Things to do in Aruba
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Aruba
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best months overall: driest, breeziest and most reliable, also peak price and peak crowds.
Summer family season with strong wind and prices a step below winter peak; good value for active trips.
Quietest dip with lowest prices and best restaurant availability, but winds often drop and brief showers grow likelier.
Shoulder sweet spot before the holidays, with moderate prices and Carnival season opening on 11 November.
Late May brings the Soul Beach Music Festival over Memorial Day weekend.
What's on
- Aruba Carnival January to Carnival Monday, ending before Ash Wednesday; the Grand Parades fall on the weekend before (6 and 7 February in 2027)
Weeks of music competitions and parades, ending with the burning of King Momo and Carnival Monday.
- Soul Beach Music Festival Late May, Memorial Day weekend
R and B and soul festival with beach parties and comedy and music nights, the biggest imported party weekend.
- Aruba Hi-Winds June to early July
Long running windsurf and kite competition and beach festival at Fisherman's Huts, running since 1986.
- Aruba Art Fair Autumn, dates vary
San Nicolas art fair that seeded the town's mural scene; check current year dates if murals matter to you.
- Carnival season opening 11 November at 11:11
Carnival season formally opens by island tradition.
- Bon Bini Festival Tuesday evenings, year round
Weekly folklore music and dance at Fort Zoutman in Oranjestad.
Best things to do in Aruba
Eagle Beach
Wide soft white sand, calm clear water and famous fofoti trees, with room to spread out even in peak season.
Arikok National Park
Desert park with limestone caves, Arawak drawings, hills and rugged coast that shows Aruba beyond the beach.
San Nicolas
Second town remade as an open air gallery, with large murals across five downtown blocks to wander by day.
Charlie's Bar
Bar open since the 1940s, covered in visitor memorabilia and famous island wide for garlic shrimp.
Baby Beach
Shallow calm half moon lagoon where you can wade far out, with a reef and real current beyond its mouth.
Renaissance Island
Private island beach day with a family side and an adults only side where pink flamingos wander the sand.
Mangel Halto
Mangrove fringed lagoon with a reef just offshore, calm entry and rich fish life for DIY shore snorkelling.
Boca Catalina
Small cove with seagrass and coral patches where sea turtles are often seen in the shallows in the morning.
Where to stay in Aruba
Eagle Beach
best overall base, couples and beach first trips
Wide, quiet and low rise with the island's best sand, a short taxi ride to Palm Beach dining and Oranjestad.
Palm Beach
first timers, groups and nightlife
High rise strip with restaurants, casinos, beach bars and tour pick ups on foot, at the island's highest prices.
Noord
villas, families and value
Residential district inland from Palm Beach with apartment hotels and rental homes; space and price over a beachfront door.
Oranjestad
short stays, Carnival and Renaissance Island
Capital with the marina, cruise port and bus station, lively by day and quiet at night, good for one to three nights.
Savaneta / San Nicolas
repeat visitors and south coast divers
Superb local eating and Mangel Halto nearby, but far from west coast beaches and nightlife and very quiet after dark.
Think twice about
- San Nicolas after dark
Quiet and sparsely lit away from the main street, with a small legal red light district. Visit by day for murals and Charlie's Bar.
- North and east coast beaches for swimming
Rough, dangerous water where strong swimmers drown every season. Look and photograph from marked ground, never swim.
- Refinery adjacent and back street edges of San Nicolas and Oranjestad
Workaday and deserted rather than lively at night, with no reason to stay or stroll there after dark.
Best restaurants in Aruba
The Flying Fishbone
Tables in the sand and in the water at sunset, serving French Caribbean seafood in Aruba's most romantic setting.
Zeerovers
Fishermen's dock bar where the day's catch is weighed, fried and served by weight at picnic tables over the water.
Papiamento Restaurant
Dinner in the garden of a 19th century cunucu manor around a lit pool, with hot stone and cheese crust signatures.
Madame Janette
Big twinkling garden restaurant with live music, huge portions and a long menu, built for celebration dinners.
Wacky Wahoo's
Small unglamorous room off the strip serving the day's catch at prices a notch below its quality.
2 Fools and a Bull
Eighteen seats around one counter, one seating nightly and a surprise multi course menu cooked by two hosts.
Quinta del Carmen
1916 plantation mansion turned garden restaurant for Caribbean Dutch cooking, including stuffed lobster.
Pinchos Grill & Bar
Pier restaurant over the water by the marina for grilled seafood, sunset views and live music some nights.
Outdoor things to do in Aruba
Natural Pool
Rock ringed pool on the wild north coast reached by guided UTV or Jeep, swimmable only on calm days.
Antilla Wreck
Huge German freighter scuttled in 1940 in shallow water, seen on a catamaran snorkel sail from Palm Beach.
Pedernales Wreck
Beginner friendly wreck of a tanker torpedoed in 1942, now in shallow pieces and a signature Aruba dive.
Arashi Beach
Clear water cove for the DIY snorkel circuit, good for turtles and an afternoon swim with your own gear.
Fisherman's Huts
Shallow flat water and steady trade winds make this a great beach to learn windsurfing and kitesurfing.
Palm Beach
Hotel beach activity strip for parasailing, jet skis, banana boats and kayak rental without leaving the strip.
Tierra del Sol Golf Course
The island's only 18 hole championship course, desert links with sea views and trade wind as its main defence.
The Links at Divi Aruba
Pleasant 9 hole resort course with water in play and an island green finish, ideal for a relaxed twilight nine.
Best hotels in Aruba
Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort
Adults only low rise on Eagle Beach, carbon neutral and built for romance and quiet rather than a party scene.
The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba
Calmer north end Palm Beach luxury with big rooms, strong spa and service, away from the strip's busiest stretch.
JOIA Aruba by Iberostar
Newest large luxury opening on Eagle Beach, with new build rooms and a full all inclusive resort programme.
Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort Spa and Casino
Classic full service strip resort known for its gardens, pools and casino, a safe luxury family answer.
Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino
Landmark strip resort on the original 1959 hotel site, with a wide beachfront and full service facilities.
Manchebo Beach Resort & Spa
Small wellness led beachfront resort on Eagle's quiet southern stretch, with yoga, spa and loyal return guests.
Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort
Dutch gabled family run resort across from Eagle Beach, with kitchens in many rooms that make a week affordable.
Boardwalk Boutique Hotel Aruba
Casitas in a former coconut plantation near Palm Beach, with hammocks and plunge pools and no strip noise.
Is Aruba expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | AWG 280 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | AWG 560 a person |
| Splurge | AWG 1,000 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Arikok National Park: a few days ahead
- Renaissance Island: weeks ahead
- Natural Pool: a few days ahead
- Antilla Wreck: a few days ahead
- Pedernales Wreck: a few days ahead
- Fisherman's Huts: a few days ahead
- Tierra del Sol Golf Course: a few days ahead
- Gold Mine Ranch: a few days ahead
- Bucuti and small Eagle Beach properties sell out months ahead in season.
- Flying Fishbone sunset water tables and 2 Fools and a Bull need weeks ahead.
- Renaissance Island day passes go the day they are released if you are not a hotel guest.
- Natural Pool tours and Antilla catamarans need two to four days ahead in peak season.
Is Aruba safe?
- Petty theft from rental cars at remote beach car parks is the most reported visitor crime; leave nothing visible.
- Use reef safe sunscreen often and seek midday shade; the sun is strong near the equator.
- Tap water is desalinated and safe to drink, so hydrate from the tap.
- Never swim on the wild north and east coasts or at unpatrolled beaches at night.
Aruba travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- The early morning palapa scramble on Palm Beach; pay for shade or base on Eagle Beach instead.
- Timeshare presentations pitched as free tours around the strip and airport.
- Paying boat prices for Boca Catalina when catamarans raft up, when it is free and empty early morning.
- All inclusive isolation that never leaves Palm or Druif Beach and misses Zeerovers, San Nicolas and Mangel Halto.
Getting around Aruba: public transport and more
- Taxis are fixed tariff by zone, not metered; confirm the fare before you ride.
- Arubus runs the hotel zone to Oranjestad spine cheaply but does not solve Baby Beach, Arikok or Savaneta.
- Rent a car for two to three middle days; it is the consensus best value move on a 32 km island.
- Driving is on the right with many roundabouts; rental terms ban off roading in Arikok and to the Natural Pool.
Who Aruba suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Great |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Great |
Make Aruba your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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