Aruba
Oranjestad and its archaeological museum, and a north coast of limestone and cacti. Here the language is Papiamento.
Route by public transport ↗
Six islands, one Kingdom, many stories.
Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba: our Dutch Caribbean family. Six islands with a shared past that runs deeper than sun and sea. Visit the museums and you hear about trade and slavery, about resistance, and about a culture all their own.
Since 10 October 2010 the Kingdom has been made up of four countries: the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba became special municipalities of the Netherlands on the same day. On Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire people speak Papiamentu (spelt Papiamento on Aruba); on the three Windward Islands it is mostly English. Willemstad is the best place to start: its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage site and you can walk from one museum to the next. Begin in Otrobanda, cross the floating bridge to Punda, then plan your next island.
One day, four moments. How to get the most out of your visit.
Six places to complete your museum day.
Thousands of years of Aruba, from the first Indigenous inhabitants to the colonial era. Pottery, tools and burials tell the story of the people who lived here before the Europeans came.
A museum on the transatlantic slave trade and the kingdoms of West Africa, set in restored houses on the Otrobanda waterfront. Hard-hitting and well told; take a guided tour.
A small museum among the shops of Front Street, covering the island from its first inhabitants to Hurricane Irma in 2017. It also explains why the island is shared with French Saint-Martin.
Low stone huts on the south coast where enslaved workers from the salt pans slept. A quiet place between the white salt heaps and the sea.
In the former house of planter Simon Doncker you see how wealthy merchants lived, and how trade and slavery shaped Statia. Walk on to Fort Oranje afterwards.
A small house and garden in the mountain village of Windwardside, full of objects and memories from Saban families. The island in miniature.
Each island has its own language, its own food and its own story. From Curaçao they are closer than you think.
Oranjestad and its archaeological museum, and a north coast of limestone and cacti. Here the language is Papiamento.
Route by public transport ↗Kralendijk, the salt pans and the slave huts on the south coast. The Terramar Museum on Wilhelminaplein tells the wider story of the island.
Route by public transport ↗Two small, quiet islands with a big past. You reach them via Sint Maarten.
Route by public transport ↗Travel times are indicative. Live times on 9292.nl ↗.
Willemstad has places to stay for every budget, from guesthouses in Otrobanda to boutique hotels in the old buildings of Pietermaai. You can walk to the museums, the market and the waterfront. From Curaçao airport it is a short hop to Aruba and Bonaire, and via Sint Maarten to Saba and Statia. And in the evening you are back in town for dinner.