Thread: Aruba; Harley Tour Report

My husband and I did this shore excursion while on our Adventure of the Seas cruise in September 2009. It was our 2nd time to Aruba, our first was in June 2002. You will save money by booking this Tour direct with Big Twin Aruba Harley Davidson. The price for the motorcycle rental was $130 for 1/2 day and the cost of the tour was an additional $20 per motorcycle for a total of $150. Gas is additional and, of course, tipping is at each individual's discretion.

We got off the ship and walked down to the Harley Dealership, it was only a 5 - 10 minute walk. We were there before they opened so we sat outside and introduced ourselves to another couple who was also going on the tour. Our Tour Guide Rene' arrived and we went inside to do the paperwork and get our helmets. Rene' gave us a map outlining where we would be driving on the tour. Really, we just followed him the whole time, but it was nice to have a rough idea where we were heading. We were joined by another couple and Rene' told us the tour would be just the 6 of us and himself.

Our first stop was to the Aruba Aloe Factory where we viewed their manufacturing plant. It was very interesting. Our next stop would be a quick photo op outside the new Hard Rock Cafe before continuing on for a stops at the California Lighthouse, Alto Vista Chapel, Casibari Rock, Colorado Point and Baby Beach before stopping for lunch and then heading back to Oranjestad. The tour was great and Rene' was awesome! I would highly recommend this tour We felt that we got to see much more of Aruba by doing the motorcycle tour vs. the taxi tour that we did of the island back in 2002.

A couple warnings for those who book this tour: Wear good riding shoes if you're the driver of the motorcycle, Aruba doesn't get that much rain so the asphalt has a tremendous amount of oil build up which makes the streets slippery. We brought my husband's riding boots with us and were so glad we did! The other drivers were wearing sneakers and wished they'd have had their riding boots for more traction. Make sure to bring sunscreen with you because anything not covered will get tanned or burned and make sure to reapply at a couple of the stops; and, if you're going to be the passenger on the motorcycle, make sure to stretch your back while riding if you haven't rode recently.

Here are some pictures from the excursion and if I can answer any questions, please ask away

California Lighthouse

Alto Vista Chapel

Casibari Rock and another Rock in that area which looks like the face of a Bear with it's mouth open

Colorado Point

Baby Beach

Awesome pictures, Judy! Brings back some great memories when we did this tour about 1-1/2 years ago. And we had Rene' as our guide, also. Made the same stops and have some of the exact same pictures.

Did you guys stop at Charlies Bar & Restaurant for lunch? It was wonderful.

And we absolutely loved Baby Beach!

As you mentioned, I HIGHLY recommend people book this excursion directly with the Harley dealer as it's $200 cheaper than booking it through the cruise line and it's the exact same excursion. We had a total of 5 couples (counting us) on our tour and 3 booked with the dealer while 2 booked with the cruise line. Needless to say, they were really pissed they paid $200 more than the rest of us.

Now that we've done the tour, the next time we'll just book the motorcycle for a day, which was only about $150, and do our own thing as we'd love to spend more time at the beach after touring.

Thanks again, Judy! Glad you had a great time.

Pete

Hi Pete,

Yes, we did go to lunch at Charlies Bar & Restaurant. The food was very good We were in an appetizers for lunch mood, so we ordered hot wings and mozzarella sticks.

I love small tour groups, everything is so much more relaxed than with a large amount of people.

I hear what you're saying about Charlies; we got an appetizer-size order of shrimp and they were HUGE!!

I really liked Aruba and definitely would love to stay there for a week or two some time.

Pete