Aruba Excursions

shiftman1956 · February 15, 2004

I'm checking out shore excursions on the Royal Caribbean site for Aruba. So far the ones that interest me are the Aruba Fun Cruise & Beach Tour and then the Aruba Bar & Pub Crawl. Has anyone ever done these excursions? If so, how were they?

jbond · February 15, 2004

We'll be in Aruba the end of April. It will be our first time. I've checked the RCI page also and the Pub Crawl sounds pretty neat. Lots of drinking.

I think that we are going to do a 4X4 trip during the day. I thought about renting at the dock, it's a lot cheaper, but from what I have read on Ports of Call on the CC board, it's easy to get lost and waste a lot of time. I found another site that does the same tours as RCI for a little less money.

Port Compass

Still to decide if we are going out on the town in the evening, or whether to have dinner in Chops.

Dan · February 16, 2004

We rented a jeep at the pier, and had a blast. Aruba isn't that hard to figure out. There aren't that many roads to get lost on, and at least the signs are in English (I had a harder time in Detroit trying to find the tunnel back to Canada a few years ago LOL). The guy at the rental place at the pier gave us a pretty detailed map with the same attractions the ship tours go to, and we seemed to be getting to some of these places just ahead of the busses. I loved the freedom of having our own wheels, and it was cheaper than taking the tours would have been. Depends on your comfort level, I suppose, but Aruba is a pretty safe place, and the people are friendly.

BridaBunny · February 16, 2004

We booked the DePalm tours on our own and paid lots less than the ship tour, and we were on the same tour. It was the jeep caravan tour for the first half of the day which toured the island and took us into the desert for more fun.And the afternoon we snorled/swam/ate /drank/ lounged on the private DePalm Island. It was a blast and we saw everything there was to see on the island guided by the lead jeep ( there were intercom radios in all the jeeps) I think it was more fun than being on your own because we saw it all, did not get lost and had a local narate the trip. The buffet on the island included drinks, hard and soft.

I know some will say it is better to do it yourself, but with a group, you have SO MUCH MORE FUN. We drove the jeep, but were guided as to watch for potholes in the arrid sandy part of the island, not something you will know on your own. They also provided water and iced tea at every stop and plenty of time to see all of the stops. A friend had a cab ride, but missed many spots that only jeeps could access. A warning though... do not wear white, you become the same color as the ground and wear a hat that will not fly off. It is a must along with sunscreen. But all in all I think it was the best tour I have ever been on or done myself, and that includes the things we just did in Hawaii! :smiley: