Aruba Expensive
The most developed food scene of the three Dutch islands, and the most expensive. Look past the strip for pastechi at breakfast, keshi yena, and fresh fish at Zeerovers where you pay by weight and eat over the water.
Budget travel in Aruba
What a visitor's money does in Aruba: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Expensive average across 1 guide · 5 is very cheap
Money
Aruban Florin (AWG) · 1 USD = 1.79 AWG · 1 EUR = 2.05 AWG
US dollars are accepted everywhere at a fixed 1.75 and change often comes back in florins. There is no need to change money at all if you arrive with dollars. Euros are not accepted.
ATMs
Avoid: casino cash machines, which charge heavily
Use: Aruba Bank, RBC, CMB
Machines offer florins or dollars; take dollars, which everything is priced in anyway. Fixed rate of 1.79 to the dollar, so there is no rate to shop around for.
Getting around
From the airport: Curaçao airport to Willemstad ANG 35–45; Aruba airport to Palm Beach $25–30
City by city, cheapest first
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
