Aruba Private Island

I’m sure by now you’ve seen pictures of people posing with flamingos on a beach and it looks magical. Let me tell you… the magic is there!

Because our Airbnb wasn’t available for our entire stay in Aruba, we knew we’d need to look for another one or book a hotel. I’ve mentioned in my previous post that hotels in Aruba are on the pricier side, so whatever we selected had to have something unique about it to make it worth our money. Since we knew we wanted to go to the private island, we decided to stay at Renaissance Marina Hotel and we are so glad we did!

They own the private island, so admission is free as long as you are a hotel guest.
It’s adult only (if this is not a plus for you and you need family friendly, check out Renaissance Ocean Suites that’s right across the street)

Getting to the island…

If you are not staying at one of the two Renaissance hotels, you can still get to the private island, but it’ll cost you $99-$125/person per day and you purchase the day pass in the lobby of the hotel.

The water taxi runs every 15 minutes from 7am-7pm. You cannot bring a cooler with you (we tried), but you can bring a book bag. The water taxi leaves from either the hotel lobby (via a narrow water passage) or across the street from the marina. We were there for four days and the lobby passage was always closed, so not sure if I’d count on that.

The island is split into two- one side is adult only and one side is family friendly. The flamingos hang out on the adult only side, but they do allow families to come by in the morning to take pictures.

Booking a cabana…

Since it was my husbands birthday on one of our hotel days, we decided to splurge and get a private cabana on the private island. They only had the “large” cabana available on the date of this birthday, and it wasn’t cheap…but in my opinion, worth it for the special occasion. We paid $200+tax/fees for the full day and it included water, fruit, a “butler” and a bottle of bubbly. The smaller cabanas were about $150/day. The only real difference is that the “large” one is on the edge, which gives you a bit more privacy and there is a swing.

You can’t reserve a cabana online- you have to call the hotel and they will e-mail you a reservation form to fill out, which has to be sent back with your credit card information. Once this is done, they’ll hold a cabana for you. They seem to get booked up, so if you do want one, I suggest going through the reservation process early. There are two sets of cabanas- one set on the adult only side and one set on the family friendly side.

The island…

As soon as you come off the water taxi, you realize you have entered paradise. It’s very private, not too busy, really beautiful and so relaxing. There is a restaurant on the island that is a bit pricy, but you don’t have much of a choice because, well, you’re stuck on an island. There are plenty of lounge chairs available and you’ll be able to feel like you are away from it all.

A few things to keep in mind about the hotel…