Flights from Toronto Canada to Aruba

[yoramporat]

Anybody can suggest good and reasonably priced flights from Toronto to Aruba?

The direct flights from Toronto are very few, and expensive.

[amarg]

Hi, I have just gone through this very thing and did research galore as well as posting on every forum I can think of and talking to every Tom Dick And Harry. Unfortunately, we ended up booking the Westjet direct flight, Saturday to Saturday which runs about $850 per person and yes is expensive. The only other alternatives are flying out of Buffalo with stops in Atlanta and/or Miami, Houston, etc., to Aruba which can be cheaper but is a pain in the butt to say the least. The other option is a flight from Toronto with a connection in Newark, New York, Atlanta, Houston or Miami or a combination of the above. These flights are also a pain and lengthy! It will take you forever to get there but you may save a couple of hundred dollars. I would google flightnetwork.com and input your info. That's where I got all the best flight info and the cheapest flights. I did google search on there last night and noticed a flight with one stop in Atlanta that would have saved me about $250 per person had I booked it instead of the direct flight with Westjet. However, we are traveling with our baby and I just didn't want to deal with any stops and/or connections. I had travel agents helping me to and this is honestly, the best it gets. You will find nothing else but these flights. Also, since the direct flights are so few and booked usually as a package through Sunquest or Transat Holidays, you can't even take the chance of waiting and hoping the flights go down in price. I did wait and they only went up as they filled, not down as I'd hoped. I booked my flight at the Flight Centre at Bathurst and St. Clair and I had them working on finding me better routes and cheaper routes to Aruba for a month and it just isn't so. I don't know why it's so hard and costly to go from Toronto to Aruba but it just is. It's even worse from Vancouver where my sister is. She's going to fly to Toronto first and then take a completely separate flight to Aruba with us. It's costing her a fortune if you can imagine.
Sorry if this is a bummer. I live in Toronto and am going to Aruba from Sept 18 to Oct 2. Feel free to private message me. Honestly if you want cheap and don't care about travel time or connections, go to Buffalo and go from there or take a connecting flight as the only direct flight is that Saturday to Saturday Westjet flight. However, we did save I think by booking a timeshare. However, you can get really really cheap all inclusive and/or hotel deals from Toronto and Buffalo right now and it works out less than separate flight and booking accommodations. Our whole reason for doing it the way we did was our baby and large group. Good luck!

[yoramporat]

Thank you very much amarg. The information that you provided will be helpful. The thing is that we usually go for an extended period of time, so we cannot take advantage of the one week or two weeks deals.

The last two times we took a connecting flight, it wasn't too expensive, but I was hoping to find a reasonably priced direct flight.

[amarg]

You don't have to come back in one or two weeks, I only meant that you have to leave on a Saturday and return on a Saturday. You can stay as long as you want I think.

[Andrea J.]

a non aruba resident cannot stay as long as they want.

as we advised the original poster.......please check with Aruba Immigration known as DIMAS

Originally Posted by amarg

You can stay as long as you want I think.

[Arubalisa]

Originally Posted by Andrea J.

please check with Aruba Immigration known as DIMAS

http://www.dimasaruba.com/

[amarg]

Is there any way to view the site you posted in English Lisa?

[Arubalisa]

Originally Posted by amarg

Is there any way to view the site you posted in English Lisa?

No, Dutch is the official language of Aruba. Papiamento is the local native language.
Extension of tourist stay
the only English document I can find. It is a form for tourists

Addtional language info

Originally Posted by lizzardo

The schools start kids with Dutch then go on to Papiamento then to English.
In a really short time span. I have a been amazed in how fast the little
kids pick on all the languages!

Spanish is taught as well. English and Spanish are considered "interntaional" languages. French and German are taught as well. It would not be considered uncommon to find a native Aruban who speaks at least 5 of the 6 languages.

I have an Aruban friend who went to college here in the U.S. and was a double major-- Engineering and Spanish. Needless to say the Engineering part was difficult and not the Spanish.

There is some excellent info in this thread regarding residency and extended tourist stays. Again, just a reminder that policies may change when there is a change of government.
http://www.aruba.com/forum/f34/aruba-liberalizes-immigration-policy-42210/

[dushikaterina]

Just booked from Buffalo to Aruba $523 including taxes for next Saturday, 10 days. It's not too bad leaving from Buffalo, depending on how long your drive is. We are travelling with 2 children and have used this option before. I used Hotwire.com and booked the legs of my flight separately.

[Randi]

We are seasoned Aruba goers from Canada but we do not live in Toronto. To go to Aruba one of our options is of course, to fly to Toronto. During the winter Air Canada is the major airline that does the Toronto/Aruba flight. Westjet has just been awarded this route from May to Oct. AC suspends their flights to Aruba in September until December. No one is sure if Westjet will continue its Aruba flights past October.

Anyway, based on historical knowlege, AC flights to Aruba are OUTRAGEOUSLY costly by almost $700 per person. Since we would have to fly to Toronto anyway, we have found going to a US city and flying on United or US Air saves us a lot of money. Many of our friends no longer do the direct flights to Aruba on AC but rather do US Air via Charlotte from Toronto.

Flights to Aruba from Canada are costly. Depending on the time of year you can pay anywhere from $700- $1100.