Travel

Aruba Travel Guide

December 1, 2018
Renaissance Private Island

Top Favorites

This travel guide includes a lot of recommendations, so I wanted to list my favorite ones here if you are trying to prioritize or are only on the island for a short period of time!

  1. Snorkeling at Boca Catalina
  2. Spending the day hanging out with flamingos at Renaissance Private Island
  3. Eating cold treats from Eduardo’s Beach Shack (Coco Whip and acai bowls are my favorite!)
  4. Jumping in the water at the New Small Natural Pool
  5. Dinner at Zeerovers watching the sunset
  • Boca Catalina Beach
  • Eduardo's Beach Shack
  • New Small Natural Pool

Jump to your section here:

Top Favorites
General Aruba Tips
My Aruba Google Map
Food
Beaches
Activities
Photo Ops

General Aruba Tips

  • Money
    • US Dollars are widely accepted. There were a few times we paid in USD and received change back in Aruban florin.
  • Drink
    • The tap water is safe to drink.
    • Often times if you order a beer it will be an 8oz bottle. Don’t be surprised when a tiny beer shows up!
  • Language
    • Dutch & Papiamento are the native languages in Aruba. But most locals are multi-lingual and speak English too.
  • Dining Out
    • I’d recommend making reservations when possible — especially if you want to request an outdoor/patio table.
    • Most restaurants added a service charge on our tab. So check your receipt for that to see if you’d like to tip in addition, or if the service charge covered it.
  • Driving
    • Driving is on the right side of the road (same as United States).
    • There are speed bumps EVERYWHERE. Be on the lookout for them as you drive because they can show up quickly!
    • A 4-wheel-drive car isn’t necessary, but if you’d like to explore the whole island on your own, especially the national park, you will want one as the roads are pretty rough.
    • If you are driving through downtown Oranjestad plan on an extra 10 minutes for traffic. (At least that is how it was when we were there.)
  • Electricity
    • Electric outlets are the same as United States.
  • Time Zone
    • Aruba is in the Eastern Time Zone.
  • Weather
    • The average temperature in Aruba is 82° year round!
    • Aruba is so far south in the Caribbean (only 15 miles off the coast of Venezuela!) that it isn’t in the hurricane path, so they rarely get strong tropical storms.
    • There are heavy tradewinds in Aruba — so it will most likely be pretty windy at the beach!
  • Groceries
    • Super Food is the best! They had an unbelievable selection of fresh produces, great deli meats, organic food, vegan products, beer, wine and more.

My Aruba Google Map

  • All the places mentioned on my travel guide are saved on my google map here. Follow my map so it is saved in your Google maps lists!
  • If you don’t have your phone data turned on when in Aruba, I would recommend jumping on wifi before you venture out from your hotel (or the airport) and open my map. When your phone is off data (or on airplane mode), Google will still use GPS to track you with their little blue dot! This is a great way to help navigate where you are going even if you don’t have cellular data turned on.
  • Another way I like to use my saved Google maps are to venture out for the day with no itinerary and then just see what spots I’m close to on my map for activities, food, sights, etc throughout the day!

Food

  • Zeerovers Pescaderia
    • 11am – 9pm
    • My favorite casual food spot on the island!
    • You order fish and shrimp by the pound from a walk-up window and they cook-to-order and bring out to your table!
    • Drinks were ordered from a separate walk-up window just past the food window.
    • If you are there for dinner, make sure you make it in time/stay for sunset!
    • Cash only.
  • Eduardo’s Beach Shack
    • 7:30am – 4:15pm
    • My favorite beach snack spot!
    • Smoothies, acai bowls, juice, lunch options … and my personal favorite — Coco whip (dairy free soft-serve “ice cream”) … so good!
    • Walk-up shack on Palm Beach.
  • Garden Fresh Cafe
    • 8am – 9pm
    • An easy place to grab something healthy to-go.
    • Salads, wraps, bowls, smoothies.
    • Casual, counter-order restaurant with limited indoor and outdoors seating.
  • Yemanja Woodfired Grill
    • 5:30pm – 10;30pm (Closed Sunday)
    • Phenomenal food and service!
    • My favorite upscale dinner spot on the island! The food was SO GOOD.
    • I’d recommend making a reservation and requesting a table on the patio.
  • Chihuahua’s Fiesta & Grill
    • 5pm – 11pm
    • Great casual Mexican restaurant!
    • Food was delicious here and they also treated us to free tequila shots after dinner! 🙂
    • A little hard to find as it isn’t on the street side. You need to walk behind Benihana and Saloon Bar to find it!
  • Omakase Sushi Bar
    • 5:30pm – 10:30pm
    • Fun date night spot to sit at the sushi bar! See if Jason is working — request him as your server!
  • The West Deck
    • 10:30am-11pm
    • Casual restaurant right on the water!
  • Pinchos
    • 5pm – 11pm
    • Didn’t eat here, but it was on my list! Let me know if you do!
  • Azia
    • 6pm – 1am
    • Didn’t eat here, but it was on my list! Let me know if you do!

Beaches

  • Mangel Halto
  • Fishermen’s Huts

All beaches listed below can be found on my saved Google Map.

  • Boca Catalina
    • This was my favorite beach! There are a couple parking spots at “Catalina Cove” or “Boca Catalina Beach” … but make sure that you walk to the part of Boca Catalina between these two parking locations in front of this luxury house. This was my favorite spot to hang out. It is so picturesque, the water is beautiful and the snorkeling was INCREDIBLE.
  • Malmok Beach
    • This a nice beach just south of Boca Catalina. Good for swimming and snorkeling.
  • Tres Trapi
    • A small cove off the north side of Malmok Beach. Look for a few stairs carved in the rocks stepping into the ocean. Good for swimming and snorkeling.
  • Hadicurari / Fishermen’s Huts
    • This is a windsurfing hot spot. Super fun to watch all the windsurfers and kite surfers. We liked the far south end of the beach. Calm water, picnic tables and plenty of parking.
  • Palm Beach
    • Very popular beach in front of the main stretch of high rise hotels. But a beautiful beach and still a great place to spend the day with lots of dining options. Good for swimming and snorkeling. Note, the beach seems to be least crowded to north between Holiday Inn and Marriott or south between Wyndham and Divi Phoenix
  • Eagle Beach
    • Touted as one of the best beaches in the world, you have to check it out and see if you agree! The beach is SO WIDE and long! Great for swimming!
  • Manchebo Beach
    • Not as busy as Eagle Beach, and the next beach south — they are connected. So it is a great option if you want less of a crowd, but a similar beach.
    • Best in front of Bucuti Beach and Manchebo Beach Resorts
  • Mangel Halto
    • The water colors here are like none other! It is a great spot for swimming and snorkeling. You will some snorkel excursion here on the north side of the mangrove trees. There is a great photo op here (google coordinates) at a stairwell that steps out over Mangel Halto. Check out the view on my Instagram here)
  • Baby Beach
    • This beach is a bit of a drive on the far south side of the island. But it’s a local and tourist favorite! The water is super calm making it great for swimming and very family friendly. It is also in a protected rock cove with great snorkeling.

Activities

  • Arikok National Park
  • Renaissance Private Island
  • New Small Natural Pool
  • Explore Arikok National Park
    • The landscape on this side of the island is so unique! Very rugged and desert-like.
    • We drove through the park in our little car, but I wish we would’ve had an SUV for this. The road was pretty rough and there were 40+  “rock drainage gutters” making it a really slow drive for our little sedan! You could also consider renting an ATV making it much easier to get to all these destinations!
    • There is so much to see at the National Park from caves, to cliffs to beaches, to cacti as far as you can see!
    • I read that you can get a free guided tour from the visitor center. Someone said they went on a hike with their guide and someone else said he drove their car and showed them around!
  • Natural Pools
    • Natural Pool
      • I didn’t go to this one because you either need a 4WD, ATV or it was a longer hike. But looks cool! It is saved on my google map here.
    • New Small Pool
      • We loved visiting this pool. The first time we went no one was there and it was hard to spot the ladder down to the pool because there were no cars parked by it! I have this location saved on my google map here making it easier to find. Just look for the top of the ladder going down the cliff!
      • Here are some pictures from my instagram of this location.
      • You can jump off the rocks into the pool!
  • Renaissance Island
    • This was one of my favorite things we did on the island!
    • The Renaissance Hotel owns a private island just offshore and hotel guests can come/go from the island as they please. We were not hotel guests, so we got a day pass. They sell 10-20 passes per day at 7:00am on the ground floor of the hotel lobby. They were $125/pass (as of Nov 2018). We arrived at 6:40am on our first try and were 18 people back in line and they only sold 12 passes that day. We tried again another day at 6:10am and were 14 people back in line and they sold 20 passes that day. Success!
    • The boat leaves every 15 minutes from the hotel lobby out to the island and it is about a 10 minute ride.
    • Getting there first thing in the morning was great because we had our pick of any spot/chair we wanted! There are two lagoons to choose from when you get off the boat at the dock. Flamingo Lagoon to the right (adults only) and Iguana Lagoon to the left. We spent the day on the flamingo side.
    • The day pass fee included a drink and lunch from the restaurant on the island. We could pick anything we wanted off the menu. Our food and drinks were excellent.
    • We stayed on the island until sunset and took the boat back at dusk.
  • Sand Dunes
    • If you go up to the California Lighthouse, you might as well check out the sand dunes!
  • Caves
  • Casibari Rock Formations
    • This wasn’t a must do for me … but if you are in the area, or have an extended stay on the island, it was cool to explore.
  • California Lighthouse
    • Great views from here. A short drive if you are staying on the north side of the island too.
  • Hooiberg Steps
    • I didn’t check this out, but it was on my list! Let me know if you do!
  • Scuba Diving
    • If diving is up your ally, then Aruba will not disappoint. There are shipwrecks all around the island making for unbelievable dive sites!

Photo Ops

Divi Divi Tree
  • Divi Divi Tree
    • On Eagle Beach, an iconic tree with tangled branches that is growing at an angle to the west with the trade winds.
  • Downtown Oranjestad
    • It can be crowded downtown Oranjestad with the cruise port, but it is a super cute area to explore. The buildings are very colorful and there is a trolley that you can jump on for free!
  • Mangel Halto
    • The water here is every shade of green and blue! There is stairs off the side of the road that step down over the water. Location of stairs here

Follow my Instagram and scroll back to November 2018 for more photo ideas. You can also check out my “Aruba” story highlight on my Instagram profile.

Did you go?!

Did you visit Aruba?
Let me know what you loved or didn’t like!
Let me know if you used my travel guide!
Tag my Instagram @JaclynFladmark so I can see your trip!

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