Palm Beach is Aruba’s high-rise hotel strip — a two-mile run of calm, flat water backed by the Hyatt, the Hilton, both Riu Palaces and the Marriott — and it sits about 6.5 km (4 miles) north of the cruise terminal in Oranjestad. Every fare and time on this page was checked in September 2026 against the Government of Aruba’s official taxi calculator and Arubus’s own published schedule, so the numbers are the real ones rather than a forum guess.
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The quick answer
A taxi is a flat official fare of $33 per car for up to four people and takes about ten minutes. The public bus is $2.60 each way and stops directly outside the Palm Beach hotels. Walking is about an hour and a half each way along a hot coastal road — with a whole port day to spend, that is not how to spend it.
Taxi: $33 per car, fixed by the government
Aruba’s taxis do not run meters. Fares are flat rates per car set by the government, and the official fare calculator at taxi.aw (rates valid from May 2026) lists the Cruise Ship Terminal to Palm Beach at $33 — Afl 59.40 — per car for one to four passengers. Google Maps clocks the ride at about ten minutes over 6.5 km.
- The fare is per car, not per person: four people pay just over $8 a head each way.
- A fifth, sixth or seventh passenger adds $3 per extra person (seven is the maximum).
- A $5 surcharge applies on Sundays, on public holidays, from December 24 through January 1, and between 11pm and 7am.
Taxis line up outside the terminal whenever a ship is in, so there is nothing to book — tell the driver which hotel or pier you want and expect the flat rate. A round trip for a full car is $66.
The bus: $2.60 each way on the L10A
From the terminal gate it is roughly 550 metres — about seven minutes on flat sidewalks — to the Oranjestad bus terminal. From there the L10A (Oranjestad ⇄ Arashi) runs the whole hotel coastal strip every 20 minutes from 06:15 to 18:10 on weekdays, in both directions; on Saturdays and Sundays it runs hourly, 06:00 to 18:00. A single is $2.60, a round-trip retour card is $5, and a day pass is $15 (Arubus published fares, September 2026).
The route stops directly outside the Palm Beach hotels. Heading north it calls at the Divi Aruba Phoenix, the Riu Palace Antillas, the Riu Palace Aruba, the Hilton, Brickell Bay, the Hyatt Regency, Paseo Herencia Mall, Palm Beach Plaza and the Marriott before carrying on to Malmok and Arashi. For the classic stretch of sand between the piers, get off anywhere between the Riu Palace Aruba and the Hyatt Regency.
Mind the clock coming back: scheduled service ends at 18:10, and on a port day you do not want to gamble your all-aboard time on a full bus. Take the bus out, and if the afternoon runs long, spend the $33 on a taxi back.
Can you walk it? Not really
Google puts the walk at about 1 hour 31 minutes each way — 6.5 km along a coastal road with little shade. If you want a walkable outing straight off the ship, downtown Oranjestad begins about 400 metres from the terminal gate; Palm Beach is the ride-to beach.
When you get there
Like every beach on the island, Palm Beach is public — the sand in front of every high-rise is yours to use, and the water here is the calmest, easiest swimming on the island. If you want guaranteed shade for the day, you can reserve an umbrella and two chairs at the Hyatt Regency stretch of Palm Beach before your ship arrives; the set is booked in your name and standing when you walk on.
The piers between the Riu and the Marriott are where the water sports live. Parasailing flies from the Skyview Watersports stand next to Moomba Beach — book it ahead with a $20-per-person deposit online and pay the rest in cash at the stand. Our own Isabella catamaran sails private three-hour snorkel charters from Hadicurari Pier at 9:00am and 12:30pm, both of which fit a normal port day — the $275 deposit is paid online and the remaining $550 on the day.
Our full Palm Beach guide covers the strip itself — restaurants, piers and happy hours. And if your ship gives you five hours or more ashore, a rental car with cruise-port pickup opens up the rest of the island — you pay a 13% reservation fee online and the rest when you collect it.
Our verdict
The maths does the deciding. For a couple with no fixed plans, the bus wins: $10 round trip for two on retour cards against $66 by taxi, and it drops you outside the hotel of your choice. For three or four people, or a short call, take the taxi — $66 round trip split four ways is cheap for the extra hour of sand it buys you.
Weighing Eagle Beach instead? It is a shorter, slightly cheaper ride at $28 by taxi — see our cruise port to Eagle Beach guide. For tours sized to your hours ashore there is the cruise excursions guide, and the Aruba cruise port guide covers the terminal itself, with the full official fare table.
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