what is the best thing to do in aruba

[nomoresnow75]

You are welcome. I do not work for Aruba Tourism, Aruba is just an island I love that dh and I have had the privledge of visiting 16 times.

 

 

You already know my negative opinion of Hertz and Avis. If you want to take a chance, that is fine. Just keep in mind that they are franchises and if you do have a bad experience and are inclined to contact "corporate" after the fact, you will more than likely get the same attitude we got, "so what? nothing we can do about them"

 

Tropic has the best rep, but only rents Yaris', and minimum of 5 days. I am sure they are booked besides. ;)

 

I have a friend who rents from Optima without any trouble when she "forgets" to make a reservation with Tropic. She has never had a bad experience with them.

Thanks! Optima is booked too! Have you heard of Smart-Rent-a-Car, Amigo or Economy (not Econo, they are booked too)? They seem to have availability; but I don't knwo anything about their reputation...?

Thanks again!

Jamey

[Arubalisa]

Thanks! Optima is booked too! Have you heard of Smart-Rent-a-Car, Amigo or Economy (not Econo, they are booked too)? They seem to have availability; but I don't knwo anything about their reputation...?

Thanks again!

Jamey

We have not used any of them. Economy is probably one of the larger agencies on the island. At this point you may wish to just go with whichever agency has the type of vehicle you are looking for. I wish I could be of more help. Sorry. :(

[GatorTom]

I saw your earlier posting regarding Arashi beach. A number of years ago we took the bus North almost to the end of the line and had a great time snorkeling there. After about an hour many of the cruise catamaran tours showed up but they left after about 45 minutes. We snorkeled for about 2.5 hours and then hopped the bus to Palm Beach and had a nice lunch around the pool at the Holiday Inn. Used the beach for a short while and then took a cab back to town to do a little shopping before getting back on board our cruise Ship. Great Day without spending a fortune! I recall Arashi being very close to some nice individual homes. Does that sound like the spot your where talking about? - most of the beaches kind of run together around there. We'll be in Aruba aboard the Crown Princess 4/3/08. We have a car rented and plan on snorkeling there again and then touring the rest of the Island.

[Arubalisa]

I recall Arashi being very close to some nice individual homes. Does that sound like the spot your where talking about? - most of the beaches kind of run together around there. We'll be in Aruba aboard the Crown Princess 4/3/08. We have a car rented and plan on snorkeling there again and then touring the rest of the Island.

Yes, there are a few areas up in that area. Arashi is the only one which has any significant stretch of white sand beach. We recently snorkeled at Catalina Cove and Boca Catalina. Boca Catalina was a nice white sand beach, but very tiny. Once in the water, the further north you head, the more you will see. Unfortunately only a few shade palapas and no restroom facilities. :(

[bettyboop16]

Hi Lisa,

Are you familar with any hotels in Aruba? I am looking for information about Tamarijn. Would it be a nice place to stay?

Thanks, Betty

[Arubalisa]

Hi Lisa,

Are you familar with any hotels in Aruba? I am looking for information about Tamarijn. Would it be a nice place to stay?

Thanks, Betty

Our 16th visit to the island we stayed at the Tamarijn for the first time and loved it so much we are going back in June.

Our Tamarijn Aruba All Inclusive Trip Report Christmas & New Years 2007

Tamarijn Aruba All Inclusive Beach Resort Photos

[jonj]

Are taxi charges per person, per car, or by distance in Aruba?

[Arubalisa]

Are taxi charges per person, per car, or by distance in Aruba?

Taxi fares in Aruba are per car, with a maximum of 5 people. Rates and regulations are set by the government and non-negotiable.

http://taxiaruba.com/new/farelist.html

[baileyimpact]

ArubaLisa do you know anything about wix tours? I have seen just a few posts,one bad and a couple good.

 

I also tried ABC Tours and they said their island tour is charter only

 

any recommendations for an island tour?

[Arubalisa]

ArubaLisa do you know anything about wix tours? I have seen just a few posts,one bad and a couple good.

 

I also tried ABC Tours and they said their island tour is charter only

 

any recommendations for an island tour?

Not sure what ABC meant by "charter only". Are they not allowing cruise ship passengers to book directly I wonder?

Wix Tours has been around for many years, and except for the one unfavorable post here, I have never heard anything negative. I do not know anything about any of the other ATOA opeators.

Depending on how adventurous you are you can always rent a vehicle and tour on your own at your own pace. Another option is to hire a private taxi for a tour. Tours are $40 an hour with a maximum of 5 people per car. If there are only 2 of you, you can always try to hook up with another member through your roll call to split the cost of the taxi.

I am sure others here will have suggestions on tour operators.

[vegs1]

this is our first time to aruba. what should 1st timers do with so many options.

 

We just returned from a week in Aruba. If you have kids with you and have a rental car, visit the Donkey Sanctuary. My daughter absolutely hated leaving the place. We had brought some apples with us and she had them cut up and fed the donkeys. It is run by donations and we really enjoyed the drive out there as well as talking with Desiree and her volunteers. We rented a car twice and visited there and will definitely go back!:D It's also along the way to the Natural Bridge so we stopped there also. Great Island - can't wait to go back!

[baileyimpact]

thanks for the info ArubaLisa wish there were more experienced people like you on here giving advise.

 

ABC Tours said the only ones that we could go on were the jeep safari tours without having to charter

[banditoo]

We've just booked through ATOA with Wix Tours to do a morning jeep tour March 19. Will report back on how that went. I am a little nervous about getting back to the ship on time as we are only in port until 1 pm, but Wix have said we will be back by noon. ABC said they couldn't be sure to get us back in time as their tour ends at 1230 and sometimes can be a little longer. I appreciated their honesty.

[reddressgirl]

My family (nine of us) were in Aruba on February 2/08

We had a hard time getting responses back from emails to many of the ATV tour companies in Aruba. Finally we were able to get a tour with Kinikini tours and had a great day!

 

Our ship arrived at about 10am so we just wandered downtown shopped a little and sat by the pier and enjoyed the many Iguana's, my DH is a real reptile fan so he was in heaven! then all of us hopped in the water for a quick refresh before heading back to the pier to meet the Kinikini tour guide for 1:30pm. He was right ontime! he took us in an airconditioned bus just a short (maybe 5min) drive to there home, we got the paperwork out of the way and some instruction and headed off on a 4 1/2 hr tour of the island! We saw all the major sites, this company offered more sites than any of the other ATV tour companies, and the price per person was 65.00 and they offered refreshments as we were in very dry dusty conditions most of the day. Safety was key!

 

They got us back to the ship in plenty of time!

Our day in Aruba was one of the best days we had on our cruise this year thanks to the operators of kinikini.

 

www.kinikini.com

[bettyboop16]

Hi Lisa,

Your pictures of Tamarijn are great..I read you review and sounds like you & your family had a wonderful time.

Thanks for the info,

Betty

[gram1554]

Arubalisa: Have you taken the Jeep tour you are talking about. I pulled up their web sight and the tour sounded very good. I was wondering If you have to stay in your swim suit all day or is there a place to change. I was also wondering If you enjoyed the tour. Is it as good as it sounds.

The price is pretty reasonable for what it says you get.

 

Thanks for any information

[Arubalisa]

Arubalisa: Have you taken the Jeep tour you are talking about. I pulled up their web sight and the tour sounded very good. I was wondering If you have to stay in your swim suit all day or is there a place to change. I was also wondering If you enjoyed the tour. Is it as good as it sounds.

The price is pretty reasonable for what it says you get.

 

Thanks for any information

We have not used ABC Tours because we just go out on our own, however in 12 years I have never heard a bad word about them. Some great threads.

ABC tours-- half day vs whole day tour

? about ABC Tours in Aruba

[serene56]

We've just booked through ATOA with Wix Tours to do a morning jeep tour March 19. Will report back on how that went. I am a little nervous about getting back to the ship on time as we are only in port until 1 pm, but Wix have said we will be back by noon. ABC said they couldn't be sure to get us back in time as their tour ends at 1230 and sometimes can be a little longer. I appreciated their honesty.

 

 

if your ship is supposed to leave at 1pm-- you have to be onboard by 12:30 so the ABC tour will not work anyways.

 

On our half day tour we got back to the tourplace at 12:30 but on the way back to the ship we hit huge traffic and it took over an hour to get back. (good thing we were in port til 10pm-- not sure I would take a tour if I was not back by noon with a gurantee.

[banditoo]

Thanks for your reply. Wix is telling me they will have us back in time for the 1pm sailing. I will specifically ask them again before we leave with them in the morning.

[Lizzzys]

Hey Vickie,

We will be going to Aruba aboard the Emerald in March and I'm wondering if you still have George's email address? I googled him and can't find a website/email address.

Thanks!

Liz

 

 

We visited Aruba on January 18th. Being today was my partner's birthday I said I was up to do whatever he wanted.

 

He really wanted to rent scooters and travel around the island, so we did.

 

We had arranged to rent scooters from George's Scooters. he had sent me an email that he was located two blocks from the pier. Well I guess that was a little to vague because we got off the ship and we didn't find it. We asked a woman at the information booth nearby and she looked up his number and he came and picked us up and took us to his scooter shop.

 

We each rented scooters for $40 US each. george gave us a map and we headed north to the lighthouse. We then travelled back along the water and stopped at De Palm beach and went in for a quick swim and cool down. On again and we went to the rock formations (way to busy and not that impressive). We then wanted to go to the most southern part of the island and check out the Atlantic ocean. this was great, dirt road, no one around, except for quite a few goats and eagles. We went to the beach, but way to strong of a current to risk swiming on this day.

 

It was getting a little late so we decided to head back, as it was at least a half hour trip back. We did stop for ice cream along the way.

 

I did have an incident on the moped. While riding down the road some kind of bug struck me right between my nose and my right eye and got stuck in my sunglasses. I pulled over and it ended up being a bee. And it STUNG me!! my souvenir of Aruba I guess. When i got back to the ship my eye had swollen quite a bit, but a couple of antihistamines cleared that up.

 

We returned the mopeds (after filling them with gas). George was great. If you wish to find him just do a search online for George's Cycles Aruba. He offered to drive us back to the ship but we said no we could easily walk as it was only a 10 min. walk. George also rents all terain bikes as well as motorcycles.

 

Aruba is a good place to ride mopeds as it is flat and they drive on the same side of the road that the rest of north america does. but it can be very windy, and it isn't for everyone.

 

You can also easily rent a car for the same or less price but this time we wanted to try scooters.