Our day in Aruba

[FionaMG]

I'm currently reviewing our recent Serenade of the Seas 11-day Southern Caribbean cruise over on the Royal Caribbean board, including detailed descriptions of the excursions we took in each of the ports.

 

I believe forum rules prohibit me from posting these details here unsolicited, but if any of you who are due to visit Aruba soon would like to read about our experience (with photos) you can find it in post #86 on this thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2574952&page=5

[OCruisers]

OK ... I'm asking!

What excursion did you enjoy in Aruba either with the ship or with an independent?

[FionaMG]

OK ... I'm asking!

What excursion did you enjoy in Aruba either with the ship or with an independent?

 

:)

 

We did a ship-sponsored tour operated by De Palm Tours. They offer a similar tour on their website for independent bookings but which goes to the Butterfly Farm instead of the beach. The quality of the service during the tour (driver/guide and vehicle) was excellent, even though I felt the tour itself to be a bit rushed in places.

 

Here's what I posted about the tour over on the Royal Caribbean board:

 

Our final port of call on this cruise was Aruba and this was where we had our second ship-sponsored excursion. It went by the name of “Aruba Island Sightseeing and Beach Adventure” and was operated by De Palm Tours. I really have no idea why they would have labelled it “adventure” since it was hardly adventurous, just a sightseeing tour with a bit of beach time tagged on at the end. The stops were the Casibari rock formations, the natural bridge, the California lighthouse and Eagle beach.

 

Our driver/guide introduced himself as Jay and he was amusing, friendly and knowledgeable, giving us plenty of snippets of information as we went along.

 

The first stop, at the rock formations, was, in my opinion, far too short. We were given 20 minutes and Jay warned us that if we left late the time would be cut off from our time at the beach. Well, 20 minutes was barely enough time to get up to the top of the big rock opposite the car park, and there were lots more to explore. If you had to use the bathroom, especially the ladies, then you wouldn’t have time to see anything. After we came back down from the big rock that everyone was climbing, I used the remaining five or so minutes to climb up to the top of one of the other ones. One of the striking things was the number of cacti all over the place. Jay told us that they just grow spontaneously and the Arubans don’t even use them for anything.

 

Casibari rock formations:

 

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After we left the rock formations (everyone got back to the bus on time) we headed to the natural bridge. Part of the route here is off road so it was a bit bumpy but at least we were in a comfortable bus; we saw lots of jeeps and UTV vehicles bumping their way along the dirt track and those folks were bouncing up and down like mad! Although I suppose it’s probably great fun if you don’t have back problems. On the way to the natural bridge we also drove past the ruins of what used to be a gold mine. We didn’t stop there but some of the jeeps did.

 

When we arrived at the natural bridge I think we had about half an hour to wander around, admire the gorgeous natural surroundings, browse in the gift shop and, yes, go to the bathroom. For any gents reading this, my apologies, but for us ladies this is a big deal. The bathroom at the natural bridge is in the gift shop and you have to pay a dollar to use it. But it is so worth it. Plenty of stalls, immaculately clean, pleasantly-scented liquid soap and – best of all – no lines because so few people are willing to part with a dollar to pee!

 

At the natural bridge; my photos of the actual bridge are rubbish, too over-exposed :(

 

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The next stop after the natural bridge was the California lighthouse. Well, what can I say? Yes, it’s a pretty enough spot (seen prettier) and the lighthouse makes for a nice photo, but what’s the point in “visiting” a lighthouse if all you can do is stand outside it and take a picture of it? There was a warning on our tour tickets about it undergoing renovation. It looked to me like the renovation was complete and there was a notice outside the restaurant there saying you could buy a ticket to go up inside but I didn’t see anybody doing this, so I don’t know if it was genuinely an option or not. I would happily have skipped this stop completely in exchange for extra time either at the rock formations or at the beach.

 

California lighthouse

 

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On leaving the lighthouse, we had a scenic drive along the coast past Arashi Beach and all the big fancy resorts on our way to our beach stop at Eagle Beach. This was a very pretty drive. The beaches here are beautiful. As we were driving, Jay pointed out a pair of trees which had sprouted spontaneously on the beach. Apparently this spot is very popular with couples for their wedding photos. You can see why!

 

Twin trees

 

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By the time we arrived at Eagle Beach we only had 50 minutes to enjoy it so we wasted no time in getting on to the sand and going for a wander along the water’s edge in both directions. What a gorgeous beach! If we ever make it back to Aruba, I think we will just grab a taxi and head straight here.

 

Eagle beach

 

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[DaisyandSika]

Thank you Fiona for the review! Is Eagle Beach far from the cruise port? I am thinking we may head here for a few hours before our trike tour at 1:30pm.

[FionaMG]

Thank you Fiona for the review! Is Eagle Beach far from the cruise port? I am thinking we may head here for a few hours before our trike tour at 1:30pm.

 

Distance-wise I don't know exactly how far, but it only took us about 10 to 15 minutes to drive back to the port on the tour bus, so I would say definitely doable as a complement to your trike tour. :)

[Keith1010]

Thanks for sharing this.

Keith

[FionaMG]

Thanks for sharing this.

Keith

 

My pleasure. Hopefully it will others in their planning. :)

[cruiseapril]

We took a similar excursion with time at the Aloe Farm, the Casibiri Rocks, and the baby natural bridge.

 

Then we spent the afternoon at Palm Beach on our own.