What To Bring On An Aruba Catamaran

The bag you carry onto a catamaran in Aruba is small, but a few items in it matter more than they would anywhere else. The drinks, the food and the snorkel equipment are already covered on the tours sold here, every one of them includes drinks and every snorkel trip includes gear. What is left is the personal layer: sunscreen that complies with an actual Aruban law, a towel that almost no boat supplies, cash for a crew that works for tips, and the timing discipline of a pier departure.

Most catamaran trips in Aruba board at the Palm Beach piers in Noord, a short walk from the high-rise hotels and roughly 15 to 20 minutes by taxi from the Oranjestad cruise terminal, according to Aruba Day Trips' catamaran overview. That geography shapes the bag. You are never far from your hotel, the sun over the leeward coast is constant, and the sea temperature sits between about 79 and 83 degrees Fahrenheit year round, so you will spend the whole trip in swimwear or something close to it. This guide walks through each packing question in turn, from the sunscreen law to what to leave in the room, with the specific tours and piers named so you can match the list to your booking.

What Should You Pack For An Aruba Catamaran Tour?

The core list is short: reef-safe mineral sunscreen, a towel, swimwear with a dry change, a hat and sunglasses, a valid ID, cash for tips, a dry bag or zip pocket for keys and cards, and any motion sickness remedy taken before boarding. Everything else, meaning drinks, food on the trips that include a meal, and snorkel gear on every snorkel tour, is already supplied by the tour itself.

That last point is worth dwelling on because it shrinks the bag more than first-time visitors expect. Every catamaran trip on this site includes an open bar, and the snorkel products include masks, fins and snorkels. The Morning Snorkel Sail with Premium Champagne Brunch, from $85 per person and rated 4.7 across 2,238 reviews, includes the meal, the gear and the drinks, departing Pelican Pier for the Antilla shipwreck, Boca Catalina and Malmok. A guest on that trip needs nothing from a gear shop at all.

What the boats do not hand out, in most cases, is towels. Packing guidance from Aruba-based tour sites is blunt on this: check-in is typically 30 minutes before departure, you should bring a valid ID (a copy is often accepted) and reef-safe sunscreen, and towels are rarely provided on board. A wet towel in a plastic bag at the end of the trip is a minor inconvenience compared to shivering on a windy ride back to Palm Beach.

The financial side of the bag is cash. Gratuities for the crew are customary on Aruba catamarans, and cash is recommended because tips are rarely bundled into the base price of a shared trip. How much to tip and when is covered in the Aruba catamaran tipping guide, but the packing implication is simple: bring small US dollar bills, since US currency circulates freely alongside the Aruban florin, and keep them somewhere dry.

A dry bag or at minimum a zip-sealed pocket is the item experienced sailors pack and first-timers skip. Catamarans are stable, but spray comes over the bow on the windier legs and a phone or key fob left on a bench can end the day badly. A cheap pouch that clips to a rail or a bag hook solves it.

Is Reef-Safe Sunscreen Really Required In Aruba?

Yes, and it is a matter of written law rather than suggestion. Since July 1, 2020, Aruba has prohibited the import, manufacture, sale and free distribution of topical sunscreens containing oxybenzone, and the prohibition covers personal online orders too. Bring a mineral sunscreen with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide instead, because an oxybenzone product is not legally available on the island if you forget yours.

The law exists to protect the coral reefs that the catamaran snorkel tours visit, and it names oxybenzone specifically. It does not ban octinoxate, a common point of confusion, so a label reading "no oxybenzone" is what matters for compliance. Mineral formulas with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide are the recommended choice for snorkeling, as Aruba Buddies' reef-safe sunscreen guide explains, and the same guidance is echoed by island visitor resources for all marine activities.

The penalty side is real, though it is aimed mainly at importers and sellers: violations can carry fines up to 10,000 Aruban florin. A tourist with an old bottle is unlikely to face that, but the practical effect is the same, you simply cannot buy a non-compliant product in Aruban shops, so arriving without a legal sunscreen means buying a mineral one locally at resort prices.

Apply it before you board, and again at the snorkel stop. The sun on the leeward coast is deceptively strong even with the constant trade wind, and the wind masks the heat that would otherwise warn you to reapply. A rash guard or swim shirt is the other reef-friendly option: it reduces how much sunscreen you need in the water at all, which the reefs appreciate and your bag accommodates easily.

Beyond sunscreen, the island's marine code of conduct asks visitors not to feed marine life and not to pick up starfish, guidance published on Aruba's official visitor code of conduct. None of that requires packing anything, but it explains why crews are strict about what goes into the water at stops like Boca Catalina and Tres Trapi.

With the bag contents settled, the next question is what the tours actually look like, since that determines how much of the bag you will use.

The Dolphin Catamaran Snorkel and Sail, from $69 per person and rated 4.8 across 2,894 reviews, is the classic three-hour snorkel day from the Delphi Watersports beach in front of the Hyatt Regency, with the Antilla shipwreck and Boca Catalina as its stops. The Half-Day Snorkel Sail Tour with Caribbean Lunch stretches to four hours and adds Malmok Reef, so the towel and dry change matter more. The Sunset Catamaran Sail with Appetizers is a two-hour evening cruise along the Palm Beach coast from Piet's Pier Bar, where a light layer matters more than a swim shirt because the breeze after sunset cools fast.

What Should You Wear On A Catamaran Sail?

Wear a swimsuit as the base layer, a cover-up or board shorts over it, a hat with a retention strap, polarized sunglasses and sandals or flip-flops you can kick off on deck. For sunset sails add a light dry layer, because the same trade wind that keeps the afternoon comfortable makes the post-sunlight ride back noticeably cool, especially wet.

Footwear is the most misunderstood item. Catamaran decks are sailed barefoot, and you will be asked to remove shoes at the boarding step on most trips. Sandals exist for the pier walk, the hot sand at Hadicurari or the pavement of J.E. Irausquin Boulevard, not for the deck. Anything with dark rubber soles that marks the deck, or heels of any kind, belongs back at the hotel; the what not to wear when sailing post covers the full list of wardrobe mistakes.

For the snorkel trips, function beats fashion. A swimsuit that stays put when you climb a ladder matters more than how it photographs. A rash guard earns its space on the four-and-a-half-hour trips like the Aruba Sail and Snorkel with Turtles at the WW2 Shipwreck, from $119 per person and rated 4.6 across 160 reviews, which lists Boca Catalina, the Antilla shipwreck and Tres Trapi as stops and gives you long stretches in the water under a high sun.

Sunset sails lean dressier, and some guests do dress them up, but the boats are still boats. The Salsa, Sunsets and Mojitos at Sea trip, from $75 per person and rated 4.9 across 48 reviews, has a party flavor where a flowing shirt and sandals fit right in, yet the deck is still barefoot territory and the wind still comes off the water. A light wrap or long-sleeve shirt in the bag covers the temperature swing without demanding a wardrobe change.

Children's packing follows the same logic with two additions: a swim shirt that stays on, and a hair tie or cap for long hair under snorkel masks. The Aruba catamaran tours with kids guide goes deeper on family logistics, including which piers sit closest to the high-rise hotels.

Do You Need Towels, Cash, Or ID On Board?

You need all three, in different ways. A towel because boats rarely supply them, cash because crew tips are customary and rarely included in the price, and a valid ID because piers ask for it at check-in, with a copy often accepted. None of the three is heavy, and all three are the items guests most often wish they had.

Start with the ID. Catamaran check-in desks at Pelican Pier, De Palm Pier, Piet's Pier Bar and the Delphi Watersports beach verify the booking against a name, and a passport or driver's license is the standard proof. The practical packing advice from Aruba tour sites is that a copy is often accepted, which spares you carrying the original document onto a wet boat. A phone photo of the passport ID page is a reasonable backup but should not be the only copy if the desk wants paper. The rest of the planning pages sit on Aruba Catamaran Tours.

Cash for tips is the item that catches European visitors especially, since contactless habits die hard. Bring some cash if you plan to tip the crew on a shared catamaran sail. The amounts and etiquette are laid out in the guide to tipping on an Aruba catamaran; the packing takeaway is a handful of small bills per person, kept in the dry bag rather than a boardshort pocket that goes in the water.

The towel question is worth a direct answer because tour descriptions rarely mention it. Towels are rarely provided on board, so bring your own from the hotel. Resorts hand them out at pool desks and most guests simply carry the pool towel to the pier; independent travelers staying in Oranjestad apartments should confirm their accommodation lends beach towels, or pack a quick-dry travel towel, which packs down to the size of a paperback and dries in an hour on a windy rail.

One item still worth packing: a water bottle. A reviewer on the Delphi Watersports snorkel cruise with open bar and light lunch suggested bringing bottled water on the boat. Carrying your own bottle just adds deck clutter.

What Should You Bring For Snorkeling Stops?

Bring yourself, mostly. Masks, fins and snorkels are included on every snorkel catamaran tour sold here, along with drinks, so the only snorkel-specific items worth packing are a defog-safe approach, prescription masks if you wear glasses, a rash guard for long water time, and reef-safe sunscreen reapplied at the stop.

The inclusion list on the snorkel products is broad. The Arusun Catamaran Sail with Snorkeling, from $63 per person and rated 4.8 across 2,683 reviews, includes drinks and snorkel gear for its two-and-a-half-hour run to the Antilla shipwreck, Boca Catalina and the Palm Beach coast. The Snorkel Cruise with Open Bar and Light Lunch, from $69 per person and rated 4.7 across 469 reviews, adds a meal to the same core, departing the Delphi Watersports beach in front of the Hyatt Regency. Neither asks you to bring equipment.

Prescription lenses are the one genuine exception. If you wear glasses and cannot manage without correction, contact lenses plus a standard mask work for most people, but some operators carry a limited number of prescription masks and some do not; check the booking page for your specific trip rather than assuming. This is one of the details the listings leave to the operator, and asking ahead is the only reliable route.

Water shoes earn a mention only for specific stops. The protected sandy entries at Boca Catalina are barefoot-friendly, and the Antilla is snorkeled from the boat, so fins and bare feet cover almost everything. Where water shoes help is rocky shore entries if you extend your day independently after the tour; shore snorkeling at Boca Catalina is free with your own gear, as island guides note, so a pair in the bag extends the same reefs into a second, self-guided session.

Motion sickness belongs in the "bring it, hopefully unused" category. If you are prone to seasickness, take the remedy before boarding, not after the boat is rolling, as Aruba tour packing advice consistently recommends. Catamarans are wide and the leeward coast is sheltered, which is why many nervous guests do fine, but the seasickness on an Aruba catamaran guide covers the full toolkit, from timing your dose to picking a morning departure when the water tends to be flatter.

How Early Should You Arrive At The Pier?

Plan to check in 30 minutes before departure, which is the standard lead time Aruba tour operators publish. That buffer absorbs the pier walk from the high-rise hotels, taxi drop-offs along J.E. Irausquin Boulevard and the ID check at the desk, and it leaves a few minutes to stow your bag before the crew calls boarding.

The pier geography matters for the timing. Pelican Pier sits at J.E. Irausquin Blvd 230 in Noord behind the high-rise strip, De Palm Pier at J.E. Irausquin Blvd 1, Piet's Pier Bar between the Barcelo and Hyatt, and the Delphi Watersports beach in front of the Hyatt Regency. If you are staying anywhere along Palm Beach, you are walking distance from most departures. From Eagle Beach it is a short taxi ride, and from the Oranjestad cruise terminal the ride is roughly 15 to 20 minutes, per Aruba Day Trips, which makes a tight cruise-port morning the one scenario where the 30-minute rule gets stressful. Cruise passengers have their own calculus, laid out in the catamaran tours for cruise ship passengers guide.

Sunset departures have their own clock. Sunset sails on the leeward coast leave in the late afternoon, and operators shift departure times seasonally with the daylight; the Dolphin catamaran sunset cruise, for instance, starts at 4:30 PM from October to mid-January and 5:00 PM from mid-January through September, with check-in 30 minutes earlier. Since exact sunset times shift through the year and no official table is published for tours, confirm your specific departure time on the booking page the day before. The Aruba sunset time by month guide covers the pattern.

What to do with the waiting minutes: keep the ID accessible, apply the first coat of mineral sunscreen on land where it can dry before you sweat, and hand larger bags to the crew's stowage if offered. A small bag checks onto most boats without issue; a rolling suitcase does not.

What Can You Leave Behind?

Leave behind the hard suitcase, a beach umbrella, your own snorkel gear unless you insist on a custom fit, non-reef-safe sunscreen (it is banned anyway), valuables beyond the essentials and any expectation of paying for drinks on board. The tours include the bar, the gear and, on meal trips, the food, so the bag stays genuinely small.

The umbrella point sounds odd until you have watched someone carry one aboard. Catamarans have shaded seating areas and trampolines for sun, and the crew manages the layout; a personal umbrella or full-size beach chair has nowhere to go. Similarly, drones, glass bottles and fishing gear are best left ashore, and each operator's rules on the first two vary, so check the booking page if any of that matters to you.

Snorkel gear is the leave-behind most worth questioning. Personal masks fit better than rental masks for some faces, and a diver who owns a fitted mask will prefer it. But for a once-a-year snorkeler, the included gear is sanitized and serviceable, and the three tours below show the range of what comes bundled: drinks everywhere, gear on every snorkel product, meals on the longer ones.

The brunch sail above, from $85 per person and rated 4.7 across 2,238 reviews, is the clearest case of a trip where the packing list shrinks to the personal layer only: it departs Pelican Pier for the Antilla, Boca Catalina and Malmok with meal, drinks and gear all included across four hours. On the dinner side, the Aruba Sunset Sail with Caribbean Dinner and Live Music, from $109 per person and rated 4.7 across 279 reviews, covers food and the bar from Piet's Pier Bar, so the only packing decision left is the evening layer.

For a final sanity check on the day itself, the what the day looks like planning guide walks through a typical snorkel trip hour by hour, pier to wreck to beach, which is the best way to test whether your bag actually matches your itinerary before you zip it.

The short version of all of this: pack like someone spending three hours in and out of water under a strong sun on a stable boat, not like someone camping. Reef-safe mineral sunscreen, a towel, swimwear plus one dry layer, cash for tips, an ID copy and a dry pouch are the basics for any Aruba catamaran sail. The rest is on the boat already.

Common Questions About What To Bring On An Aruba Catamaran