Arashi Beach — Attraction in Noord overig

Very surprised by all the positive comments for this beach. While truly beautiful, the way it is run ruins its natural beauty. I got here at 7 AM with no trouble getting a palapa to drop off chairs. Came back an hour later to get the rest of my things to enjoy our day at the beach, only to find another family had moved our things. They were verbally aggressive and they proceeded to lay on top of our things and not move their own belongings. The beach crew was also rude to us for coming early and getting our own palapa with our own chairs instead of buying chairs on the beach. Newsflash: palapas are public!

Then another family decided to shove themselves right on top of our palapa. Mind you there is plenty of space across the whole beach and anyone can easily rent their own chairs or umbrella. After multiple attempts to tell them how uncomfortably close they were, they still didn’t move—another aggressive conversation and no regard for how we felt. But that didn’t stop them from proceeding to stare at us the entire time while STILL sitting on top of our stuff. Guess we’re the bad guys ¯(ツ)/¯.

This beach, again, had a lot of space, and literally no one visiting seems to understand the definition of personal space. The whole time, my girlfriend and I were on edge, uncomfortable, and could never relax. Then, to make matters worse, fleets of buses from the hotels kept dropping people off…

Don’t bother, there is other beaches...

Arashi beach is not that big, it has free parking lot, and you can park at the side of the road also. There are palapas that are free, but they are mostly taken. Even if you take palapas there are rude people that will just sit with you without asking if they can join, and take most of the palapas. There are also few palms that can give you some small shade and there are maybe 2 bushes as well, but for me bushes are unsanitary because i saw what some people do in the bushes (like blowing their noses here, yuck). You can find wasps in some bushes and animal droppings. You can rent umbrellas but i din’t ask about the price, i think is 35+ dollars like everywhere else, for only umbrella. Sunbed is usually 10$.

Water is nice color if it is sunny, but bad if it is cloudy. It gets deep quickly and most of the beach is full of rocks. But it is better on the right side of the beach because there is a small strip where water is shallow. But current is strong and there can be strong waves. Winds are super strong, like everywhere else, and they are making it impossible to enjoy being in the beach or even in water- getting your hair wet is hard task because you will be cold.

Also internet here is the worst. We paid e-sim card and carried it with ourselves but no internet here. Even wifi from the beach bar is bad.

Baby beach was my favorite beach on island, and Eagle beach is better choice than Arashi, but Arashi is...

Be ready for be scammed by the Beach Attendant’s

During our 10 days vacation in Aruba, we went 2 days to Arashi beach. Yes, it’s beautiful… but, unfortunately, in both days we got really impressed by the beach attendants scams we saw.

In the first day, we were charged USD 40 for the 2 chairs and one umbrella. But, during the day, we saw the same beach attendants (wearing blue t-shirts) asking USD 70 to USD 90 dollars for others tourists… it seems that they “see” an opportunity to make more money depending on the type of tourists.

On the second day, when we arrived at the beach, again the 40 USD. We had just one note of USD 100. Of course, the exchange would be USD 60. But the blue t-shirt men start to say he didn’t have exchange and ask USD 10, plus USD 5, and, on the final, tried to give us exchange in a way he would get 60 USD. Unfortunately for him, my wife noticed that and alert me… so, I showed him that he was getting 50% more money… he sad sorry and gave the correct money back.

It’s interesting because, during our 10 days in Aruba, we went to a lot of different beaches. And in NONE we saw someone trying to make money in an anti-ethical way against tourists. Just in Arashi… twice!

So, be AWARE: it you’re going to Arashi, be careful with the beach attendants (and your...