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ARUBA TRAVEL GUIDE
Month of Travel March
What started planning as a ski trip which turned into a full blown beach vacation to Aruba!
My husband is well travelled and its hard for us to find a destination that he has never been to, but we finally found one, turns out its sooo easy to get to from USA mainland.
We rented a small car from HERTZ, it's right there when you get out of the arrival gate and very convenient. We rented a car because we were staying on the East side of Aruba and Stephens kitesurfing beach was on the South side. Aruba is a small island but we were glad we got a car!
- Although Aruba rarely gets rained on, we had some rain showers during March. But it would always stop after few minutes to an hour. We didn’t take a rain coat and was fine.
We also rented a Jeep for 24 hrs, the reason we didn’t rent for a whole week is because its expensive, loud and uncomfortable to ride in haha. (We paid 270$ US). We rented from Royal car rentals, I don’t have any negative or positive to say about them lol.
Upon Arrival + Car rentals
Where to Stay
We stayed in RIU palace Antillas - this is an all inclusive adult only hotel and is right on the beach along with the only other high rise hotels on the island and is on the east side of the island. They also have RIU palace hotel, which literally looks like a palace if you have a family with kids, and I believe that is also all inclusive.
We really liked it here, our room was initially 1428- but there was construction and was obstructing our view of the beach from our balcony and it was loud.
Luckily the staff were able to change the room for us to 1811 - this was a double room but we just joined our beds together, no biggie.
View from our balcony was phenomenal! Waking up to that view every morning was so refreshing. From this side you can see the sunrise and the beach and some of the other hotels.
What we liked about the hotel :
- Right on the beach with private beach chairs for hotel guests
- Balcony, the view is phenomenal
- Staff are extremely sweet and helpful
- All inclusive, drinks including :P
- Comfortable beds
- Black out curtains, although sometimes light can leak through
- Adults only
- Food Food Food - ive never ate so much from a buffet! Trust me they know how to cook their food.
- If you don’t like buffet style they have other restaurants on first come first serve
- They also have a very Fancy restaurant, men will have to wear pants - great four course meal! ( Yes all inclusive! )
- There is a 24 hr cafe - small snacks coffee etc ( great when you wanna go exploring early and grab a sandwich, I loved my Irish coffee :P )
Where to Eat
Honestly we liked our hotel food so much that we ate most our meals here. But there were certain places we tried and food was excellent!
Flying Fishbone
- this one is $$ but man their food is delicious! We made a reservation for 8:30 pm and got a seat by the water next to the in the water tables.
When we called to make a reservation they said only 4 pm reservations will get the tables in the water! If you get this, your feet is in the water and you can watch the sunset! Its beautiful!
I had seafood pasta - it was sooo good and the portion was huge and I ate too much!
Stephen got Red snapper + mash potato - was yummy too.
Oh and for some reason they gave us a free “happy honeymoon” desert - I Mean sure Im not complaining about free desert.
Le Petite Cafe
This was a very interesting experience, they serve food on a hot stone and you cook your food!
I got red snapper- I wish I had gotten meat because it was ok/ because I didn’t know how to cook it properly lol
Stephen got beef tenderloin and that was excellent!
It was a little $$ for me but the experience was kinda worth it.
Pure ocean - I did not like the food here
Rum reef - has a pool facing the ocean and a little restaurant + bar
Big Mama Grill - Right on baby beach
Where to Dance
Moombas
This is a really cool place, bar, dance floor and restaurant right on the beach. They have a huge dance floor and if its too crowded you can go to the beach. I heard good things about their food but we didn’t eat from here.
Pelican Pier / Pelican Nest Restaurant
This is a pier and really cool spot. Its a pier as the name suggests but they have a different activity every day. We grabbed drinks and watched sunset mostly. We missed the day they had free salsa class , bummer! They make really good Mojitos! All of Aruba actually makes really good mojitos, they put more mint and is not overly sweet, it was perfect !
Where to go & What to do
BEACHES
Palm Beach - which is where all the high rise hotels are, it can get crowded in some spots but its still so beautiful, white sand and crystal clear turquoise water.
Baby Beach - Great snorkeling, what we noticed in all of Aruba was that most snorkeling spots you’d see tons of fish but not a lot of corals. The coolest thing we saw while snorkeling here was groups of squid, and decent size too.
They have a bar/restaurant facing the beach with a pool - food here was ok but the view was excellent! It's called Rum reef.
On the beach they have a restaurant called Big Mama Grill - they rent out canopy’s for they day if you wanted protection from the sun and the wind.
Arashi Beach - This was fun as you can stand in the lagoon while the waves crashed on you, it was sooo fun. They also have random huts you can use for free, its first come first serve, usually not that busy like the other beaches.
East side where the high rises are
Every morning Id walk from Palm beach to Boca Catalina and back - this took me about 1.5 hrs on a leisurely walk, and this is how I got my 10k steps in for the day :)
SNORKELING
Malmok - Really cool divi trees along the coast line, great snorkeling. This is also the stop where one of the party boats stop so keep that in mind when you go.
Baby Beach - As mentioned earlier this was my favorite snorkeling spot you can just walk to, tons and tons of fish life. Im not sure if this was legal, but someone was feeding the fish while snorkeling and the birds were trying to snatch that food.
There are probably more which we didn’t get to explore, you can also book snorkeling boat trips to explore other areas.
You can also swim & snorkel in the Natural pool in Arikok national park, you will need a 4x4 to get here, its a long rocky bumpy dirt road for most part. It is also not always swimmable, so keep that in mind.
Boca Catalina - Here its off shore, there’s a lot of people kiting here, there are few kite schools here if you wanted to learn. It was really cool to see people kite. Stephen said it wasn’t great kiting because its always crowded and wind is iffy, sometimes gusty and its off shore. So keep that in mind.
Boca Grandi - This is not really a beach, but Stephen said it was a good kiting spot, its not great but better than Boca Catalina. This is less crowded than the other beach but also very narrow. But the wind is on shore which is a plus.
KITE SURFING
Arikok National Park
This is the national park in Aruba, very different scenery compared to the east side with white sand beaches, this is a desert with no share but lots and lots of huge cacti, goats , a donkey sacntuary, ruins, hikes, caves etc. You need a 4x4 to explore this side of the country as most roads are unpaved and dirt. But the coastline was so cool to drive by and stop and look at the little beaches on the coastline. There is the gold mine ruins, hikes (don’t recommend as it can get super hot and there’s not shade, caves - great photo opportunity. As we drove we noticed some beach huts which looked abandoned.
The first day we went to the park they said that the natural pool was closed, so we decided to explore ride outside the park this is where the Natural bridge is. It was still really cool to see all the huge 7 - 20 ft cacti along the coastline.
We drove from Arikok to Arashi beach the next day, today natural pool was open, but by the time we got there, they closed it due to hide tides, it was still very cool to go see it.
TIP : we couldn’t find any toilets except for portable one parked by the Gold mine ruins
What To Wear
Its always windy in Aruba, always always! But is also very HOT being near the equator.
So bring clothes that you feel comfortable in hot weather, bikinis under your clothes because there are lots of beaches and you might just wanna go for a swim while exploring you know. Sometimes I felt a little cool in the evenings, but I'm always cold so this could just be me!. (This was beginning of March )
SUNSCREEN SUNCREEN SUNCREEN
Sun is intense in Aruba being near the equator but sometimes you can forget it due to constant wind, don’t be fooled. My husband decided to go for a short walk with me which turned into an hour walk and he was burnt! I didn’t burn as much because I'm brown and genetics helped me :P heehee but even I got a little darker, which I don’t mind.
We used this one Supergoop PLAY 50SPF
Its so so good! Highly recommend - its rubs in easy, does not leave a white cast, does not burn your eyes ( didn’t burn mine) , it can be sticky when you first apply it but it eases out after few minutes, its for body and face aaand its reef friendly, win win!
Flip flops, sun hats/hats, hiking sandals, snorkeling gear ( you can rent these if you want but why pay when you can bring your own, its less gross too :)) , water shoes! I definitely recommend these if you go snorkeling in Malmok beach as the rocks are sharp and rocky uneven. I also swear by these Hiking Shoes
Hope you enjoyed reading our travels!
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