Boca Catalina Beach — Attraction in Aruba

On our first trip to Aruba, boca catalina was a second choice for most tourists looking for a snorkeling spot. Most, back in the day would have chosen baby beach, whose abundant fish life and coral was largely destroyed by tour companies and overcrowding through years. This is happening now with boca as well, mostly with the same tour companies. About 10 ships at the time are dumping tourists into the water, who unknowingly are stepping on corals and getting too close to turtles. We witnessed couple of locals getting in a heated argument as a boat docked right at the beach, evading swimmers to drop off tourists who paid for a private tour. This is not a swimming beach, but you can surely find some sand areas. The beach itself is not that big and there are only a few palapas for a shade. One could get some shade near the trees but you will get a lizard or two keeping you close company while tanning. Overall, a nice beach, liked by many locals. No restrooms, no concessions, though Arashi beach has one, which is not...

Hands down our favorite place in Aruba for snorkeling! The northern most point of this beach is very quiet, with some locals hanging out, but the water is super clear and there are TONS of fish. We snorkeled several places and this was by far the most fish we saw, and I even saw a trumpet fish! There are also flat flounder here, hard to see but once you do it's fun. We came back here several times, and even visited our last morning just to say goodbye. The rocky areas are the best places for fish, but as always try to be a great snorkel visitor and not stand on the rocks and respect the fish. The tour boats dropped off snorkeling people, but they couldn't come near us because of a line in the water. It's much better to skip the tours, drive here, park and spend as long as you want snorkeling. It is beginner friendly, it's easy to find places to touch down in the sand and stand if you get tired and most of it is very shallow. Highly recommend...

Stopped here while returning from the nearby California Lighthouse. The beach is a bit rocky, but once in the water, you'll quickly find sand. We did some snorkeling here for about 2 hours. There were tons of fish and a couple large schools passed by me within a few feet. If you simply like to snorkel and watch some of the smaller fish, this is a pretty good spot. I did get caught up in the current slightly and before I knew it, I was out much further from the shore than I anticipated, but with snorkeling gear, it wasn't a big deal. Certainly worth the visit if you want to visit a beach away from all the...