Oranjestad, Aruba – Netherlands Antilles – sightseeing and the Butterfly Farm

In addition to beaches, there are a few cultural things you can do in Aruba if your cruise lands in Oranjestad.

If you only want to see a few things, just pick what you want and hire a taxi driver. This usually saves a substantial amount of money over taking the tours offered by the cruises.

Our driver suggested out first stop be a local church and a nearby lighthouse. The church was quite lovely and we had it to ourselves for a few minutes before a small tour bus arrived. The lighthouse viewpoint was also nice. You could climb the lighthouse for $5 or just get the view of most of the island from the top of the hill.

Diorite Boulders

The diorite boulders are quite beautiful and were definitely worth the trip. You can climb stone stairs to the top of the tallest one and go through a little tunnel formed with rocks. This gets you to a great and windy view from the top. A nice set of stone stairs go down from a slightly different area. There are other boulders with stairs and a nice set of paths at the bottom.

Butterfly Farm

Our driver tried to dissuade us several times from going to the Aruba Butterfly Farm. He said it was next to a sewage dump. Further, he said it was very small. Then, he said it wasn’t worth the trip. We insisted since that was the main thing we wanted to see on Aruba. He took us there after all the other stops.

The butterfly farm was indeed next to a drainage area that included sewage (and had no fishing, no swimming, no anything signs there warning you away). And the butterfly farm WAS indeed small. As one would expect a home for tiny little critters to be. But it was probably the best butterfly haven I’ve been to.

There was a $16 entrance fee to the Butterfly Farm. With that, you got a tour and as much time as you wanted in the “farm” over several days (you could come back multiple times if you wanted to). The tour guide showed us caterpillar eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalises, and explained the differences between tropical butterflies, moths and rainforest butterflies. Also the differences between male and female butterflies. Tropical butterflies normally eat fruit like oranges and bananas, while other butterflies normally eat nectar. They explained the life cycle of butterflies and showed several chrysalises that were intact. They also had examples of empty ones, as well as those from which butterflies were currently emerging.

Some butterfly chrysalises were colorful, and one variety was even silvery metallic looking. There were hundreds of butterflies all over, and they had multiple feeding stations and chrysalis boxes that you could observe. I HIGHLY recommend the Aruba Butterfly Farm for anyone who loves butterflies or nature.

The taxi driver wasn’t as commendable. He left us there because he didn’t want to wait for us. This, although he had originally agreed to take us back to the ship as part of the tour. So the Butterfly farm people called us a cab which cost $15 to get back to the ship, but it was well worth it.