What our family did in Aruba

[KAP]

In Aruba, we rode the local bus to Boca Catalina beach. The bus terminal is almost directly across the street from the pier. Most of the buses go only to the hotel district and Boca Catalina is just north of the hotel district so you have to be sure to take bus 10B. It was $2.30 round trip and took about 25 minutes. Boca Catalina is a great snorkeling beach with a small amount of sandy beach. We saw lots of fish and played in the ocean. If snorkeling is not your thing, go to the hotel beaches, Palm and Eagle. They are beautiful with lots of services but no snorkeling. Boca Catalina has no services although it does have some shade. The locals seem to call Boca Catalina Malmok beach. I walked to the actual Malmok beach and it doesn’t exist. Malmok is a rock ledge with a few inlets where you can crawl down into the water to snorkel. I wouldn’t take a family there. The only problem we had was getting back to the ship. I thought the buses ran every 30 minutes but apparently on the day we were there the bus ran every hour. We ended up waiting for the bus for almost 50 minutes and it was hot and we got tired. If you are going to take the bus, make sure you check the schedule for the day by talking with the bus driver or one of the workers at the terminal.

 

I will try to answer questions but real life calls.

[cruiseapril]

Good advice, thanks. Interesting about Malmok Beach.

[greenbay2]

Kap,

We are heading there for a cruise on RCCL in April. Reading previous threads from Arubalisa back in 07 she said you could rent snorket equipment on the beach(Palm), not true anymore? Also, do you know if the hotels at Palm let you rent/use their chaise/umbrellas? I heard it's a nice pier.

Thanks,

 

Warren

[Arubalisa]

Reading previous threads from Arubalisa back in 07 she said you could rent snorket equipment on the beach(Palm), not true anymore?

According to the Aruba Watersport's website, they still offer snorkel equipment rental.

http://www.arubawatersportcenter.com/pricelist_WS.htm

Also, do you know if the hotels at Palm let you rent/use their chaise/umbrellas? I heard it's a nice pier.

There are vendors on Palm Beach who rent chaises as well as unmbrellas and the Radisson is selling day passes. aruba radisson day pass The Riu and Occidental sell all inclusive day passes which are much more expensive.