For our 5 year anniversary and for our 40th birthdays, we decided to go to a warmer climate. We opted for Aruba!
We flew out early on Sunday morning and had a layover in Miami before arriving at the Queen Beatrix International Airport in Oranjestad. We rented a jeep for the week (most rentals are weekly) from Real Deal Car Rental. We called once we arrived and they picked us up at the airport. I had rented a four-door Jeep Wrangler; however, they picked us up in a four-door Jeep Gladiator. The guy told us that was all they had available for the week. Of course Jonathan enjoyed driving the monster truck for the week! We were driven to their rental office, which was only a few minutes from the airport, to sign the paperwork before we were on our way. If you are planning to drive the north side of the island, you will need a high clearance four-wheel drive vehicle.
We made a quick stop for a snack at Eduardo’s Hideaway on our drive to the hotel.
We headed to our home for the week at Modern Hotel Aruba. Upon our arrival we were welcomed and checked in by the sweet housekeeper. She led us to the penthouse suite which was located upstairs above the pool. The hotel is not located close enough to really walk to the beach, but for us it was the perfect location and price for what we needed for our adventures.
For dinner, we decided to go to Bugaloe Beach Bar & Grill located on the water. It was a fun first night for dinner since they had live music with a great view.
After a good night’s sleep, we went to Linda’s Dutch Pancakes for breakfast on Monday because we had to try Dutch pancakes while we were in Aruba.
After breakfast, we drove to Arikok National Park. The park was officially established in 2000 and is 7,907 acres (which is about 20% of the country) of natural areas in the north-eastern part of Aruba. We entered the park at the San Fuego Entrance. There is a visitors center at this entrance where you will pay the park entrance fee of $20 per person for the day and get wristbands.
Arikok is home to Conchi, Aruba’s most important natural attraction, also known as The Natural Pool. This was our first stop of the day. The drive to the pool is an adventure itself which is why you will need a 4×4 vehicle. (ATVs, UTVs, etc. are prohibited in the park and is something to be aware of since these are available for rental all over the island.)
We had a lot of fun at the pool. You can only swim in the pool due to the rocks and rough water on this side of the island. I highly recommend water shoes as well. The rocks are slippery!
This is good place to mention sunscreen. Wear it and reapply a lot while in Aruba! The island is also really windy! Be sure sunscreen is reef safe. Aruba has banned all sunscreens that contain oxybenzone in 2019. Click here for information. Aruba Aloe has reef safe sunscreen at its stores on the island.
We then made stops at Fontein Cave and Quadirikiri Caves. We saw pictographs left by the Caquetios (native people of Aruba) and graffiti imprinted by early European settlers on the walls and ceilings of Fontein Cave. We were also lucky to arrive in time to get a free tour and history of the cave from one of the park rangers.
A short walk outside of Fotein Cave is a small freshwater stream that you can dip your feet into and the fish will come up to clean your feet. That was an experience!
Quadirikiri Cave features two large chambers with roof openings. Both were really cool stops in the park.
We exited the Park at the Vader Piet Entrance in San Nicolas and drove to Baby Beach. We grabbed lunch at Rum Reef (they also have an infinity pool overlooking Baby Beach that you can use if you eat/drink there).
After lunch we found a spot on the beach and spent the afternoon relaxing. (The hotel we stayed at had beach chairs that we could use so we just kept them in the Jeep for the week.) Aruba also has a large population of stray dogs. Not sure if the cute fella we met at the beach was a stray or not, but he hung out with us for the afternoon.
We then made a stop at the Super Food to pick up some snacks and drinks for the week. They had a great selection and also lots of Dutch items.
For dinner, we attempted to go to Wacky Wahoo, but they do not accept reservations and the wait time was really long. We decided to pick another place on our list where reservations were available and ended up at Catch. We had a delicious meal on the patio where a gentleman playing the saxophone entertained everyone.
On Tuesday, we got up early to go deep sea fishing with Driftwood Charters. Jonathan was the first one to reel in a yellowfin tuna and then I was up next. I somehow reeled in a sail fish. It was an incredible experience but shortly thereafter I got really seasick. The water was really rough to begin with and they told us it would only get worse. We had gotten prescriptions for Scopolamine patches and had applied them the day before; however, mine had come off and I didn’t realize it. I will definitely go deep sea fishing again, but I’ll be better medicated!
That afternoon, once we both were feeling better, we drove to Mangel Halto Beach and snorkeled. We brought our own snorkeling gear, hammock floats (really helped when snorkeling), water pouches for our phones, and floating wrist straps for our phone cases all from Amazon. If you’ve never used an iphone underwater, the easiest thing to do is turn on the videoing feature of the camera and use the side buttons on the phone to start/stop the videoing. The screen will not work underwater for touch functions. Also, you can just do screenshots of the video afterward. Obviously, it’s not the greatest quality, but it works!
For dinner, we went to Driftwood Restaurant (who also owns the fishing charter we went with). They prepared the yellowfin Jonathan had caught for our dinner (we just paid for our sides). It was delicious! We also had plenty to have it for dinner the next night at our hotel.
On Wednesday, we had booked the Palm Pleasure Catamaran Snorkeling Adventure with De Palm tours for 9am. The catamaran departs from the pier that Bugaloe restaurant is located on so we ate a quick breakfast there before heading out. This tour has three snorkeling stops and lunch along with an open bar is also included.
Our first stop was the Antilla Shipwreck. The German World War II shipwreck is one of the Caribbean’s largest shipwrecks. In 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands so the Dutch government ordered the seizure of all German ships in the Dutch Islands. The German crew then deliberately sank the ship. It was definitely a cool stop and you could see the wreck from the surface when snorkeling. Not the best pictures, but I tried!
The last two stops were Boca Catalina and Arashi Reef. These two stops can be driven to on the island for snorkeling. Also in this area is Tres Trapi (we did not end up going here to snorkel, but it is a great place to see the sea turtles in the morning while snorkeling).
After snorkeling we found some yummy gelato in a cute bus!
Later that day we drove to the California Lighthouse (completed in 1916), then we drove the north-west side of the island. Along the way we stopped at the Bushiribana Ruins (built in 1827 and the only remains of the Bushiribana Gold Smelting Plant), the Natural Bridge (the big bridge collapsed in 2005, but the baby bridge is still intact), and last we found another cave pool.
For our last day, we celebrated our birthdays and anniversary by booking a morning couples massage in a cabana on Renaissance Island. We boarded a boat at the Renaissance Marina Hotel after checking in at the spa in the hotel.
The island is divided into two areas Flamingo Beach (adults only) and Iguana Beach (family friendly). We found a couple of chairs on Flamingo Beach to save with our towels before we headed to the cabana for our massages. Our 50 minute massages began at 9 am and then we were able to relax in the cabana until 11:30. We also got 4 drinks and a fruit platter included with our massage package. It was so relaxing!
After we sadly had to leave the cabana, we went back to our beach chairs and then walked to Iguana Beach for some delicious burgers. We spent the afternoon on the island before taking the boat back to the main island.
For dinner we made sunset reservations at Pinchos Grill & Bar. We had a table on the dock where there were only 6 tables. We splurged on our last dinner and both opted for the special of wahoo, shrimp, and lobster along with the coconut shrimp appetizer and a dessert. It was an amazing last meal on our vacation!
Our departing flight wasn’t until 3 pm; however, it is recommended that you arrive three hours early. For breakfast, we went to Scots Brats on the beach before packing up and having the jeep cleaned up by two local kids that had a carwash near the hotel.
We also made a stop for coffee at Aruba Experience Cafe before returning to the jeep rental company.
Now some information about the Aruba airport….As long as you arrive early, there is no need to pay anyone at the airport to expedite the process. We easily went through Aruba security and then through US security. You also clear US Customs in Aruba. Once you arrive at the airport be sure to have the MPC app downloaded and ready because you can pre fill out all the forms for customs. When you enter the area for US Customs be sure to tell them you have the app and forms completed so you can skip the long lines!
There is so much to do on “One Happy Island” and we didn’t have time to do and see everything, but we loved our Aruba experience and would highly recommend exploring the island!
The US Department of State website has all the information about the island and safety here.
We added international data to our phone plans so we used google maps; however, if you do not want to add an international plan download the maps.me app and the Aruba map for offline navigation.
So Many Places So Little Time 