TRAVEL

How I vacationed to Aruba for only $800!

by samanthaellison9
Hi! My name is Sam and I am thrilled that you are here!!! I am super passionate about traveling and experiencing new things and seeing the beauty in the world and different cultures (all for a reasonable price)! I recently went to Aruba for only $800 TOTAL (including flight!!) and I wanted to share how I did it!
I think a lot of times people don’t travel because they think it’s way too expensive, but really, if you think about it, a trip to a tropical island can cost the same as 6 pairs of Lululemon leggings, and I think seeing the world and making beautiful memories is absolutely worth skipping out on 6 pairs of leggings. So, if you agree (or maybe are slightly convinced and want to know more), keep reading! At the end, I have included a FREE 5-day Aruba itinerary just for you if you decide you want to try out this world-traveling-on-a-budget thing :))

PLANNING

Planning a trip may seem rather daunting, but I promise it is SO doable. I bought tickets and planned this whole thing in one month, all while teaching fourth grade full-time, coaching golf after work, and helping plan women’s ministry events, while also making time to invest in the friends around me. So, in the craziness of this life, how did this happen, you may ask? Well, I got an email from Scott’s Cheap Flights one day about Aruba ticket prices dropping from $650 to $266. It was starting to get cold, fall was coming, and I knew I wanted to go somewhere tropical. I texted a few friends when I saw the ticket prices, and two days later, three of my girlfriends had decided to join in on this spontaneous adventure, and I am so thankful! I wrote an entire blog post about how to create your dream itinerary, so if you want to know more about my overall process for planning any trip, check out my planning post *coming soon!* (which also includes a cute downloadable itinerary freebie).

FLIGHTS, CAR RENTAL, STAYS

Flights, car rental, and hotels are oftentimes the most expensive parts of a trip, so knowing where and how to find the best deals is sooo important. On my planning post mentioned above, I have a very detailed process for how I make sure I am getting the best deals for my trips, so be sure to check that out to make sure you are always doing what you need to save $$$! But here, I will just give you a summary of what I did specifically for Aruba.

What sparked this whole trip was that email I got from Scott’s Cheap Flights notifying me of the price drop in flights to Aruba. Still not over the fact that they had gone from $650 to $266!!! LIKE WHAAAAT?! And I would never have known this if I hadn’t made a Scott’s Cheap Flights account. (I am not sponsored by them, I just really want to share because their deals are amazing and they inspire me to travel!) 

Then, I started looking at activities to do in Aruba and saw that a lot of them required a 4-wheel drive vehicle, such as a Jeep, or you would be paying $89 a day for most ATV rentals to go on tours if you really wanted to see allll the beautiful places. So after adding up prices, etc, I decided it would be best just to go ahead and rent a Jeep so we could explore at our own leisure and didn’t have to spend extra money on ATV tours that would end up costing more than the Jeep rental price for the week. 

After comparing several sites, Orbitz ended up being the cheapest for a Jeep rental for 5 days. It ended up only costing $468 total because they give you a discount if you pay in cash upon arrival. So I was nervously carrying my $500 cash throughout the airport, but it was worth it because it saved us a little money on the car rental! 

Okay, now for the fun part: stays. I always try to stay in Airbnbs or VRBO rental properties for the majority of my trips, but allow myself to be boujee for one night and stay in a fancy boutique hotel or resort! This time, I chose to stay at the Renaissance Aruba resort because it gave us access to their private island (with flamingos!), saving us money on not having to buy a day pass to visit there, which costs $125 normally. 

The other 3 nights, we stayed in inexpensive, but nice Airbnbs. The ones we stayed in will be linked below on the full itinerary of the trip! Hotel and Airbnb prices do vary based on season, so know that prices fluctuate and are subject to change throughout the year. When booking anything – flights, cars, etc – if you see a price you like for something, you need to make sure you book immediately because prices can change every day!

THE TRIP

DAY ONE

With Scott’s Cheap Flights, we ended up flying with JetBlue. It was my first time flying with them, and they were great! A very good selection of snacks from the snack cart, too! Our flight departed at 6:35 am, so we got to the airport at about 4 am in order to have plenty of time to get through all the international security stuff. We landed in Aruba and had to go through customs, show our passports, la di da and finally made it out with our rental car. We ended up grabbing lunch at a local restaurant and then went to the Aloe Factory. We didn’t end up going on the tour, but just looked at the beautiful aloe fields for a bit, then headed to our Airbnb. We weren’t hungry for dinner, so we moved around our itinerary a little and stopped by the local grocery store “SuperFood” to grab snacks to eat later. 10/10 recommend, they have so many yummy options and a lot of Dutch treats (StroopWafel cookies are fabulous), seeing as how Aruba was colonized by the Dutch and still is a part of their country today. We went to bed at around 10 pm so we could be well-rested for our next day that was full of things to do.

DAY TWO

We ate some granola bars we had packed for breakfast and left for Arikok National Park in our Jeep! Admission is only $11.  Off-roading was quite the experience, as we were driving over volcanic rocks, through mud, and up and down the hills by the coast. I have never driven a Jeep off-roading before, but it is 1000% doable. It did surprise some of the tour guides, though, when four girls got out of the Jeep driving themselves on the rough terrain :))

We went to the natural pool first in the park and it was incredible. We swam in the clear blue water as the ages-old volcanic rocks shielded us from the waves crashing into them. *Sigh* Perfection.  Then we headed to the Fontein Caves and got to look at Incan cave drawings while bats flitted around us. After this, we ran into a tour guide who took us down a hidden path to a little pool and we got a FISH PEDICURE. So cool. I felt like a little island queen at a natural spa. 

After we drove along the coast of the park for a while, taking in all the beautiful scenery, we left the park and stopped at this Panderia (Hispanic bread and pastry store) to grab a snack. The ham and cheese pastry I got there was only $2 and was one of my FAVORITE things I ate the entire trip. After that, we drove to the end of the island to eat at Zeerovers, a fresh-caught-fish restaurant that is right on the water.  I got Snapper as my entree, and a local recommended I ask for fried cornbread (specifically ask them to cook it) as my side and SHOOT it was goooood. Wow. And the entire meal was only $6!!! Excellent, authentic Aruban food &&& and a table on a dock directly on the water with colorful fish swimming underneath? Yeah, count me in. 

We then drove around, did some sightseeing, and took some pictures at the places we didn’t get to hit the previous day after our flight had arrived. We headed to check in at the Renaissance Resort around 5 pm and started getting ready for dinner at the Flying Fishbone. (This link will take you to my reel of all the food we ate with videos of the experience!) We made reservations for 6 pm because we wanted to have a sunset dinner on the water. You get to eat with your feet IN the water on the beach and the food is delicious. 15/10. 

Okay, HUGE recommendation: if there are places you know you want to eat at, you absolutely need to make reservations online as far in advance as possible. In off-season, it’s pretty easy to get a table, but if you go at peak season time, you may not get to try all the yummy places you want if you don’t have a reservation. We went back to the room after that and hung out at the bar/pool area in the hotel lobby!

DAY THREE

Flamingo dayyyyy!!! We woke up at 8 to pack our bags to put in our car. Then, we went to the hotel lobby to get our wristbands for the water taxi to take us to the Renaissance private Island. After we had our wristbands, we were able to show our room key to board the water taxi that pulls right up into the hotel lobby to take us to the island. The taxis run starting at around 7 am and come every 15-ish minutes. Try to get there pretty early if you want to get a good seat, because the beach chairs fill up pretty quickly. They also have cabanas you can rent on the island if you want to pay a little extra to have a whole space to yourself! 

When you step off the water taxi, it’s everything you would expect a private island to be. Iguanas roaming around freely, crystal clear blue water, mangrove trees hovering above the water, tiki huts, and, of course, flamingos 🙂 When you get off the taxi, you go to the left to get towels (and if you want floats to lay on) with your room key. Then you head back to right and can grab your spot in one of the beach chairs on the shore. Take quarters so you can buy food to feed the flamingos! They will walk up to you and are pretty calm if you just put one piece of food in your hand at a time and move slowly. There are also some walking trails, plenty of hammocks, free paddle board and kayaks you can use during your time there, and sooo many good photo spots! Definitely a very relaxing day. No need to bring food or anything with you because they have a restaurant and a bar area there! 

After our relaxing day, we went to our Airbnb to get ready for dinner. We had reservations at Gianni’s, an Italian restaurant in the lively hotel district square. They made our pasta in a giant cheese wheel and lit our food on fire. It was quite the show. And only cost $24! They give you a ton of food, so I had leftovers (saving money on food the next day!). There is plenty of shopping in that area, so we spent the evening buying souvenirs and looking at the knockoff name-brand tables. 

DAY FOUR

This day was personally my FAVORITE. We had the opportunity to partner with Red Sail Aruba on some advertising things and got to spend the morning sailing around on a catamaran with their crazyyy fun captain and crew. It was a four-hour sailing outing with 3 stops to snorkel. They provide all the snorkel gear, an open bar with great drinks, and a full caribbean buffet for lunch. They also give out snacks throughout the day (hello empanadas and fruit kabobs!!). I compared lots of other snorkel and sail companies in the area, and Red Sail was undoubtedly the best. We saw beautiful fish, and even SEA TURTLES swimming around in the reefs and boat wreckage. A catamaran tour is an absolute must on a trip to Aruba.

After this, we hopped in the Jeep and explored some more! We had packed some beautiful dresses from my friend’s dress rental company (Riley Morgan Co), which helped us take lots of cute pictures throughout the trip! We drove to the Bushiribana Gold Mine ruins *unreal* and just stood in awe at the fact that God made the world as beautifully as He did. Next, we went down into a volcanic rock cave and also just stood in awe at the grandeur of everything. Not being in a hurry to rush to every place on an itinerary and taking time to take in beauty is one of the best parts of a trip. We went to the natural bridge, too, but it was more “touristy” so we didn’t stay very long there. 

When we left that scenic spot, I saw some cute rocks (lol) I really wanted to take a picture at (on the right when you’re about 2 minutes from the gold mine road entrance) and then we tried to find some donkeys to feed out in the desert, but our GPS stopped working and we got lost for a bit until we ran into an ATV tour group and just followed them back into town. Quite the adventure.

That night, we just ordered pizza and had a little picnic at sunset on the beach (I ate my leftover pasta). We then went downtown and got ice cream from The Haddock. I got strawberry and vanilla and it tasted like the Chupa-Chups suckers I used to get from Mexico when I was a kid :’)  That night, we hung out in the hot tub at our Airbnb and just talked about life. A restful evening to end a busy day!

DAY FIVE

We woke up around 8 am, packed our stuff and headed to breakfast at Linda’s Dutch Pancakes. It was my least favorite meal of the trip and was rather pricey, so this one is a “do not recommend” place. Maybe Diana’s Dutch Pancakes would’ve been better, but they were closed that day.

The remainder of the morning, we shopped around downtown at Zara (heart eyessss) and the market. We returned our rental car at 12 and made it to the airport in plenty of time to go through customs and get on our departing flight at 3pm! Weird thing: you check your luggage, go through security once and end up in some kind of food court, then, you have to go through security AGAIN. So don’t hang out in the food court after the first security section for very long because you may be late to your flight if you do that! FYI!

PRACTICAL THINGS

Horseback Riders at the Bushiribana Gold Mill Ruins

It is safe to drink water out of the sink in Aruba. 

Most souvenir/market places only take cash, so I would bring about $100 just in case. Everything is pretty affordable. 

They accept US$ and credit card everywhere we went. 

Don’t pack too heavy because you mostly can just wear a bathing suit all day everywhere. My friend and I split a suitcase, saving us money on a checked bag fee.

You don’t need an outlet adaptor for your phone charger if you are coming from the USA. 

Most Arubans learn Spanish, English, Dutch, and their native language Papmiento, in school so it’s pretty easy to communicate with everyone!

Get an international phone plan for a few days. I just called Verizon, they activated it, and it was only $10/day. Very much worth it.

Itinerary Freebie!

I know there are a lot of words up there about Aruba, so I wanted to simplify it a bit for you! Thank you so much for reading about my adventure! And now I hope you are inspired to go and make your own memories on this little island I love so much!

Aruba Itinerary Download Link