Getting Around Aruba

⚠ The driving paperwork is arranged before you leave, not on arrival.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office states that a driver in Aruba needs the correct version of the international driving permit, and that you cannot buy an IDP outside the UK.

That is worth stating plainly, because the assumption most visitors arrive with is that driving paperwork is something you sort out at the other end. This advice says the opposite. If the permit is not in your luggage when you land, there is no counter here that will sell you one, and no amount of goodwill at a rental desk substitutes for it.

The permit sits alongside your own driving license rather than replacing it, so carry both. And the phrase the correct version is doing real work: more than one international driving permit exists, they are issued under different conventions, and holding the wrong one is the same as holding none.

Hire companies can ask for more than the law does.

The same advice notes that hire companies may require 2 years of driving experience. A rental firm is entitled to set conditions beyond the legal minimum, and it applies them at the desk, after you have paid. Confirm the conditions of the specific booking rather than assuming the legal position is the whole position.

⚠ Drinking and driving, and the figure this guide will not compute.

The advice describes the threshold in an unusual way. It says that a driver found with just over half of England legal limit of alcohol in their system may face a fine and possible imprisonment.

There is no milligram figure anywhere on that page. This guide could work one out from the comparison, and will not, because converting a ratio into a legal threshold would mean this website computing a foreign country's drink driving limit and publishing the result as fact. What the source supports is the shape of the rule and not a number: the limit here is materially lower than the one many visitors are used to, and the consequences the source names are a fine and possible imprisonment.

The practical reading is the simple one. If you are driving on this island, do not drink.

Taxis are not metered, and the fare is agreed in advance.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office states that taxis are not metered and that you should agree the fare in local currency with the driver before you set off.

Both halves matter. Agreeing the fare protects you from the absence of a meter. Agreeing the currency protects you from a number that means one thing to you and another to the driver, and that second failure is the one people actually run into. Our currency and money guide explains what local currency means here and why the rate can be stated with unusual confidence.

Carry identification while you are moving around.

The requirement to carry identification is not limited to the airport. The same source states that it is a legal requirement to carry ID, which in practice means on the road as much as anywhere else.

What this guide will not tell you.

No bus routes, no timetables, no fares, no rental prices, no ferry schedule, and no advice on which side of the road to drive on, because no source in this register states it. Those are exactly the details a visitor most wants and exactly the ones that are most often invented, and a wrong answer to the last of them is dangerous rather than merely unhelpful.

Confirm the practical details with your accommodation or your operator on arrival. Our safety guide covers the hazards the official advice does describe.

Sources

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Aruba travel advice, safety and security: that it is a legal requirement to carry identification; that the island is used as a drug passageway from South America to Europe and North America and that there are severe penalties for all drug offenses; that a driver needs the correct version of the international driving permit, that it cannot be bought outside the United Kingdom, and that hire companies may require 2 years of driving experience; that a driver found with just over half of England legal limit of alcohol in their system may face a fine and possible imprisonment; that taxis are not metered and that the fare should be agreed in local currency with the driver before setting off; that the hurricane season in the Caribbean normally runs from June to November; that most hurricanes pass to the north of the island, which has no record of a recent major hurricane; and that there are occasional tropical storms. Accessed 19 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Aruba travel advice, entry requirements: that Aruba is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands; that a passport must be valid for the duration of the stay; that a holder of a full British citizen passport can visit for up to 3 months without a visa; that an embarkation card must be completed up to 7 days before arrival and proof of approval to travel shown to the airline before boarding; that the embarkation and disembarkation card is the form travelers fill in; that it is illegal to overstay the entry period or to work without a work permit; and that there are strict rules about goods that may be taken into or out of the island. Accessed 19 September 2026.