Things to do in Aruba – Rest Assured, Let Our Excursions’ Reviews lead you to a Great Day in Aruba

Southern Caribbean Cruise Day 4: Aruba

For our stop in Aruba, we had about 12 hours to visit the island, so we booked two excursions. When we researched things to do in Aruba, we booked the Best of Aruba and Eagle Beach through Carnival and a sunset catamaran cruise through Viator with Octopus Aruba. We will tell you the good, bad and ugly!

Best of Aruba and Eagle Beach

We booked this excursion through Carnival. We rode on a motor coach to see the Baby Natural Bridge, Casibari Rock Formations, and the California Lighthouse. At each of these three stops there was a restroom (have to pay $1 US dollar to use) and drinks and snacks for purchase. The last stop was at Eagle Beach.

Baby Natural Bridge: The Baby Bridge was created by pounding waves and strong winds that slowly chiseled away the limestone cliffs along Aruba’s north coast. Sadly the original natural bridge collapsed in 2005 due to erosion and only the Baby Natural Bridge still stands. We stopped here for 20 minutes to explore and photograph the area.

Casibari Rock Formations: The rock formations are composed of quartz diorite formed million years ago. Evidence of prehistoric rock drawings is still visible at the formation. We walked through the garden and climbed to the top of the rocks for a view with the ship in the background.  We stopped here for 20 minutes to explore and photograph the area.

California Lighthouse: We stopped for 20 minutes at this iconic lighthouse, spanning from the north western most tip to downtown and see the cruise ships in the distance.

Eagle Beach: The last stop was at Eagle Beach for an hour and a half of leisure time to go for a walk or swim. We could have rented beach chairs from a local beach vendor while we sunbathed, but it was super windy and the sand was literally beating us up; we found some others from our tour and told them we were leaving and would not be heading back on the motor coach. The motor coach did take the rest of the group back to the cruise port.

If we had the option to do it again, we would not do this tour again. The stops were crowded and just ok to see. Honestly, if this was the best of Aruba, I wouldn’t think very highly of the island. Whenever we went back to where we had visited in the past, our great memories of Aruba re-emerged and we were quickly reminded of the beauty of Aruba.

We took a taxi from Eagle Beach down to Palm Beach – for $5 each. We visited Palm Beach in 2018 and wanted to find a restaurant we visited on that trip. Luckily we found it and the restaurant, The Pelican Nest, was just as good as we remembered. We had cocktails and a late lunch of fresh seafood at the restaurant situated on a pier with water views all around.

Then we headed to meet for our sunset excursion with Octopus Aruba. Octopus Aruba’s hut is right at the end of the restaurants pier, so it was very convenient to us.

Catamaran Happy Hour Sunset Cruise

We booked this tour through Viator, but you can book on the link above to save $10.

Our sunset sail started at 4:30 pm in the Palm Beach area. The calm waters in the Palm Beach area made this a comfortable trip during sunset time. As we boarded the boat, we were happily greeted by some of the crew with an Aruba specialty drink, the Aruba Ariba. The crew of the boat were amazing. The drinks kept flowing and you really felt like you were a special friend to them. We went along the coast down to Eagle Beach and then past Palm Beach and on towards the California Lighthouse and back to Palm Beach. We enjoyed the beautiful waters, the sunset and delicious appetizers and drinks that was served during the entire trip.

After our catamaran cruise, we took a taxi back to the port for $10 per person.

We would highly recommend using Octopus Tours for your Aruba excursions, you won’t find a better company on the island!

We can also speak to Parasailing in Aruba, it is a great experience; we parasailed in Aruba in 2018 with all four of our children. The cruise of 2018 is still a topic of conversation when the kids come home to visit.

If you visit Aruba, the Palm Beach area is a must visit. You can pay resorts a fee to use their pools, you can relax at the beach, you can parasail, eat great seafood, ride jet skis, or ride on a catamaran and go snorkeling to name a few.

Hopefully our things to do in Aruba-the good, the bad and the ugly, will help you plan your visit to Aruba!

You can check out the rest of our cruise here!

-S&E