Check availability & book your umbrellaReserve online. Umbrella and 2 chairs, set up for you.
Get your shade sorted first, stay under it from 11 to 2 when the UV is extreme, leave for lunch at the hottest hour, and come back for the best part of the day. It only works if the spot is still yours when you return.
Most people arrive at an Aruba beach with no plan for the day and leave at two in the afternoon with sunburn. The island sits twelve degrees north of the equator, and the sun here does not behave like the sun at home.
The numbers that decide your day
The UV index in Oranjestad runs between 10 and 14 for most of the year, peaking at 14 in March and April. Even December, the lowest month, sits at 10. Anything above 11 is classed as extreme.
Through the day it climbs fast. By 10:00 AM it is already around 8. From 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM it sits between 11 and 13, and at that level unprotected skin starts burning in under ten minutes. It eases off through the afternoon.
A beach day that works
10:00 AM — get your shade sorted first
This is the hour to be set up, not the hour to start looking for a spot. The free palapas went hours ago, the UV is already at 8 and climbing, and the beach is filling. Our sets are standing at the spot under your name from 10:00 AM, so the first decision of the day is already made.
11:00 AM to 2:00 PM — stay under something
This is the extreme window. Swim, by all means, but come back under the umbrella between swims and reapply when you do. Water reflects UV, and the burn clock does not stop because you are wet.
Around midday — leave and come back
The set is yours for the whole day, so the sensible move is to go and eat somewhere out of the sun and come back to it afterwards. Nothing is packed up, nobody takes the spot, and you are not paying twice.
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM — the best part
UV starts dropping, the light softens, the beach thins out. This is the stretch most day visitors miss because they burned at noon and went back to the hotel.
Why the hours are 10 to 4
It is not an arbitrary window. It covers the entire dangerous part of the day and the good part that comes after it. Your umbrella and two chairs are yours from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Eagle Beach or Palm Beach, $100 a day plus 20% tax and fees — $120 for the set, not per person.
Sixteen sets per beach per day, so the date can sell out. Pick your dates here.
What to have with you
- Sunscreen you will actually reapply, not the bottle you bought last summer.
- More water than you think. The wind hides how much you are sweating.
- A towel each, and something with sleeves for the walk back.
Eagle Beach or Palm Beach for the day
We set up on both, and the day feels different on each. Eagle Beach is wider and quieter, with low-rise hotels behind it and the leaning fofoti trees on the sand, so there is more space between you and the next group. Palm Beach is the busy stretch in front of the big resorts, where bars, restaurants, bathrooms and water sports are all a short walk from your chair.
For a slow day with a book, take Eagle Beach. For a day where people keep wandering off for food and drinks and coming back, take Palm Beach. If you have several beach days, do one of each rather than trying to decide in advance.
Why the all-day hold is the whole point
An hour-by-hour plan only works if your shade is still there when you get back to it. On a first-come beach it is not. Towels get moved, chairs get taken, and the shade you claimed at seven in the morning belongs to whoever is sitting in it at one in the afternoon.
A booked set is reserved in your name from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM whether you are sitting in it or not. That is what makes the middle of this plan possible — walking away at the hottest hour and coming back to the same umbrella, same chairs, same spot, with nobody's belongings on them.
It is also why nothing is delivered and nothing is handed to you. The set is standing and anchored when you arrive, so the day starts at 10:00 AM rather than after twenty minutes of setting up in the sun.
$100 a day plus 20% tax and fees — $120.00 per set, not per person. Two chairs included, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, sixteen sets per beach per day.
Booking a beach day
There are sixteen sets per beach per day, so the days you actually care about are worth reserving before you fly, particularly in high season. One set is an umbrella and two beach chairs for $100 plus 20% tax and fees, which is $120.00 for the day, with nothing added for delivery or setup.
Book at least 24 hours ahead and paying online confirms it straight away. Inside 24 hours we check the beach against walk-ins before taking any money, so you send a request first and a secure payment link comes back by email once a set is confirmed. The exact meeting point is emailed to you after the booking is settled.
If the weather makes the beach unusable and the set cannot be put up, the day moves or the booking is refunded. Ordinary Aruba wind is not that — the umbrellas are anchored for it, which is the point of having someone else put them in.
Questions people ask about the day
Do I have to be there at 10:00 AM?
No. Ten o'clock is when the set is standing and ready, not a deadline. Arrive at noon if you like — it is held under your name either way, and it stays yours until 4:00 PM.
Is the price per person?
No, it is per set. One umbrella and two beach chairs is $120.00 for the day with tax, whether that is one person or two sharing it.
Can I book several days?
Yes. Pick your start and end dates and the same spot is held for each of them. People with a week on the island often book two or three of their beach days rather than all of them, and split those between Eagle Beach and Palm Beach.
What if I only want the morning?
There is no half day. The set comes out for the day and goes back at four, so the price is the same whether you use two hours of it or six. In practice most people who planned on a morning stay through the afternoon, because the best light and the calmest water are at the end.
Where exactly do I meet you?
The exact meeting point is emailed to you once your booking is settled. It is not published on the site, which is deliberate — the spot is reserved for you, and publishing it would mean anybody could be standing in it.
Book the day, not the hour
One set, six hours, two beaches to choose from — and it stays yours if you wander off.
Check your datesRead next
Will your beach umbrella survive the Aruba wind?
UV figures: hourly and monthly UV index for Oranjestad.
Check availability & book your umbrellaReserve online. Umbrella and 2 chairs, set up for you.
Palapa Aruba is our main beach shade service at Eagle Beach and Palm Beach. See palapaaruba.com.