Jeep tour or renting a jeep?

[KarenCT]

Hi everyone. My family and friends of ours are heading down to Aruba for the first time in April for a week. We would love to see as much as the island as possible. I came across the jeep tour which looks like a lot of fun but then there is the option of renting a jeep. My question is would be able to see just as much if not more with renting a jeep as we would with the jeep tour. I heard that the natural pool is not easily accessible on our own? Not a HUGE deal if thats the only thing.

[Arubalisa]

For first time visitors, I would suggest a guided jeep tour. This way you will know what you are seeing and you will get there without getting lost. Truly a great way to get an overview of the entire island.

On your second trip to Aruba, rent a jeep for the day and head off around the island to re-discover what you loved so much the first time around with plenty of time to savor the beauty.

As to the Natural Pool, imo, for the amount of time it takes to get there via Jeep, I would only suggest going via Jeep tour or preferably horseback or ATV. Imo, it is NOT a "must do" for your first visit to the island. If you are only there for a week, for the amount of time it takes up there are plenty of other sights you can see.

[abj]

do yourself a favor and buy a good map and rent a jeep. i was there in aug. and had a ton of fun the day we rented the jeep. we found everything we wanted to see on our own. i figure we could have seen everything in two days. man it was a blast being out in the jeep on our own. we found the drag strip, natural pool, natural bridge, wild life places all kinds of stuff. still a few things we want to check out the next time we get there that we didn't get to because we only had the jeep one day. i totally regret taking the tours. we did a bus tour, atv tour which was fun but too policed for my taste. to me the tours were a waste of two days. the places we wanted to be at longer they rushed us away from the boring stops that there really wasn't much to see we hung around too long.

I heard that the natural pool is not easily accessible on our own?

we had trouble finding the natural pool because our map was horrible. get a good map and you will be fine. it was allot more rough then i thought it would be to get to.. wasn't too big of deal for me because i have done quite a bit of offroading over the years. was in 4wd low in first gear and the jeep just crawed down the trail that goes to the pool.

[uncle dave]

Agree 100% with abj, get a map, get a jeep and take off. Great map available here. http://www.caribmart.com/arubamapbybb.html

[abj]

Originally Posted by uncle dave

Agree 100% with abj, get a map, get a jeep and take off. Great map available here. http://www.caribmart.com/arubamapbybb.html

i recently bought that map and man its a nice map. wish i had it while in aruba. would have saved me allot of time..

[cindyo]

If you rent a jeep so go it alone. You can't get lost....the island is to small.

[Chadd]

If you're going to the natural pool rent a "real" jeep or other four wheel drive with lots of clearance. I have a lot of 4wd drive experience and we gave up before we could get there with one of the "toy" jeeps.