Aruba Family Itinerary: 7 Days with Kids

Fly into Queen Beatrix International (AUA) and take a taxi straight to your Palm Beach hotel. Aruba taxis use fixed, government-set flat rates rather than meters, and the airport-to-Palm Beach fare is $41 one-way for up to four passengers as of 2026. With kids and luggage that beats the roughly hourly bus, whose airport stops sit behind the car park rather than at the terminal doors.

Skip the ambitious sightseeing today. Palm Beach is calm and shallow close to shore, which makes it the easiest possible reintroduction to swimming after a flight, and the hotels here sit within a short walk of the sand. Let the kids wade and nap off the travel day while you figure out where the towels and shade are.

Stay close to the hotel for dinner. Fisherman's Hut is an easy, unfussy seafood option in the Palm Beach area if anyone still has energy to sit through a full meal; otherwise room service or a quick bite at the hotel is the honest call after a travel day with kids.

Spend the morning on Palm Beach itself. The water here is reliably calm and shallow, comfortable for swimming and snorkeling directly off the sand, which is exactly what you want with small children who are still finding their sea legs. Bring your own beach chairs since the loungers are typically resort property, though any unoccupied public palapa is fair game.

If anyone in the family is old enough and steady on a board, Fisherman's Huts just north of the high-rise strip toward Malmok is Aruba's premier windsurfing beach with very shallow, calm water, but for a family morning, staying on the main stretch of sand is simplest.

Keep the afternoon unstructured: more beach time, a slow lunch, maybe a nap for younger kids. This is the trip's easiest day on purpose, and it banks goodwill for the more active days ahead.

Book a sunset catamaran cruise if your kids are old enough to enjoy time on a boat; it sails Aruba's calm west coast and pairs well with an early dinner after. If that is not realistic with your crew's ages, simply walk the beach at sunset instead and eat at Pelican Nest Seafood Grill on the Palm Beach strip.

Start early at the Butterfly Farm near Palm Beach, a walk-through garden enclosure filled with hundreds of free-flying butterflies; mornings are cooler, before the midday heat settles in, and it is a short, calm stop that works for almost any age.

From there, add Bubali Bird Sanctuary, a low-key stop for kids who like spotting waterbirds, short enough to fold into the same morning without wearing anyone out.

Head back to Palm Beach for lunch and an afternoon swim once the morning's walking has worn everyone down a little. This keeps the day balanced between structured sightseeing and the calm water kids actually want to return to.

Have an early dinner at Casa Tua Pizzeria in the Arawak Garden area, a reliable pick when the group needs something familiar after a day of new sights.

Rent a car for the next few days; this is where it starts earning its cost. Drive inland to the Aruba Donkey Sanctuary near Santa Cruz, a volunteer-run refuge for the island's once-wild donkeys where kids can meet the residents up close; an hour or so is usually plenty.

From there it is a short drive to the Casibari Rock Formations, a cluster of giant boulders with carved steps and trails to the top for island views. It is an easy, short climb that most kids enjoy more than a formal museum stop, and if they want more scrambling, the Ayo Rock Formations, another set of monolithic boulders nearby, make a simple add-on.

On the way back toward the coast, stop at Eagle Beach for an hour so the family can compare it with Palm Beach directly. It is the widest beach on the island and genuinely striking, especially around the leaning fofoti trees, though the water here has a steeper slope and can pick up more chop on windy days than Palm Beach, so keep younger kids closer in. Between March and November you may also spot sea turtle nests roped off with red-and-white barricades; keep at least 10 meters back and let the kids watch from a distance.

Have dinner at Passions on the Beach on Eagle Beach, or head back toward Palm Beach for something more familiar if the group is tired.

Drive south to Baby Beach at Aruba's southeastern tip, officially named Klein Lagoen and about a 45-minute drive from the Palm Beach hotels. The interior of this shallow, sheltered lagoon is generally waist-high and calm, which is exactly what makes it a favorite for families with small children. Beach beds, windscreens, and snorkel gear can be rented on site if you did not bring your own.

One honest safety note worth repeating to the whole family before anyone gets in the water: the lagoon deepens toward the inlet where it meets the open ocean, and beyond the breakwater the currents turn genuinely dangerous, with no lifeguards on duty. Stay within the marked snorkel area and keep young swimmers well clear of the lagoon mouth.

Grab lunch at Big Mama's Grill right on Baby Beach, or make the one-minute drive over to Rodgers Beach if Baby Beach feels crowded; it is a quieter cove with calm, sheltered water, colorful fishing boats at anchor, and the old refinery visible across the bay.

With energy left, drive the short distance into San Nicolas to walk Main Street's open-air murals for half an hour; viewing is free and self-guided, and it is short enough not to overtax younger kids after a beach morning. If the timing works, step into Charlie's Bar, its walls packed with decades of donated patron memorabilia; note it closes at 6:00pm and is closed Sundays.

Eat dinner at Zeerovers in nearby Savaneta, a working fishermen's wharf where the day's catch goes straight from boat to fryer to a plastic basket at a picnic table. It is casual, fast, and kid-friendly in the sense that nobody has to sit still for long, but note it is cash only and closed Mondays, so plan this day for a Tuesday through Sunday.

Today is the trip's big-ticket day: a De Palm Island Day Pass. De Palm Island is a private island off Aruba's southwest coast, one of only two beaches in Aruba that require a paid pass (every other beach on the island is public by law), and the all-inclusive day format suits families well: snorkeling and water activities in one contained place, with no logistics to manage once you arrive. Book ahead rather than treating it as a walk-up beach.

If a submarine feels more your family's speed than a beach day, the Aruba Atlantis Submarine Tour departs from Oranjestad and lets kids watch reefs, fish, and sunken wrecks glide past without anyone getting wet, a solid alternative for a family with a mix of ages or a child nervous about open water.

Spend the rest of the day on whichever splurge you picked. De Palm Island runs as a full-day, all-inclusive experience, so there is little reason to rush off early; the submarine takes up far less of the day, leaving the afternoon free for downtown Oranjestad, where the free, solar-powered Oranjestad Streetcar loops through the center past Fort Zoutman and the shops along Caya Betico Croes (note the streetcar does not run on Sundays). Wilhelmina Park, a small waterfront garden nearby, is an easy spot to let younger kids reset before dinner.

Have dinner in Oranjestad before heading back to the hotel. Casa Tua Renaissance is an easy, kid-friendly pizzeria pick downtown if the day has already been a splurge; Driftwood Restaurant is the better choice for a family that wants one proper sit-down seafood dinner during the week.

Arikok National Park covers nearly a fifth of Aruba, and the San Fuego entrance near Santa Cruz is open 8:00am to 3:30pm, so arrive early to make the most of the gate window. The Conservation Pass runs $22 per adult as of 2026, children under 17 enter free, and the caves are covered by the same pass.

Be honest with the family about the Natural Pool (Conchi) before you go: reaching it means a guided 4x4 trip such as an Arikok jeep safari, a horseback ride, or a multi-hour hike in full sun, and swimming there is never guaranteed since rangers advise against it on rough days and conditions can close the pool altogether. That is a hard sell for small kids and not the honest pick for this trip. Instead, a regular 2WD rental car can reach Fontein Cave and Quadirikiri Cave on the park's paved and well-maintained gravel roads; just slow down over the stone drainage ditches that cross them. Fontein Cave holds Arawak rock paintings on its ceiling, and Quadirikiri Cave has two large chambers naturally lit by sunlight through holes in the ceiling, which makes it feel like an adventure without the exposed, shadeless trek to Conchi.

Leave the park before the 3:30pm San Fuego cutoff and head back to Palm Beach for one last calm-water swim. It is a fitting bookend to a trip that started and ends on the same easy, shallow sand.

Close the trip with an early dinner the kids will actually enjoy. Sunset Grille at Palm Beach is a good choice if you want one nicer meal before departure; otherwise keep it simple and low-key for a next-day flight.