Do I need a passport to visit Aruba?

Yes. Aruba requires a valid passport for all visitors, including US and Canadian citizens. Citizens of the Netherlands and other EU countries may enter with a national ID card. Most nationalities receive a 30-day entry stamp on arrival, with extensions available through Aruba's immigration office, DIMAS. More details at https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Aruba#Get_in.

What currency does Aruba use?

The official currency is the Aruban Florin (AWG), currently at 1.7900 AWG to 1 USD. In practice, US dollars are accepted nearly everywhere on the island, including restaurants, shops, and taxis. Credit cards work at most establishments in the hotel zones and Oranjestad. ATMs dispense florins, and some also offer USD withdrawal. See https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Aruba#Cope for more practical tips.

Is the tap water safe to drink in Aruba?

Yes. Aruba's tap water comes from one of the Caribbean's largest seawater desalination plants, operated by WEB Aruba N.V. It meets WHO standards and is safe to drink throughout the island. There's no need to buy bottled water.

Is Aruba suitable for remote workers and digital nomads?

Aruba scores 6.2 out of 10 for digital-nomad suitability (sourced from TTDI's editorial rubric). The island introduced a remote-worker program called One Happy Workation in 2020, allowing stays of up to 90 days. Wi-Fi at hotels and coworking spaces tends to be reliable, though speeds can be inconsistent outside the resort areas. The cost of living runs higher than most Caribbean destinations, with restaurant meals and groceries priced closer to US mainland levels.

Do I need a rental car on the island?

It depends on your plans. If you're staying at a resort and want mainly beach days, taxis and hotel shuttles work fine. But reaching Arikok's interior trails, the southern beaches, or the Natural Pool at Conchi requires a vehicle. A 4x4 is necessary for the park's unpaved roads. The regulated taxi fares and rental options are covered in the getting-around section.

When is hurricane season, and does it affect Aruba?

The Atlantic hurricane season runs June through November, but Aruba sits at roughly 12°N latitude, well south of the Caribbean's typical storm track. Direct strikes are exceptionally rare in the island's recorded history. Rain showers pick up slightly during October and November, though they tend to be brief afternoon bursts that clear within 30 minutes.

Things to Do in Aruba: A Complete Guide

Local 01:40

Weather 28° overcast

Feels 30° · 78% · 31 km/h

Air 50 good

PM2.5 20.4 · PM10 54.6

Sun 06:29 → 18:42

1 USD 1.79 AWG

Aruba sits outside the Caribbean hurricane belt, a flat coral island roughly thirty kilometres long where the trade winds blow so persistently that the native divi-divi trees grow bent almost horizontal, all leaning southwest like permanent flags. That wind is the first thing you notice stepping off the plane, and it never stops. It tempers the desert heat, fills the kitesurf lines off Boca Grandi, and keeps the windward coast stripped to raw limestone and cactus scrub that looks more like the American Southwest than anything you would place in the Caribbean. This is not a lush, mountainous island. Annual rainfall barely cracks five hundred millimetres, and Arikok National Park, covering almost a fifth of the surface, is a landscape of exposed volcanic rock, roaming wild donkeys, and caves whose walls carry Arawak petroglyphs centuries old. Most visitors anchor along the high-rise strip at Palm Beach or the wider, quieter sweep of Eagle Beach, but the island reveals more when you leave that corridor. Oranjestad, the capital, was rebuilt in the early 2000s into a pastel waterfront lined with Dutch colonial facades, and its linear park along the harbour is where locals walk after the cruise ships pull away. South of the airport, San Nicolas, the island's second city and former refinery town, has reinvented its commercial streets with large-scale murals painted during an annual art festival, giving a neighbourhood that oil money built and then abandoned a second public life. The food borrows from everywhere the island's history touches: Dutch bitterballen alongside Venezuelan arepas, fresh catch served in keshi yena, a baked cheese shell that passes for a national dish. Four languages circulate daily, with Papiamento dominating local conversation while Dutch, Spanish, and English fill the gaps, and that layered identity is just the way the place actually works.