Aruba in One Day: Aruba UTV Tour Review (Aruba ATV Review)

Is your cruise ship arriving at the Aruba Cruise Port for one day? You’re so lucky! Aruba is one of our favorite southern Caribbean Islands.

Aruba is gorgeous, but you don’t have much time, so here is a fun way to see it in one day!

Aruba is One happy island…

I’ve had this weird obsession with going to Aruba since I heard The Beach Boys’ song “Kokomo” when I was younger, (you know… “Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya.”)

I don’t know why I’m very weird that way though. My quirks are for another post though, this one is about our day in Aruba!

A little bit about Aruba. Aruba is located just off the coast of Venezuela. It is an independent country under the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Aruba is one of the ABC islands which also include Bonaire and Curaçao. Arubans hold Dutch passports. It is about 75 square miles.

Aruba sits just outside the hurricane zone.

Arubans speak Dutch and Papiamento ( a creole dialect composed of English, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese). The average temperature in Aruba is 82 F (28 C).

How to see Aruba in one day

We booked a cruise for my middle son’s senior trip ( a tradition for us) and it had Aruba on the itinerary I was stoked! I envisioned white soft sand, crystal blue water, pretty drinks, flamingos, and palm trees… you know the perfect Caribbean picture, one that The Beach Boys would sing about!

I started researching Aruba and discovered something I had never known. Aruba is a dry, arid climate. Yep! No tropical rainforest here, it is desert, with cacti! Did you know? I didn’t!

There are beautiful beaches on the west and south coasts, but the east and north coasts are rocky, ragged, natural, and absolutely breathtaking.

Traveling to Aruba with two teenage boys changed the way I thought about planning our day. I knew they wouldn’t be content with laying on a beach all day. I also knew that I wanted to do an island tour and see as much as I could in one day.

Aruba in one day: UTV Tour

➡️ Click Here to Book Your UTV Aruba Tour

Luckily, I found the perfect way to give the boys an adventure, and me the opportunity to see a lot of Aruba in our one day on Aruba!

We chose ABC Tours for our UTV excursion. They offer amazing tour packages! We found a UTV tour that looked great for us.

We chose this one because my son was 18 and they would let him drive. Some other companies wouldn’t and I thought it would be more fun for the boys to be together and my husband and me to be together. mostly I didn’t want to ruin the boys’ fun by driving like an old lady.

I love the itinerary of our tour, it had a great mix of seeing the most famous sites in Aruba, the UTV ride, and the boys an opportunity to jump into a natural pool.

There was a little miscommunication at the beginning because we were told that they couldn’t pick us up from the port because we didn’t book through the cruise line. We tried walking and got lost because nobody we asked seemed to be able to give us directions.

Finally, I called the office and they had someone come and pick us up from the side of the road. After that, it was easy peasy.

We signed waivers, bought some buffs to keep the dust out of our mouths and eyes, and were shown our rides for the day. They showed us how to use them (easy) and we were off!

How the Aruba UTV Tour works

You travel in a line behind the guide, and there is a guide behind the line as well. We started on the actual road and drove through small towns until we got to our first stop. When you go around the roundabouts on the road you are supposed to honk the whole time.

The first stop was the Casibari Rock formation. This is pretty amazing. It is a rock garden with massive rocks that you can walk around. There is a rock that has stairs built in that you can climb up for a view of the island.

Aruba is flat with the exception of one Mountain, Hooiberg, and this gives you a good view of this. Across the street from the rocks was a little vendor selling fresh juice which was amazing.

After that, we were on our way to Arikok National Park, on the east side of the island. We were having fun before this, but let me say it got SO. MUCH. BETTER once we got to the park.

Dusty, bumpy roads that can only be accessed by 4WD were ours to travel. We had to stay with the group but were still able to go fast (if you wanted ) and really kick up dust. There were such amazing views.

The contrast between the dry, brown earth and the blue sea, and the rugged rocks was stunning. We made quite a few stops just to enjoy the view, and Dave and I would switch driving every couple of times.

It’s super fun to drive, but also you want to see the scenery too, so it is nice to switch. The boys were always directly in front of us so we could see them too.

✅ Click Here to Book a UTV Aruba Tour

What to see on a UTV Tour in Aruba

We drove past Baby Beach, Blackstone Beach, Andicuri Beach. The beaches on this side of the island are not for swimming. The water is rough and strong. It is mesmerizing to watch the waves crash against the rocks.

We stopped at Natural Bridge, which I have always wanted to see. The “real” Natural Bridge was over 100 feet long and 23 feet tall and had been formed from waves eroding the stone.

Sadly, it collapsed in 2005, but the remains are still there. There is a “baby bridge” that still stands next to it that we could see, and the boys went out on it.

We drove past the Bushiribana Gold Mill Ruins, which were interesting to see. It was from the 19th Century gold rush.

They took us to a hidden natural pool “Conchi“. I was super excited about this, but ended up not being able to do it, and was super sad. The pool is hidden between rocks and is absolutely gorgeous, I’m still bummed I didn’t do it.

You have to climb down a ladder in the rocks and crawl over other rocks to get to it. I have a bad knee and am not very strong, so I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to do the climb and then my anxiety started, so I sat it out.

The boys did it though and loved it. The guides are there to help you back out of the water after you jump.

➡️ Click Here to Book Your UTV Aruba Tour

Don’t be like me and let self-doubt affect your trip. Jump!

The next stop on our UTV Tour was Alto Vista Chapel. This small Catholic chapel stands alone on a bluff with its bright yellow walls welcoming you in. It is absolutely gorgeous.

Outside of the chapel were a few vendors selling trinkets, and a guy making real, fresh Pina Coladas and they were AMAZING. He made some virgin ones for the boys and some real ones for us. Yum.

California Lighthouse was the next stop. We got out and took some photos and then headed back through towns on the west side.

There was a nice beach that we stopped at for a bit and were able to jump off a small cliff into the water and swim around a bit.

It felt amazing and it was wonderful to wash the dirt off. We were so dirty. I mean dirtier than you think.

We found the coolest cave to swim into, we swam to the back of the cave, sat in the sand, and had the waves rush in. I could have stayed forever right there.

Sadly, it was time to head back to the Aruba Cruise Port after that, and they dropped us off at an outdoor market to buy souvenirs across from where the ship was.

We had so much fun seeing so much of Aruba in one day!

I’m so glad that we were able to see so much of Aruba in one day! Everyone had so much fun. We were absolutely exhausted. We loved Aruba and were grateful to visit so many incredible places on our island tour.

I would do it again, and again, and again. I know that there are some ritzy, fancy places in Aruba that would be nice too, but if you are down for a dirty adventure get on a UTV and EXPERIENCE ARUBA!

Top Questions about our Aruba UTV Tour