (so clear we could snorkel with basic equipment!) and a very spacious area to hangout. It was quite full since we went on a weekend of local families and friend groups, and a little too crowded for my liking. Additionally, the restaurant closest to the water (and the only one on that beach) served overpriced, average food — which was also why I wasn’t a huge fan of Baby Beach. Worth the 1 hour drive from Eagle Beach since the view on the way was phenomenal! We drove through a small town, with pastel colored houses and lively individuals playing music and enjoying the weather on their porches :)
Places we Visited:
In addition to the three beaches I mentioned above, we also went to the Flamingo Island by Renaissance. This beach is only available for guests of the Renaissance Hotel, and was the highlight of my trip 100%. We took a speedboat out to a completely renovated island with a two sides, one for families and another for adults. The adult side had a bar with Flamingo Floaties, and both sides had restaurants (get the fried chicken burger if you go, it was super yummy!). Littered around the island were hammocks, beach chairs, free snorkeling gear, kayaks, and more — you could definitely spend the entire day if you wanted to! But… the best part of this was there were flamingoes ALL OVER the island, walking about in groups and were super comfortable getting close to and interacting with humans. There were also flamingo food dispensers at the entrance of the island, so if you wanted to you could also feed the flamingos for some super unique photo opportunities!
Aruba Ostrich Farm - Super huge ostrich farm that is owned and operated by a really nice family. We weren’t able to go on the formal tour since an ostrich went loose, but we saw them from afar and gosh they have a ton of baby and adult ostriches in that enclosure!
Donkey Sanctuary - This is opened and operated by the government, so entrance was free and you could freely feed the donkeys with available hay. There was also a donkey musuems that accepted donations.
Ayo Rock Formations - This was a beautiful structure in the middle of the island, of rocks stacked high on top of each other. The trail leading up to it was beautiful (a little scary since I didn’t know if there were animals to watch out for)
National Bridge Aruba - A limestone bridge naturally formed over time, the natural bridge was super cool to walk on since it was on the coast and looked out into the ocean. Part of the bridge had collapsed in the past so we only got to walk on one part of it, but due to the collapse a small lagoon was created, with a ton of new biodiversity that we got to check out while standing on the other side of the bridge!
Arikok National Park - Sadly, we were only able to explore one cave within this park since we couldn’t enter without a rental car, but I’ve heard that Arikok is one of the must-sees of Aruba, especially for those interested in learning about the previous Indian tribes that used to reside on the island, and the artwork that they left behind. The cave we visited was massive, and Richard got so close to a bat that it freaked out and almost flew into me!!
Butterfly Sanctuary - This was a small butterfly house that we passed by on the way to Eagle Beach. Super beautiful and well preserved, the sanctuary was filled with different types of butterflies and had a ton of breeding/cacoon stations as well.
Accommodations:
We stayed at the Renaissance Wind Creek Resort, which had its own shopping mall, casino, restaurants, and access to the private Flamingo Beach. It was also really close by the airport — about a 15 minute taxi ride. It was quite pricey, ranging from $400-800 a night, but if you book early and not during peak travel days, I have seen prices go down to ~$200 per night.
Restaurants to Visit:
Nautilous - Also a part of our hotel, the Nautilous is an UNLIMITED SEAFOOD BUFFET. We had two chefs that were cooking fresh fish by request, and it was the best 40-50$ I’d ever paid in my life to eat shrimp, lobster, mahi mahi, and red snapper on repeat. Its other selection of food and desserts were also to die for!
O’Niel Caribbean Kitchen - I had jerk chicken for the first time at this establishment, and it was divine. It might have been the quickest I’d ever finished a meal in my life. Super authentic Caribbean food, the restaurant was full by dinnertime with families!
Passions on the Beach - On Eagle Beach, we stopped by Passions on the Beach for lunch and ordered a taco salad I believe. Also 10/10, would recommend making a reservation in advance for their Sunset dinner on the beach!
Trip Tips:
BRING CASH! Taxis only take cash, and a lot of restaurants or excursions (snorkeling, etc.) also only take cash. You don’t need to convert currency, as many of the menus and prices have the USD prices listed.
Try to rent a car instead of taking taxis everywhere. Taxi fares were quite high, ranging from $11-30 around the island, and can add up with tip.
If you’re interested in shopping jewelry, do it in Aruba! They give tax rebates to watch and jewelry items only, and also offer discounts to certain brands (like BVLGARI) to incentivize buying.
