My husband and I will be staying at the Bucuti in the Low Rise area. We plan on eating out each night. We are trying to decide if we need to rent a car and if so, for how many days? Any thoughts?

Try taking the bus if feasable to go to the restaurants. $2 round trip from the Marriott all the way to downtown, and everything in between.

If the only use you will make from the rental car is to go to dinner at night, then the math is simple. Compare the daily rental plus insurance and a few bucks for gas - against a round trip taxi fare. Normally when you haeve a rental car, you try to make more use of it than just restaurants once at night.

Your call.

charles
www.arubafastphones.com

I would suggest getting a rental car so you can drive around the island - California lighthouse and Natural Bridge are interesting sights. If you are going to snorkel, a car is a must to get to and from the sites. If all you are going to do is relax around the pool and eat out, you won't need one.

From Bucuti Beach there is great bus transportaion to most of the restuarants it cost $2.00 roundtrip each person

You can also use limo service to to the retuarants on the southern or eastern part

www.limousinearuba.com

If you are not going to explore the island I would suggest using the bus or taxis. If you do rent and explore just be careful as to what type of car you rent. To go to the natural pool can be tricky and the terrain can limit some vehicles. I have seen on several occasions people destroying their rental driving over some of the rocky areas (most of the North side of the island.) Totally depends on the type of person you are, explorer or relaxer.

We do plan on exploring the island a bit, but are trying to decide between doing it ourselves or going with a tour that hits all the major spots. We will definitely rent a car to take from the airport to our hotel, since we plan on going to San Nicolas the next day to see family friends. Mathematically it makes sense once you add up the cab fare from airport to hotel and then hotel to San Nicolas and back the next day (we plan to get the cheapest vehicle). However, with the 3 day and weekly rental rates, we didn't know if we should keep it for more than the 1 day, since we will be eating out each evening as well. Thanks for all the help so far.